Honor your father and mother....or else

Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 

Deuteronomy 5:16 “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you. 

Matthew 15:4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 

Ephesians 6:1-3 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

Looks like a recurring theme.  And at first glance it may seem like this is just an Old Testament command; something for people who lived thousands of years ago; something that we need not bother ourselves with today.  After all, the Bible was written by a bunch of old dudes, right?   I mean, look at our world today.  Nobody really takes this stuff seriously, right? 

It looks to me like God takes this very seriously!   Right from the beginning God is abundantly clear how important this command was.  There would be very good outcomes for obedience. 

1.      “that you may live long”

2.      “and that it may go well with you”

Oh, and what did God say about those who cursed their parents?  Oh yeah, they are “to be put to death.”

Can you imagine what our world would look like if that was a law today?  There wouldn’t be very many people left, would there?  So, again we might think that this commandment is not really for us.  But then wait; it is right there again mentioned by Paul in our present dispensation.  That means it is definitely for us today.  But look around today and what do we see?  We see children who are disrespectful and disobedient to their parents, lying to them, dishonoring them in every way imaginable. 

We see 2 Timothy 3:1-5 is alive and well.

 

 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

 

Look, nobody’s parents are perfect.  We are imperfect sinners, every one of us.  We can all point to something our parents did that we don’t like or agree with.  Does that give us the right to bash them, curse them, lie to them, disrespect them, or dishonor them?  Absolutely not!!  We extend grace, and we love and honor them the way we should, even when we don’t agree with them.  That is God’s way!  When we honor our parents it does go well with us.  Try disrespecting them and you will have a heap of trouble on your hands.    The obvious conclusion from Ephesians is that if you do not honor your parents, you won’t live a long life, and things won’t go so well for you.  You want to take that chance?   Do you really want to be remembered as that nasty B?  Not me, man!   I want everyone who knows me to remember the love of Christ.

 

We are here one day and gone the next.  Make it matter for eternity.  Don’t spend your life blaming your parents for all your problems, or resenting them for doing their best.   Grow up and take responsibility for your life and your choices.  Get out of your pity box and make a difference in the world.  Above all else, give your life to Jesus Christ, the one perfect person who died to take away all your sins so that you could live with Him forever.   Do it now before it is too late.  This might be your last chance to get right with God.