The Fifth Commandment is the first commandment that comes with a promise – That your days be long and that it may go well with you.

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. Exodus 20:12

All the Commandments were meant to give a new quality of life without creating a merit system to gain eternal life. The Fifth Commandment shows us the great value of honoring and respecting the inferiors, superiors and equals in our lives. To honor your father and mother is: to esteem and prize them highly, to care for them by demonstrating affection for them, to show respect, fear and reverence toward them. One who will not submit to the authority of his parents, who are God’s agents to train and discipline him, is very unlikely to submit to God’s authority and obey God’s Law.

If we stop at the surface of the Fifth Commandment, we might think that we stand a good chance of claiming we have kept this Commandment. Rather we find that the deeper we dig in the Commandment, the closer we get to God; the higher the expectations are in keeping it. Let’s go deeper and examine all the aspects of the Fifth Commandment. The Commandment doesn’t limit us only to our natural parents, but all inferiors, superiors and equals are to be honored in heart, word and behavior. Included are:

The Natural Father – Our fathers of the flesh; the ones given to us by God. We should show reverence to our parents by a submissive behavior and show honor by careful obedience in following their advice.

The Ancient Father – Our seniority who do not lack in piety. They are sages, who have walked the walk and talked the talk. Heed their council.

The Domestic Father – Our masters and employers of whom we receive wages in exchange for labor. You cannot obey your Master in heaven if you cannot obey your earthly master.

The Political Father – Our Kings, presidents, rulers and authorities. The magistrate and government officials of our lives should be prayed for that they would stand and defend justice while receiving the blessings of the Gospel of peace and the peace of the Gospel.

The Spiritual Father – Our pastors, ministers of the Word, those of whom God has used in our lives as instruments in the new birth. Honor them by showing respect and conforming to their doctrine.

Our Heavenly Father – A father is but the instrument of conveying life, but God is the original cause of our being. Honor our heavenly Father by obeying Him, standing for His truth and suffering for His sake. He is worthy of fear and adoration and praise.

For disobeying the Fifth Commandment, there awaits serious repercussion and punishment for sons and daughters in this life and the next. Solomon warns of the fruits of foolish, rebellious children (Proverbs 10:1, 15:20, 17:25, 19:26). The only thing that comes from disobedient offspring is grief, sorrow, shame and reproach. God’s promises of judgment on the sons of disobedience are made known in Proverbs 20:20, 30:10-17. The God of the Bible is very serious about inferiors usurping the authority of superiors He has put in place, beginning with parents.

Again, the lawful use of the Law is to show us how far we have fallen short of God’s perfect standard. The Law brings the knowledge of sin. The best of us haven’t honored our parents as we should. However, in witnessing, you will encounter some who will contend that they have kept this Commandment and have perfectly honored their parents. They therefore need to be confronted with the sins of the flesh first before they are confronted with this Commandment. Have they lied? Have they stolen? Almost everyone will admit to lying and stealing; therefore, they have dishonored their parents’ name by being a lying thief.

Even though we have failed innumerably to honor our fathers or to be a father worthy of honor, God the Father has done the most loving and honorable thing by giving His obedient Son as a gift of grace to justify those who have faith in His perfect Son, Jesus Christ. In Luke 15, Jesus explained in the Parable of the Prodigal, there was a father waiting with open arms to reconcile with both the younger son and older son. In that way, our Heavenly Father has made reconciliation through faith and repentance in His Son. Seek the Son. Seek the Father.