Honor Your Parents Series

5 - Honor Your Parents

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.

Understanding what Honor means

Honor is Personal

Honor means giving Preference

Honor relates to Position

Honor must be Practical

Honoring Your Parents at Every Stage of Life

Giving Honor when we are Young comes through being Obedient

Giving Honor when we are Mature comes through living Righteously

Giving Honor when they are Aged comes through giving Care

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Introduction

This morning we are continuing with our series, God’s Top Ten. We have covered the first 4 commandments about

1. Having no other ‘gods’

2. Making no idols

3. Not taking the Lord’s Name in Vain

4. Honoring the Sabbath

And what all of those mean in regards to New Testament Christians who are not under the Old Testament Law.

Those 4 commands all have to do with our relationship with God and How to worship Him.

Today, we move on to the commands that have to do with our relationship with other people.

Turn with me to Exodus 20:12

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As we start the commandments that deal with how we relate to other people, we begin first with how we deal with one of our most important relationships, because how we deal with our close relationships will necessarily effect how we deal with others we are in relationships with.

So let’s read

Exodus 20:12

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

Now as we have said, today, we are not under the law, but under grace, but we do recognize that there are principles found in the 10 Commandments that are often repeated in the New Testament that should guide us in how we conduct ourselves in life according to our relationship with Jesus.

Understand what Honor Means

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As we begin to look at this particular command, I think it is important that we understand what Honor means. We often use words so often that we fail to understand their meaning, so this morning, I want to look at what it means to honor someone and then how we might honor our parents at different stages of our and their life.

So, as we get started, I think it is important that we understand that

Honor is Personal

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We see in the Bible that things are not honored, but only people.

It is something one person does to another person. We really cannot honor ourselves, although there are people that try, it never comes across that way.

In Hebrews 5:4, as the author is talking about the Honor of being called to serve as the High priest, he says that “No one takes this honor upon himself; he must be called by God, just as Aaron was.” (Hebrews 5:4)

Honor is only honor when given by one person to another.

There may be times, however when a thing or place appears to be honored, like Moses honoring the place where the burning bush was, by taking off his shoes because it is holy ground, but the reality is that this is really honoring God who makes the place holy.

So Honor is something that is personal.

It can only be given by a person or God and received by a person or God.

Not only that, but

Honor means giving Preference

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This is a tough one in our society when we never want to seem like we give preference to someone over another, but the fact is that we should.

We will talk in a minute about reasons why we should give preference, honor, to one person over another, but it is important to understand that this is ok, to honor someone over another.

Sometimes we are so afraid of honoring someone above another because we do not want anyone to feel bad or be offended.

However, to fail to give anyone preference, and to treat everyone exactly the same, under all circumstances can actually be dishonoring to someone who deserves to be honored.

And honoring someone for some achievement of action, can help sometimes spur someone else on to greater things as they see the honor that someone else has received.

So, Honoring someone means giving them preference over and above others.

In the Bible, we see Paul tells us to “Honor one another above yourselves.” (Romans 12:10)

We see God declare that “Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will disdained.” (1 Samuel 2:30)

Distinctions are made between people in the Bible and we need to make distinctions and honor some people above others at times.

In regards to our parents, we are called to honor our parents by giving them preference above some other people that may be part of our life.