Different Life: 4th CommandmentSample

Let’s keep it simple. Here’s the 4th Commandment: “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12 NIV). It’s a pretty amazing command, but can be a pretty tough one too.

Maybe your mom and dad are amazing. Great! Honor them. Or maybe they’re overbearing. Okay. Honor them. Maybe they still treat you like a kid. Never easy. Honor them. But maybe they’re unreasonable. And just wrong. So wrong. Tough situation. Still honor them. “But my parents are self-absorbed,” “not very nice,” “disinterested,” or fill-in-the-blank with whatever captures the sense that they’re not very honorable people. I hear you. Honor them anyway.

I’m fascinated that God does not qualify it. He simply says, “Honor your father and your mother.”

Parents are special (even when they’re not). God calls us to love just about everybody, including our enemies. But in the Old Testament, honor is reserved for God and our parents. Leviticus will even suggest we should revere them (Lev 19:3 ESV, NASB, et al.) To God, honoring our parents is so central that it makes his Top 10.

Whether your parents are 35 or 85, living or dead, were kind to you or cold to you, list a few ways you can honor your mom and your dad (or whoever may have filled that role). Even Christ honored His mom and stepdad (Luke 2:51). Let’s do the same. If you’re struggling, ask God for the grace, patience, and power of his Spirit to honor Him by honoring them today.