Exodus 20: 12
The Fifth Commandment

But, also, and somewhat hidden here is really the foundation of social order. The commandment not only deals with honoring literal parents and parents-in-the-Lord, but it deals with honor and obedience to all who are in authority over us: obedience when that is called for and honor in every case. 

I. TO UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS COMMANDMENT IS ABOUT ONE MUST UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF THESE 10 COMMANDMENTS. 

1. They are really a summary of all the duties of mankind with reference to authority and submission. This is evident from the fact that these 10 commandments alone, of all the many details and requirements of the law, were carved on stone and deposited in the Ark Of The Covenant, a kind of chest that represented the throne of Jehovah, towards which the Israelites worshipped. These were at the very focus of what their religion was about as to their obligation to God and their fellow man. 

2. It is also especially evident from the teaching of the N.T. on the subject. In Matthew 19 the Lord used these 10 Commandments as summaries of the moral requirements of God. In Matthew 22: 34-40 and its parallel in Mark the Lord summarized the whole duty of man in two commandments which were, themselves, summaries of the two tables of the law: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind and ...your neighbor as yourself." 

3. It is clear that these 10 Commandments are the foundation of morality and behavior. Because of this comprehensive quality of the 10 Commandments we have good reason to interpret this 5th commandment in a broader way as a principle of obedience to those who have authority over us. In Moses' time, the authority was mainly through parents to children. In later times and in our own there is a whole edifice of authority to which each person is obligated and it is represented in this commandment. For this reason it is commonly thought that the 5th commandment is on the first table of the law -- mankind's duty to God and not on the second table -- the individual's duty to the rest of humanity.

All of these 10 Commandments have applications that are absolutely indisputable. There is no doubt when you have sinned and need to confess your sin before the Father and amend your lifestyle. But especially in the outer reaches of their application they should not be instruments of bondage imposed by one Christian upon another. We do not keep these commandments in order to be saved but because we are saved and want to please our Heavenly Father. In all of our behavior we trust the fact that God has imputed our sins to Christ and his righteousness to us. Take them and apply them to your life in a spirit of loving obedience to the Divine Father who saved you and the dear Savior who died for you.

1. Of course, the commandment has a specific meaning that is clear right on the surface. It has to do with honor of parents. It is an obligation to treat parents with respect and/or obedience; -- obedience during the days of the person's minority and financial dependence upon the parent and respect during the days of the person's majority. 

How does this fit in with our own times? Youths are taught by the prevailing culture to disobey and disrespect their elders including their parents. This alienation is passed on from young person to young person by TV., movies, popular music, to an extent that the people of ancient times would have found it unbelievable. The alienation of teenagers and their often utter disrespect for their elders is shocking and a sign of serious cultural deterioration. It is interesting that on this one commandment there is a result of keeping it: "that your days may be long in the land which the Lord your God gives you." 

The failure to keep this commandment in a society on every level by large numbers of people will seriously weaken that society and limit its days in the land -- and in the economy, and in the prosperity, and in the stability -- that God by his providence has given them 

The callousness and disobedience and even contempt of youngsters for their parents and their lack of conscience in the matter is just another example of how the world presses in upon us and how we do not even know that it is happening. Many a youngster in a middle class family displays an attitude that would have gotten him stoned in ancient Israel (a different and initially more unpleasant kind of "stoned" than the one that young people are familiar with in these days). 

It has an application in the old-age of the parents. It is very easy to disrespect a parent in our culture by ignoring him in his years of feebleness and even senility, by unnecessarily slapping the parent in a nursing home as if it were a place to bury him before his actual death. In some cases, of course, it is necessary and really the best place for such a person but it should not be for the convenience and economic welfare of the child. 

Even in the years of our adulthood we owe respect and love and deference to parents and concern that they are well cared for. The relationship never ends during this lifetime. It is animals who become equals of their parents. Creatures in the image of God retain that sense of generation and the respect it demands. 

Surely there will be some person (or persons) in a congregation of this size who have scurrilous parents or a parent who represents all that the person used to be and have, themselves, been saved by Christ and have established a new life. This honoring of parents may indeed be part of the cost of discipleship and a heavy cost at that. This is especially true when there is an unresolved animosity of the child for the parent. We are not perfected yet and our past often looms large in our relationships even after we have come to Christ and have been regenerated. Like many of God's commandments, this one may not be easy to obey. Blessed are you if you find this or any other commandment of the Lord a joy to obey. But more blessed are you if you obey it whatever the cost. Let us pray for one another concerning such things. 

2. But the commandment clearly has, in principle, the requirement that we show proper respect and obedience for all those who are over us in the government we are under and in the church. It is interesting that, in the N.T. church, elders seemingly were called elders even when they were not very elder. They were considered to be parents-in-the-Lord because they were given the responsibility to rule over the Christians in each congregation in a gracious, kind and non-presumptuous way. Paul said: "Obey those who have the rule over you for they watch out for your souls." 

As in the case of teenagers in a deteriorating society, so too even the adults have a contemptuous disregard for anyone who might presume to limit their freedom in any way. And this has a tendency to spread to us Christians from the society that is all around us. 

Of course this has been abused by leaders in this cult and that cult. And even in legitimate denominations it has been so. It just proves that leaders are sinners too. Having a plurality of elders with a sense of parity among them is a check on this. Your obligation, I suggest, is to submit yourself to parents in the Lord who "watch for your souls," (Hebrews 13: 17) who are "not domineering over those in (their) charge but (are) being examples to the flock." (I Peter 5: 3) You need to find the kind of church that you feel is able to do this and be somewhat forgiving when they are imperfect in doing it. 

3. The commandment demands proper respect and appropriate obedience to the civil and national authority. This is amplified in the N.T. Of course that obedience is never called for if it means disobedience to God. In that case we have to echo the words of the Apostles: "We must obey God rather than men." (Acts 5: 29) But even in that case, we owe them formal respect even when we do not find them worthy of respect. The idea of verbal disrespect for a person ruling over us is forbidden by the principle in this commandment. 

Again, this is difficult for us because the prevailing culture sets a tone of disrespect for everybody one happens to disagree with or who is not worthy of respect by right of his positions or his personal life. 

Probably this commandment dictates that you should vote in a society that permits what would have been an unthinkable privilege in ancient times. I did not do so for years out of my conviction that someone in Christian service should be detached from politics but I realize that such a position was wrong. We would never tell you how to vote but we should tell you that you ought to vote, in my opinion. Especially you who are arriving at voting age -- I urge you to make an exception to the general neglect of your generation to exercise the opportunity to vote. And the impetus is not just the possible application of this 5th commandment to voting but the remarkable good that Christians could accomplish. For, at a time when less and less people vote, if every sincere Christian voted, their influence would be far out of proportion to their number.

Would not it be a remarkable part of our Christian testimony if we Christians were known for our exceptional obedience to this commandment as we are presumably known for our obedience to the others?