Title: The 10 Commandments – 5&6 Scripture: Exodus 20:12-13
Type: Expository Date: 10-20-19
Intro: Comedian Rodney Dangerfield, who died October 5, 2004, at age 82, made a living making fun of himself and the difficulty of getting what we all desire: a little respect, please. Some of his best lines were: “I tell ya I get no respect from anyone. I bought a cemetery plot. The guy said, ‘There goes the neighborhood!’” “My uncle’s dying wish, he wanted me to come sit on his lap. He was in the electric chair.” “I could tell that my parents disliked me. My bath toys were a toaster and a radio.” “I remember I was so depressed I was going to jump out a window on the tenth floor, so they sent a priest to talk to me. He said, ‘On your mark. . .’” “My wife made me join a bridge club. I jump off next Tuesday.”
“I come from a stupid family. During the Civil War my great uncle fought for the West.” (www.ChicagoTribune.com, 10-6-04) All kidding aside, it seems that nobody gets any respect anymore. Our society has lost much of its civility, and I’m afraid it’s going to destroy us unless we can turn it around. Ronald Kernaghan recently observed: “At the beginning of the 21st century, reasoned discourse is increasingly giving way to in-your-face sound bites… Hardball is the dominant metaphor for American public life. Our interchanges are confrontational, divisive, and dismissive. Truth is not something we expect to emerge from a conversation. It is something we hope to impose. (Ronald J. Kernaghan, "Speaking the Truth In Love," Theology, News & Notes, Winter 2003)He’s absolutely right. Just listen to all the political commentary. The question is: How can we restore respect to a society that seems to have lost it? How can we bring back a sense of civility before it destroys our way of life as we know it?
Well, the answer is quite simple: Respect begins in the home. The two Commandments we will examine today directly deals with this in our public and private life.
Prop: Today we will examine the 5th and 6th Commandment.
BG: 1. Exodus 20. 10 Commandments given by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai.
2. Two we will examine today begin the 6 that deal with our relationship to fellow man.
3. “Honor your father and mother.” “Shall not murder.”
Prop: Turn with me to Exodus 20 as we examine the 5th and 6th Commandments.
I. The 5th Commandment: “Honor Your Father and Mother” v.12
A. The 5th Commandment Deals with God’s Building Block of Society: the Family.
1. The 5th Commandment Requires us to Show Honor and Respect to our Family.
a. We have now moved from the 1st to the 2nd tablet of the Law. 1st – Man’s duty towards God. 2nd – Man’s responsibility towards man. Illust – Last week Zach preached an awesome message on the 374th commandments and entitled it: “Love God Part II”. Using his logic, then I should title this message: “”Love One Another, Part I”. The 1st command requires the worship of God alone. The 5th requires “honor of human beings as well”. So the 2nd tablet, like the first, begins with an examination of our heart attitude. Some wonder what age one is when this injunction stops applying to us. Honoring our parents doesn’t stop when we turn eighteen or twenty-one. The fifth commandment is a lifelong command that includes respecting, loving, and faithfully bearing with our parents. Although the way in which a child honors his or her parents changes over time, the command remains.
b. In general this is a command to respect and honor the most basic levels of authority in our lives. God has given authority to various offices within the structure of his created order, and one of those offices is the office of parent.
2. What does this passage mean when it tells us to “Honor” our Father and Mother?
a. Illust: In our society the proper way to refer to a judge or magistrate in court is “Your honor”. Why? Therefore, judge of a court is saluted as honorable judge. Hence in oral representation a judge is addressed as "Your honor" giving due respect to his or her statutory authority. I think this is helpful to better understand our Commandment today. That judge may be an honorable individual. However, that judge may be an absolute rogue and a reprobate. Still, in his or her court, you demonstrate the respect of addressing as “Your honor” because you are showing reverence for the position. The position is important, even essential, to a properly running society, and we are to honor that position.
