Compelling Reasons Why We Should Value this Command of 'Honoring our Parents'

We hear this clause always "honour your parents" but it sometimes does not mean so much to us because of so many reasons


1.Familiarity
2.The desire to be respected as an adult
3.Peer influence

                             
Here are three compelling reasons why we should value this command of honoring our parents and incorporate it back into our lives:

Honor our Parents…because it honors God. The Hebrew word for honor in Exodus 20:20 is ‘kabed,’ which derives from a root word meaning “weighty” (in terms of importance) and is often used to refer to the ‘glory of God’. The meaning of kabed in this context derives from the first four commandments, which center on honoring God Himself. So what God seems to be saying through this command is, “As you honor your father and mother… You honor Me.”

Even if we don’t feel like honoring our parents, keeping in mind that it pleases God, can help give us the motivation we need to keep doing it. It’s cool to think that as we show simple gestures of love and respect to our parents by helping them around the house, paying them a compliment or telling them how much we appreciate them, we are serving and glorifying God!

Honor our Parents…because they deserve it. You might be tempted to say, “Well, my parents didn’t do a very good job of raising me, so they do not deserve my respect.” Granted, honoring parents can be very difficult if your father is a drunk or your mother neglected you as a child. But God does not say, “Honor your mother and father only if they are honorable.” Their actions may sometimes be dishonorable, but because they are our parents, God says that is reason enough to be respected. There are no loopholes.


One Christian website I found put it this way:

“Our parents resemble the Creator, since they were God’s partners in creation of the child. They also represent God in the life of the small child, functioning as primary caregiver and teacher. A person should recognize that his parents are the cause of his life in the world and it is therefore proper to love and respect them.”

Gosh, as I read this, I realise how short many have fallen in the way of showing honour to their parents. How common it is to give respect based on whether we think it is deserved! But this is faulty thinking.

Honour to our parents is unmerited, just as God’s grace is to us. Wow. I know many have a lot of confessing and repenting to do… Lord, help us change our ways!

Honour our Parents…because it leads to blessing. If we look closely, the command given to honour our parents isn’t a stand alone command, but is linked to a very special promise:

“Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you” (Exodus 20:12). I always pay attention to any ‘so that’s  in Scripture because they usually point to a promise of blessing, benefit or reward. In this case, God says that honouring our parents will result in the blessing of a longer life and that all may go well in our life (Deut 5:16). Our obedience in honouring our parents is directly linked to God’s honouring us. How awesome is that?