Exodus 20:12

Fourth Commandment

"Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

There is one question which is foremost in the minds of every true believer in Christ: What does God want me to do? The greatest desire of all who are in Christ is to please and serve our Heavenly Father. When the Holy Spirit is at work in our hearts, he renews them and creates the desire to live in obedience to God. So, the question we constantly ask ourselves is, "What is God's will for me to do?"

That's where God's Law, and the Ten Commandments become a guide to the believer in Christ. For while the Law of God accuses the sinner of sin and proclaims judgment and wrath for all who disobey God's will, for the believer it becomes a joyful guide that shows us what is the good and pleasing will of God. In Christ we are freed from slavery to the law because the Spirit changes us. He gives us new hearts that want to obey and please God so the Law of God becomes an honor and joy. "For it is God who works in you both to will and to do his good pleasure." ( Phil 2:13). Living in obedience to God becomes our identity as believers and children of God.

So just what does God want me to do? We notice that the first Three Commandments, "Have no other gods before me," "Do not take the name of the Lord your God in vain," and "Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy," are all directed toward righteousness in the kingdom of God. They all have to do with our relationship with God. These three together comprise the First and greatest commandment of all, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This has to do with right worship of God; this talks about the condition of our heart.

The Second table of the Law, commandments four through ten, are summed up by the Second Greatest commandment, "Love your neighbor as yourself." This part of the law deals with our righteousness in this world, in our daily lives as we live in relationship with others. Hence there are two parts to the commandments; love God and love your neighbor.

Notice, there is no command to love yourself. That is because the sinful heart is focused inwardly on itself. The sinful heart loves itself and serves itself. To the sinner life is all about "me," "number uno." "You have to look out for 'number one'," so we say. Luther says that the sinner "curves in on himself" he is "turned inward." We can compare the sinner to an ingrown toenail. He lives for self; for his own goals, and puts his interests before the interests and well being of others.

So, what is that God wants us to do? What is the will of God? We are to love our neighbor, to serve him and to help him in all bodily and spiritual needs. How do we love our neighbor? That is what Commandments four through ten tell us. They give us the specifics. They tell us in plain, simple language how to love others. They lay out in detail what God expects from us; what pleases Him; how we are to honor and serve God.

The Fourth Commandment says, "Honor your father and mother." Luther explains it this way. "We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them." He goes on to note that if we obey this command there is a precious promise which God attaches to our obedience. "your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you." "If we really did honor our father and mother," says Luther, "God would also richly bless us and give us grace to train men and women by whom land and people might be improved. He would also bless us with well-educated citizens, husbands and wives who would raise godly children. But because this matter is disregarded, God so fearfully punishes the word that there is no discipline, government, or peace. We all complain about this but do not see that it is our fault. The way we train children and subjects spoils them and makes them disobedient."

It is the desire of all who have faith in Christ, whose hearts have been transformed by the Holy Spirit, to please and honor God. Notice how great, good, and holy a work is assigned to us here in this commandment. Every child by this commandment can direct his conscience to God and say, "If I am to do good and holy works, I know of none better than to give all honor and obedience to my parents, because God has himself commanded it." For what God commands is much better and far nobler than everything that we may come up with ourselves. Here God teaches what we should do if we wish to perform truly good works. By commanding this, we know that it pleases him. Everyone who does this has great consolation in his heart. He can joyfully say and boast "This is well pleasing to my God in heaven." For God has appointed and commanded obedience to parents next to his own majesty. Nothing shall be valued higher than the will and word of parents, as long as they, too, are subordinated to obedience toward God.

Who does God mean by parents? The words of this commandment cover all God's representatives on earth who carry out his will. It starts with the home, and from the authority of parents is derived authority in the church, in government, at work, and in the courts. For all authority flows and is born from the authority of parents. The same is true about obedience to civil government. These positions are to be honored as "God's servant[s]," as Paul notes in our Epistle reading this morning. These structures prevent anarchy. In Lutheran theology, they are called the "orders of creation." They are the ways God controls the spread of evil and chaos. Every society has some form of family, marriage, and government. These structures are to be respected and honored.

So there are two kinds of fathers presented in this commandment: fathers in blood and fathers in office. There are those who have the care of the family and those who have the care of the country and those who have the care of souls and are spiritual fathers.

Moreover, those who keep God's will and commandment have this promise: everything they give to temporal and spiritual fathers, and whatever they do to honor them, shall be richly repaid to them; they shall be eternally rich and blessed.

