“當孝敬父母，使你的日子在耶和華 – 你上帝所賜你的地上得以長久。” 出埃及記20 章12節
“Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12
Do Not Dismiss or Over Revere Your Parents
~ Exodus 20:1-12 ~
Rev. Dennis Brown
What does it mean to “honor your parents” ? Here in East perhaps the greatest value is “filial piety”. On the one hand Christians are to affirm everything good in a culture, but also to critique everything in the culture. The reason for this is we are all by nature idolaters. The 10 commandments tell us to worship God alone and not make any idols. However, it is easy for parents to make idols of their children. Children can also make idols of their parents by overly needing their approval. The Bible helps us find a path between “dismissing” and “over revering our parents” that leads to real freedom in Christ.
Honoring your parents doesn’t mean:
- to think they are the greatest thing in the world
- to always confide or trust in them
- to always obey
But the Bible says we must HONOR our parents. The reason for this is not because of “the mystery of blood” or because they are older and wiser. BUT because IT IS RIGHT (Ephesians 6).
Parents have authority that comes from God but it is not ultimate authority. It is designed to teach us that we are not to be autonomous, independent persons. It is really designed to point us to God and that we are to live our lives under His authority.
Honoring your parents does mean:
- to respect what they represent
- to listen to them (but to always weight their advice against what the Bible teaches)
- to honor the cultural ways that are appropriate, but never to worship them!
- to respect their need to see themselves in you
- to forgive them
- to be free from your need of their approval. (How: by having a deep sense that your ultimate acceptance comes from being accepted by God the Father because you are “in Christ”)
“Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your fathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.” I Peter 1:18
rinlovestoshare 