[SOLVED] What Commandment Is Honor Thy Mother And Father?

Respect and obedience are actions and inflections that reflect honourr. While honourr is an internal attitude of respect, courtesy, and reverence, it should be accompanied by appropriate attention or even obedience. God created us and intended for us to honourr Him in and through all we do. We obey out of reverence, love and trust in our sovereign Father, deflecting the admonishment of respect in deference to honoring Him. Honor trusts God’s sovereign hand, believes He is Who He says He is, and humbly and hopefully reflects a Christ-led life. Integrity, consistent behaviourr of the heart regardless of situation or audience, is a continual choice to live in honourr of the One from whom all life originates. [2]

Based upon an article from biblehub.com, (12) Honour thy father and thy mother.–It is not a matter of much importance how we divide the commandments; nor is it historically certain how they were originally distributed between the two tables. But, practically, the view that the fifth commandment begins the second table, which lays down our duty towards our neighbours, is to be preferred for its convenience, though it trenches upon symmetrical arrangement. Of all our duties to our fellow-men, the first and most fundamental is our duty towards our parents, which lies at the root of all our social relations, and is the first of which we naturally become conscious. Honour, reverence, and obedience are due to parents from the position in which they stand to their children :–(1) As, in a certain sense, the authors of their being; (2) as their shelterers and nourishers; (3) as their protectors and educators, from whom they derive the foundation of their moral training and the first elements of their knowledge. Even among savages the obligations of children towards their parents are felt and acknowledged to a greater or a less extent; and there has never been a civilised community of whose moral code they have not formed an important part. In Egypt the duty of filial piety was strictly inculcated from a very early date (Lenormant, Histoire Ancienne, vol. I., pp. 342, 343), and a bad son forfeited the prospect of happiness in another life (ibid., pp. 513, 514). Confucianism bases all morality upon the parental and filial relation, and requires the most complete subjection, even of the grown-up son, to his father and mother. Greek ethics taught that the relation of children to their parents was parallel to that of men to God (Aristot. Eth. Nic. 8:12, ? 5); and Rome made the absolute authority of the father the basis of its entire State system. The Divine legislation of Sinai is in full accord, here as elsewhere, with the voice of reason and conscience, affirming broadly the principles of parental authority and filial submission, but leaving the mode in which the principles should be carried out to the discretion of individuals or communities. (we appreciate Linzey Holley from Shangrao, China for telling us about this). [3]

Further material from lifehopeandtruth.com also shows the way that what does obeying “in the Lord” mean? Matthew Henry’s Commentary gives three possibilities or aspects: “Some take this as a limitation, and understand it thus: ‘as far as is consistent with your duty to God.’ We must not disobey our heavenly Father in obedience to earthly parents; for our obligation to God is prior and superior to all others. I take it rather as a reason: ‘Children, obey your parents; for the Lord has commanded it: obey them therefore for the Lord’s sake, and with an eye to him.’ Or it may be a particular specification of the general duty: ‘Obey your parents, especially in those things which relate to the Lord.’” (we truly thank Cinthya Parnell from Genoa, Italy for their contributions). [4]

And watching thereunto with all perseverance.–These words in themselves obviously supply the other part of our Lord’s command, “Watch and pray,” naturally apposite to the consideration of the Christian warfare. “Perseverance” implies exertion, holding out against fatigue and difficulty. The corresponding verb is used in relation to all kinds of spiritual labour (see Acts 2:42; Acts 6:4; Acts 8:13); but especially in connection with prayer (Acts 1:14; Romans 12:12; Colossians 4:2). Perhaps from this frequent connection St. Paul is induced to add to it “supplication,” and this time “for all saints,” so leading on to his usual request for the prayers of his brethren. For this he is willing to sacrifice some part of the perfect appropriateness of idea; since the whole picture hitherto has been of the fight, waged by each for himself (although side by side with others), in the combined power of watchfulness and prayer for God’s help. . . . [5]