This Commandment is also the basis of the doctrine of vocation. God establishes social order and structure. Each person is called by God into his position and office. Each office is endowed with certain responsibilities and each is to be respected and honored as God's representatives carrying out the function God gave them. It is through the offices which God establishes and the vocations that God calls us to that He answers our prayer "Give us this day our daily bread." We receive our daily bread through the labor and service of others; the farmer, the food manufacturer, the neighborhood store and so on. In like fashion, God provides the daily bread to others through the duties and responsibilities of our vocations. When we go to work in a factory to produce an item it is because there is someone who needs that item. When we go to school to teach a class it is because there is someone who needs that class. When a mother changes a diaper she is doing the work of God who provides for the baby. When a father goes to work he is God's instrument to provide for the family.

All vocations are God's callings and thus all are honorable. Every legitimate vocation is doing the Lord's work. Living in vocation we are God's instruments to pour His love on all people.

Likewise the authority given to each vocation is God's authority. The person in that vocation stands in the place of God and is to be honored and respected as if it were God himself. That is the meaning of this commandment. God created the vocation of mother and father and God placed every child under the authority of those parents. The parent then stands in the place of God, his authority is the authority of God. This is the model then for authority throughout all society and the entire social structure. The government authority derives from this commandment. The authority of the employer or the school teacher the pastor and of all who are in positions of authority derive their authority from this commandment.

What do we do if the person holding the office is someone we don't like, or has political ideas that we oppose? Sometimes, as Luther points out a father might be a drunk and a rogue. Still, as long as he is in his office the authority of his office stands because it is God's authority. A foolish man who is president of the country still has the authority of the president and his signature on a bill is still just as valid. The only time Scripture allows us to disobey a person in authority is when that person uses his authority over us to cause us to sin or go against God. This happened to the Apostles when they were commanded by the Jewish High Council to stop preaching the message of Christ. They were under a higher authority, that of God who commanded them to continue preaching. But that also meant they had to suffer the consequences of disobeying the human authority. It resulted in arrest, imprisonment and for most of them, death. This can happen today as well. If a boss asks a salesperson to give false information when making a sales pitch, should she do it? But in such a case the employee will probably have to suffer the consequences for disobeying her employer. This is what Jesus meant by "taking up our cross daily and following him."

There is great joy in naming God as our parent. Jesus called God "Father." We pray to our heavenly Father. He has all "kingdom and power and glory" and honor. But he also has all respect. He is the Father who loves even the prodigal son. He waits for him, eager to restore him. None of us has kept this command. The penalty God gave for those who did not keep this command was death. This has not been repealed or changed. The penalty God pronounces on us for disobedience to this command is death. He does hold us accountable. We owe a debt to God and he will collect. There is a price to be paid for sin, and the price is our life. The payment for sin is death. The cost of sin is death and eternal punishment. The Commandments tell us what God expects and demands of us; lest we fall under his curse and incur his wrath.

But God because he loves us came into our world and paid the price for us. By taking a human form he carried our sins and assumed our debts and he absorbed our disobedience and sin into himself. He then went to the cross and paid the price of death for our sins with his own blood; the holy, innocent and perfect blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Our debt is paid in full by the Son of God. Our sins are forgiven. We are freed from the curse of the law by Jesus Christ who became a curse for us. We are freed from slavery to the law by Jesus Christ who became a slave of the law in our place.

On the basis of this atonement for our sin, God calls us to repentance and invites us to taste of his mercy. For those who repent, the Father's forgiveness is perfect and full and free and eternal just as the Father of the Prodigal Son. In baptism He lifts up his humiliated son. He puts the signet ring of authority back on his finger. He puts sandals on his feet and covers his ragged body with the cloak of dignity. He kills the fattened calf and invites all to celebrate a son restored.

This is what your heavenly Father does each time you enter his house. He loved you enough to send his Son to die in payment for your sins. Since Jesus died and rose again, God the Father says, "Your sins are forgiven." He invites you to his Table, where his Son is your host—a host who gives his body and blood to fill and restore and renew you. We honor him, for he is God. But even more, we respect and love and embrace him for time and eternity.

And as we live our lives in love for our neighbor, what greater love can we give than to share this message of forgiveness of sins with him. We can do no greater deed for him than to give him the opportunity to hear the Gospel so the Holy Spirit can work repentance and faith in his heart for eternal life.

When We Honor, Love, and Respect Our Parents, We Honor God, Our Perfect Parent.

Amen.