b. So, to honor means to “revere”. Both sin and righteousness begins in the heart! So honor is a heart attitude, expressing reverence or respect. To “honor” be it father or mother or judges or a president or senator or employer or whomever, is ultimately a choice of the will and a matter of the heart. Part of the heart attitude we are to demonstrate to our father/mother is submission. Illust: When we respect someone we listen respectfully to what he or she says and we do not assume from the outset that we know more than that individual. From those we respect, we expect to learn. Illust: Few years ago had to go to a specialist for an ongoing problem with my ear. He asked my symptoms and observations. Then, I shut up and listened. I did not tell him what the web said I had or what my great Aunt Martha told me I had. Rather, I had come to him, and was paying him, because he had about 20 years of schooling and another 20 years of practice. I did not call him by his 1st name, I referred to him as Dr. Olney.
c. Now, submission is not blind obedience to someone just because of one’s position or age or relationship to you. In I Tim. 5:1, the Apostle instructs Timothy, that when having to correct an older man in the church, to not disgrace them, but to be respectful and kind, appealing to him as a father. Notice the implied meaning of that phrase. Paul is telling Timothy what should be completely understood, it si the right thing to treat one’s father or mother with respect. So, as one treats a parent, so you should treat an older brother or sister in the church. Again, it is an attitude!
B. How Does Jesus Transform this Commandment?
1. Let’s consider Jesus’ teaching in relation to this Commandment.
a. Illust: In (Mt.10:37) we see that Jesus calls His disciples to a higher level of loyalty to Himself than to either father or mother, even though He, emphatically endorsed and approved of the 5th Commandment (Mt. 14:5-6). What does this mean? Loyalty to God transcends even loyalty to parents, which simply underscores our obedience to the first Command that we are to have “No other gods…”
b. In Mark 9:11 we see an interesting event. We see Jesus clearly condemns a cultural practice of the Jews that allowed them to neglect their parents by claiming a higher spiritual usage of their money. In that passage we see that Jesus condemns the practice of “Corban” which was when an individual would pledge his fortune as a gift to the temple at some point in the future of his life or upon his death. Thus, the child could avoid helping support his mother or father my claiming to have made a vow to God to give his money to the temple. Jesus condemns this attitude as clear violation of the 5th Command. Illust: I am always amazed at people involved in ministry, missions, Christian education, etc., that have cut off their parents or have no relationship with their parents.
2. Christ demonstrated perfect obedience to and honor or His Father and so should we.
a. Christ is the only One Who ever perfectly honored and obeyed His Father. “I always do my Father’s will.” (Jn. 8:29) The price of His love for His Father was to lose the love of His Father on the cross! He did that to bear the wrath our sin deserved.” (Dr. Edmund Clowney)
b. Christian parents, let me just say this, our Lord’s love for our children and calling upon their lives supercedes our plans and desires for their lives. He is Lord over everything, including our children. Period. They do not belong to the State as Communism believes, they do not belong to the School System as the NEA believes, they do not belong to themselves as the 1960’s cultural prophets proclaimed, and ultimately, they do not even belong to us, their parents. Rather, they belong to our Lord.
C. How do I apply this in my life?
1. Have you demonstrated gratitude in your life for your parents? Listen to John Calvin’s teaching on this passage in a sermon he preached on the 5th Commandment: “Now it is quite a detestable thing and contrary to nature for a child not to acknowledge those through whom he came into the world, who fed and clothed him. When a child disowns his father or mother he is a monster on whom everyone should look with disgust.” (Sermon 7, p.136, Calvin).
2. How is your attitude towards your mother or father? Illust: When I was a kid there was a Public Service Announcement on tv that had Smokey the Bear appear after a horrendous scene of a fire whipping through a forest and animals fleeing everywhere. Smokey came on a stoically staring into the camera said: “Only YOU can stop forest fires!” Let me tell you something: “Only you can honor your father and mother!” It is a choice of the will to recognize the position as well as the person. I realize that some of us may have had awful individuals for parents. (Illust: Johnny Cash - Boy named Sue. Funny yarn about a boy who grows up with a girl’s name which leads him to fight. Hates his father for doing it. One day meets his father (That dirty mangy dog who named me, Sue!) and begins to fight him. Tough and dirty fighter. Brawl goes into the street and pulls gun but son pulls first. Before shoots says: “Well you can thank me for the gravel in your gut and the spit in your eye” World is tough and I gave you the name so you would learn to be tough too. “Sue” changes his attitude and embrace and go to Urgent Care!
