A pastor said that honoring our parents is a commandment with a promise in a Beijing church’s Sunday service, citing Exodus 20:12.
On June 20, Rev. Du Fengying preached a sermon titled A Commandment With a Promise in the service held in Beijing Gangwashi Church.
This commandment, honoring your father and mother as the fifth of the Ten Commandments is the link between the preceding and the following, as the first four ones are about the relationship between man and God and the last six between man and man, added the pastor.
She first illustrated the relationship between our attitudes towards parents and God, as 1 John 4:20 says, “For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God.” Then, she explained the meaning of honoring one’s parents and why it is a commandment with a promise.
Honor your parents
She shared that we should honor our parents so that the grace of God could be preserved and continued, not just regarding it as an ethical issue. With a certain status, parents were respected by Jewish youth. So this is a commandment God gave to Israel at that time.
Rev. Du continued that the filial piety taught in the Bible is not only a basic moral issue but also the foundation of God's commandments. In addition to supporting and serving parents, honoring parents also reflects a responsibility to make parents happy.
She added that the commandment does not change even if our parents behave illegally, have a bad temper, or do not obey God’s will. The respect for our parents is not a request, but an order from God, so it is unconditional. What we have to do first is to obey God and His law, and then to talk to our parents and express our thoughts on the premise of respecting them.
The commandment with a promise
She said the literal meaning of a promise is something promised, which is given freely by God's grace, and honoring one's parents does not directly lead to longevity. But, as it could make ourselves and our parents happy, it is the foundation of long life. What is most important is to share our faith in the Savior Jesus Christ with our parents, enjoy the eternal inheritance in heaven together with them, and enter the beautiful land of Canaan.
The pastor asked what the real meaning of honoring our parents is. It not only belongs to the category of ethics but also introduces us to the source of life. From us to our parents, and then to our grandparents, we trace back to God, the source of our lives, as the Bible first said, "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth". In real life, we need to establish our relationship and attitude towards God according to the Bible, as Jesus said (when the Pharisees asked Him what was the greatest commandment in the law) we should first love God with all our heart, soul, and mind, and then love our neighbors as ourselves. Loving God, the source of the world and human beings, and then loving others, is the requirement of God. We should extend the love of parents to God, the source of life, to love Him. So the fifth is the first commandment for human relations.
- Translated by Abigail Wu
