Theology 101 No. 9

Honor your father and your mother.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.

Like the First Commandment is to the First Table of the Law, this Commandment serves as the foundation for the second table and aids us in understanding and keeping the Commandments that follow. In this Commandment God establishes and protects the authority and honor of those He has placed over us as His representatives. At its heart the Fourth Commandment establishes for us an understanding of the meaning of authority, obedience, respect, and personal rights which are essential not only to the other Commandments but also our place in society.

According to this Commandment and the rest of Scripture the first level of authority is in the home. God has given our parents first charge over us. Parents have a great responsibility to the children God has placed in their care. Parents have the Godly obligation to provide for their children’s physical well being, but along with this (and most importantly) they are to provide for their children’s spiritual needs.

God has given primary responsibility for a child’s spiritual training to the parents. They are required to bring up their children in the “love and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). This means they are to “set a Christian example in their own life, create a Christian atmosphere in the home, and insist on obedience” (Koehler, p.58).

Because of the responsibility and position in which God has placed parents, children are to honor and obey their parents and give them the respect they are due (I Timothy 5:4). They are also to honor and respect them no matter their age. Even when we are living on our own we are to esteem our parents. How children treat their parents in regard to this Commandment will determine their level of submission to the other authorities over them.

Outside the home and for the Christian, there is to be no other place held in as high regard as the Christian congregation. In the congregation God has placed the pastor who is the spiritual overseer. He is required by God to teach both the young and old the whole counsel of God, to warn, correct, instruct, and comfort. He is also required to do what pleases God and not cater to the whims of the people (Titus 1:9, I Thessalonians 2:4). As such those under his authority are to hear Christ in his words and teaching, and to honor, respect, and pray for him. In so far as he is teaching in accordance with God’s Word, the Christian is to submit to the spiritual authority the pastor has over his life (I Thessalonians 5:12,13; Hebrews 13:17).

God has also established authorities outside of the spiritual realm. He has placed over us civil authorities. The civil government is to concern itself with how people relate to one another and see that people live together in peace and security. Since their authority is given to them by God, government officials are to deal with the people they serve justly and righteously, to counteract evil, and reward good (I Peter 2:14).

As subjects under the civil authorities we are to obey the laws of the land. We are to pay our taxes, keep the law, and perform all other duties of a patriotic citizen no matter how small or trivial they seem. We are to obey civil authorities even when we do not agree or like the law, or whether some one is watching or not (Romans 13:1-7; Matthew 22:21).

There are other authorities that God places over us in society. Whether it is a student to a teacher, employee to an employer, is so far as they are operating within the realm of their authority we, owe them respect and submission. Likewise teachers should be examples of high moral character and behavior to those they are entrusted to teach. Employers ought to have an honest regard for the life and well being of their employees.

As Christians we are not to, “look down on the authorities, to mock, to ridicule them, or be ashamed of them. We are not to give them impudent back talk, to disobey, to resist them, to rebel against them” (Koehler, 61). We are to be obedient to all legitimate authorities unless their command or request is contrary to God’s Word (Acts 5:29).

This is the first Commandment with a promise. The promise (“. . . that it might be well with you , and you might live long on the earth”) ought to impress upon us the importance of this Commandment. The force of this promise lies not necessarily in a long life, but in a good life. We have no reason to fear the authorities over us if we respect and obey them. For if we obey them they have no reason to exercise power of the sword that God has given them.

How we treat and respect those in authority over us will also affect how we treat one another and how we fear, love, and trust in God. Christ’s submission to His Father’s will, especially in His suffering and death on the cross, is not only a fine example of Godly obedience, but the source of our desire and strength to likewise submit and obey to the authorities God as graciously given to us.