3. I do want you to recognize one important aspect of this command: It is the only one of the 10 that comes with a promise of a blessing for obedience. That blessing is prosperity and long life. Keeping the fifth commandment is part of the Christian's call to love God and love neighbor as the good fruit of faith in Christ. Still, the family unit remains fundamentally one of God's providential gifts for the flourishing of humanity. In God's wisdom, obeying the fifth commandment will profit children in a general way (1 Tim. 4:7-8). Honoring parents often leads to good and peaceful family relations and listening to parent's good counsel can keep a child from making mistakes in life he or she might otherwise make.
Applic: I know that some of us may have had awful parents. Some of your parents were brutal. Some were harsh. Some were controlling or manipulating. Some were addicts. Some were just plain absent. This passage may very well stir up emotions you want to keep pressed down. You may even find this command revolting. By God’s grace, recognize that God alone is the only perfect Father ever, and He offers you His full love and affection through Jesus Christ His Son.
II. The 6th Commandment: “You Shall Not Murder” v. 13
A. Notice the significance of this command.
1. This Command is the most basic responsibility we have towards our fellow man.
a. Many have incorrectly translated this passage as: “Thou shall not kill.” As a result there have been many churches/denominations that are “pacifistic” or non-violent. These include Amish, Old Order Mennonites, Mennonites, Conservative Mennonites, Old Order Brethren, Brethren in Christ, Quakers, Moravians, Anabaptists, German Baptist Brethren, Church of God (7th Day), 7th Day Adventist, even the Assemblies of God prior to World War II practiced pacifism. Why? Because of their interpretation of this verse. In order for one to be in combat, as a combatant, there is possibility for killing.
b. Illust: No less an individual than Alvin York had to struggle though this passage. York, a Tennessee hillbilly of Scots Irish ancestry was a violent alcoholic who came to Christ in 1914 as a 27 year old man and joined his mother’s pacifist church. When America entered WWI York responded to the draft writing down: “I don’t want to fight.” He assumed his faith kept him from combat. However, through the influence of his pastor and a godly Army officer, York determined God did want him to serve, even in combat. What he did was astounding…During the Meuse/Argonne Offensive, pinned down by German machine guns, with his unit suffering massive casualties, York led 7 men in an attack on a machine gun nest. York personally killed at least 25 Germans, including 6 charging him with fixed bayonets when his rifle ran out of ammo. Took his .45 ACP and killed all 6 with 7 shot pistol! By the end of the engagement Corporal York had captured 4 officers and 128 enlisted men. In typical humility that marked the man’s life, when a shocked American officer stated: “Corporal York, you look as though you have captured the entire German Army.” “No, Sir, I only got 132!” For his heroic action, York was promptly promoted and then awarded the Medal of Honor. The question our passage begs us to ask is: “Did Alvin York sin?” Although German theologians would have said “Yes!”, I do believe the text would agree.
2. What is the exact meaning of the passage?
a. Life is the central concern of the 6th Commandment. Being well-known even outside of the Christian faith, the prohibition against murder has been recognized in nearly all the law codes that have ever been written. Human beings have in many ways twisted the law of God written on our consciences, but we would be hard-pressed to find someone who would accept that it is right to kill an innocent person—someone who has not committed a capital crime. It is the most basic law of governing a society. In fact, try living in a society without it!
b. he KJV’s translation of the sixth commandment is famous: “Thou shalt not kill.” Newer translations, such as the ESV, NASB, etc. use the word murder instead of kill. There are good reasons for this, not the least of which is the fact that biblical Hebrew has many words that refer to inflicting death on another person. The original language distinguishes between several types of killing, some lawful and others unlawful. Capital punishment, for example, is a form of killing, but Scripture sanctions it (Gen. 9:6). Furthermore, the Israelites lawfully killed the Canaanites when the Lord brought His people into the Promised Land (Josh. 6). Most of the time, the term used in Deuteronomy 5:17 refers to unlawful killing, not death inflicted according to God’s command. So, murder is a good choice for the English translation.
