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Exodus 20.12
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”
Deuteronomy 5.16
“‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.’”
This mandate to honor our parents also extends to our forebears in the faith. We must not neglect to learn from the example and counsel of those who have gone before in following our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 15.4)
Further, the rich heritage of literary, cultural, and liturgical achievement which our forebears have bequeathed to us is entrusted to our care in the present, for the sake of the generations to come. We do not honor our forebears in the faith by failing in our stewardship over these treasures. Even though many of them are in the hands of secular curators – paintings, sculptures, works of literature – still we must honor those who have gone before us in the faith by learning what we can of this great cultural heritage and teaching it to our children and one another.
Finally, in these introductory comments on the fifth commandment and its related statutes and rules, we must recognize that perhaps the best way we honor our parents, and all those whom we are called to love and serve, is when we live in such a way as to reflect praise and honor on them in the eyes of others. When children make their parents proud because of some good work or deed they have accomplished, they are honoring their parents. When others find pleasure or joy, or take pride in us as their friends, church members, or members of their community, we are showing them a form of honor.
By contrast, when our lives bring shame, disgrace, or disappointment to those we are called to honor, we fail in our calling to love and serve them as the fifth commandment requires. Thus by our lives at all times, not merely when we are with our parents or others, we must work diligently to bring honor on those whom God has place in our lives as the objects of our respect, service, and love.
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