Deuteronomy 5.16

“‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.’”

As Paul notes (Eph. 6.2), this is the first commandment explicitly tied to a promise – although all the commandments, being part of God’s covenant with His people, are bound up in His precious and magnificent promises (cf. Deut. 6.1-3).

Honoring one’s parents is fundamental to a well-ordered and just society, one that endures and prospers and is pleasing to God according to His Edenic plan for creation (“that it may go well”, or, “that you may know good”). The fifth commandment thus intends to encompass the whole broad scope of honor and deference due within the civil order – to parents, the elderly, rulers, others, and even the creation itself. To honor another person is to esteem him highly, to exalt and uplift him, to treat him with respect, and to serve him as unto the Lord. Where such honoring of others is practiced, a society achieves a measure of stability that allows it to prosper and to endure.

T. M. Moore

The Law of God is the soil which, fertilized by the rest of God’s Word and watered by His Spirit, brings forth the fruit of Christian life. If you’d like to understand this process better, and how to make best use of the Law in your walk with and work for the Lord, order the book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, from our online store.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.