Message summary: The honor of our parents serves as a foundational base for all human honor.

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“Honor your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12). “Her children arise and call her blessed” (Proverbs 31:28).

Yesterday was Mother's Day here in the US and perhaps other countries as well. This Day and Father's Day could also be called "Fifth Commandment Sunday" since on both days we are called to honor our parents. To honor means to regard with great respect.

The preacher yesterday acknowledged Mother's Day as he gestured that his mother was in the congregation. He reminded us to call or text our moms and I leaned over and whispered to Brooksyne. "I can't imagine texting my Mom". That's due to her being with the Lord now for nearly 20 years but also the whole notion of sending a text seems rather odd (given the time period in which she lived).

The Fifth Commandment states "Honor your father and your mother". Yesterday many of us practiced this commandment or may have been the recipient of others practicing it. For some the honor was posthumous, remembering our mothers who have since left this world, which is the case for both Brooksyne and me.

The Fifth Commandment is the first commandment in a category often characterized as horizontal, that is the way we treat our fellow humans. This is distinct from the first four commandments which primarily relate to God and are thus seen as vertical. It is also the first commandment with a promise, "so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you".

The Precept Commentary states, "The fifth commandment is so important that God attaches the inherent motivation of a promise, because this commandment is the key to all human relationships and the passing on of a righteous heritage. God designed the family and if this commandment is not 'functioning', that design will be disturbed. Witness the dissolution of the family in America, one cause being the failure of children to obey this important command!"

Today let us resolve to faithfully obey the Fifth Commandment to honor our father and mother. For children this is expressed as we obey our parents. To adults this is expressed when we live a life that will bring our parents honor as we uphold respect toward the family name. An even harder commission for some is to restore honor to the family name which has been tarnished by parent(s) who did not live honorably.

One of the dominant sins of our age is the failure to honor parents. Children who honor and obey their parents, and by extension all their elders, are foundational to an orderly society. They grow up into adulthood with a proper attitude toward authority. The commandments of God are inter-related and a breach in any one of them leads to a breach in others. A sign of the last times includes children who are "disobedient to their parents" (2 Timothy 3:2).

This generational dependency is that the young need the blessing, stability and wisdom of the elders even as elders need the honor and energy of the young. This is God’s foundational design for the transmission of truth from one generation to another. Paul wrote, “The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). Although it is a ministerial verse regarding passing on the faith it has an application for the family!