Honor Your Father and Mother

Introduction

Purpose:  

The commandment to “honor your father and mother” as it appears in Exodus 20:12 and elsewhere in scripture seems clear enough for most students of the Bible.  But in a pervasive, post-modern culture where the role of parenthood is often no longer held in high esteem and indeed is often ridiculed by pop culture, clarification of this commandment for the Christian raised in the post-modern culture becomes necessary.  Likewise, and perhaps more importantly, we must answer the questions pertaining to bestowing honor upon parents who have not been honorable people.  Does scripture mandate esteeming someone simply because he or she is one’s biological parent when little has been done that would be deserving of honor?  This is a difficult and sensitive question to be sure, but one for which scripture does provide insight.  Therefore, the questions, what is honor as it pertains to our parents, and, is it ever Biblically justified to not honor one’s parents, will be explored. 

Method: 

The standard of sola scriptura (scripture alone) will be applied to this study.  In examining the scriptures, one must set aside personal biases, opinions, and innovations that have as their source the futile wisdom of men.  Pains will be taken to interpret scripture in light of scripture.  In other words, one must not take an individual scripture and build a theology around it without considering the entire context of the chapter in which the verse appears and indeed the entire counsel of scripture as a whole.  Nor should we exalt human experience or what may be otherwise interpreted as the guidance of the Holy Spirit when exploring the scriptures.  Many have used the “guidance of the Holy Spirit” as a means by which to justify sinful behavior and unscriptural, heretical theologies.  It is imperative to remember that the roles of the Holy Spirit are to exalt Jesus, to convict of sin, to illuminate the written Word of God, and provide guidance and direction to the Believer. Consequently, the Spirit of God will never direct someone to do something that is contrary to what is taught in scripture.  Therefore, the Word of God will be exalted in this study as our paramount source of truth, and in doing so the original Hebrew and Greek languages will be examined so as to provide clearer insight on the original intent of the writers.  Likewise, historical insights will be explored so as to understand the context of the writing, and both the Old and New Testaments will be studied so that application of the concepts for modern day worshipers will be apparent.  Furthermore, the aforementioned standard of sola scriptura means that this author considers the Holy Bible to be the singular and final Word of God.  “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness” (1 Timothy 3:16).    No amount of reasoning or speculation about what is right and appropriate has any merit if it cannot be clearly supported by the Word of God in its entirety.  As the scriptures say, “Let God be true and every man a liar” (Romans 3:4).