c. Scripture regards murder as an especially heinous sin, probably because it is a particularly brazen assault on God Himself. Genesis 9:6 makes this connection, prescribing the death penalty for murder because “God made man in his own image.” The Lord takes human life seriously because we are more like Him than any other creature. We were created to reflect and proclaim His glory, so to kill someone who has not committed a capital crime is, by extension, an attempt to kill God Himself. In fact, what our legal system refers to as first-degree, premeditated murder was the one crime in Israel for which judges could never impose a punishment other than death. Numbers 35:31 explains that the ancient Israelites were to “accept no ransom for the life of a murderer, who is guilty of death.”
B. How Does Jesus Transform this Passage?
1. As with the other commands, Jesus directly expands upon and deepens the meaning and application of this statute. The 6th Command was written to protect against the taking of life unjustly. However, Jesus shows a deeper application to this passage: He said that anyone who spoke angry words against his brother or sister was answerable to the court and that anyone who called a brother or sister “You fool!” was guilty of the very fires of hell! (Mt. 5:22)
2. What is Jesus getting at here then? Sure, we haven’t shot or stabbed our neighbor. However, we are not off the hook according to our Lord. God wants to so work in our lives that His Holy Spirit has control over our tongues and even our thoughts and over our affections. Whoever has offended his neighbor or brother has already proven himself to be a murderer because our very tongue is a deadly sword, a vile of poison, a den of iniquity towards someone who was made in the image of God. Even though no earthly judge or jury finds fault with your words, we still stand condemned before the Supreme Judge of all the Universe.
C. How do I apply this passage as a believer?
1. It is not enough to keep the Sixth Commandment as a precept, we must keep the Sixth Commandment in a broader context. If we are to view murder as so evil that we never wish to be tempted to kill someone, we must deal with those attitudes and actions which incline us toward murder, if not dealt with. Some of these will follow. 2. Anger harbored against a brother can become a motive for murder. No one will ever know the number of murders which were the result of anger, but the percentage of such cases would be very high. Jesus thus exposes the all too common emotion of anger as a motive for murder which must be dealt with. 3. Viewing a brother as inferior, as worthless, or as a liability to society is a motive for murder. The terms “Raca” and “fool” are not just evil because they are names which we call another. These names betray an attitude on the part of the name-caller that the world would be a better place without those thus named. Many who have taken the life of another have done so thinking they have done society a favor. 4. Irreconciled relationships and unresolved conflicts can lead to murder. The Lord applied His teaching on murder by urging His hearers to promote and hasten the process of reconciliation. Unresolved conflicts only intensify, sometimes to the point murder. How does Jesus transform this command? Christ does more than condemn us for our guilt of the sin of murder. He provides the very life that can rescue us from our murderous selves. He brings the new life of the new creation in Himself. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. IN HIM was life, and that life was the light of men. (John 1:4). Jesus brought this life through the giving of His own life for sinners. Once again we find that the Commandment takes us to the cross and to the ministry of Jesus upon that cross.
2.
a. Illust: April 2001, Holland earned the dubious distinction of being the 1st country to give legal status to physician assisted suicide when their Senate legalized euthanasia. Think of how far Holland has fallen. During WWII Dutch doctors refused their Nazi occupier’s orders to let elderly or terminal patients die without further treatment. It only took one generation, as Malcolm Muggeridge noted, to turn a war crime into an act of compassion!
b. The most basic idea in this Command is that we should do everything possible within our power to live at peace with our neighbor and never seek his or her harm. We should always do what we can do to stop the slaughter of innocent individuals. Do what you can do so as not to dishonor God’s gift of life.
C. Application: The preciousness of human life taught by Jesus has always worked as a leaven in society wherever the Gospel has been preached. The Gospel realistically looks at human nature, frail and flawed as it is, and in need of a Savior. However, it also opposes the devaluing of human life based on arbitrary standards in our society such as age, intelligence, race, or disability, or perceived worth to society.
