Children and Honour // Building a Godly Family, Part 10

Honour is not something that gets talked about a lot these days. But Commandment number 5 out of the top ten is to honour your father and mother. And it turns out that there’s a very good reason why it’s right up there at number 5.

It's funny how the way we think; the things that we think are important. They change over time. If you got a 15 year old down with a 45 year old and a 60 year old and a 90 year old and got them together and asked them what things are really important my hunch is we'd get quite different responses from each of them – the values of my parents generation, people who've been through World War 2 and their parents who'd been through the Great Depression.

Well those generation’s values are quite different to those of my own, the baby boomers, for whom the term the ‘me' generation was invented. I mean my grandfather on my father’s side (who's now long gone) he was born in the 1800's and he lived in a house in Romania (a place where it gets bitterly cold in winter) with animal skins instead of glass for windows.

And there's one core value though. One that we don't hear people talk much about anymore, that's so important when it comes to building a godly family. That value is honour. It's something that today’s generations don't talk too much about. Oh we know that we want other people to honour us. But honour, as it turns out, is a two way street and without it we simply can't have a godly family.

And in fact, God thinks it's so important that in the Ten Commandments, the first four are about God and us and the very next one, the fifth Commandment is about honour in the family. It’s pretty amazing that whole Ten Commandments thing when you think about it. Let's have a quick look. The first commandment, Exodus chapter 20, verse 2:

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me.

That's the first Commandment. Put God first. The second Commandment:

You shall not make for yourself an idol whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above or that's in the earth beneath or that's in the water or under the earth. You will not bow down to them or worship them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God punishing children for the inequity of their parents to the third and fourth generation of those who reject Me but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

So there it is, the second one. The first one was honour God. The second one is you don't get to worship anything other than God. The third Commandment:

You will not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God. For the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses His name.

So, it's again about honouring God and the fourth Commandment, Exodus chapter 20, verse 8:

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work but on the seventh day is a Sabbath day to the Lord your God, you will not do any work.

So again it's about our relationship with God and setting time aside for Him, to rest in Him.

There are the first four Commandments. What are they all about in a nutshell, the executive summary? Well Jesus summarised it pretty well when some young lawyer asked Him, 'What's the greatest Commandment of all?' Remember what He said. Luke chapter 10, verse 27. He answered:

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. This is the first and the greatest Commandment.

You see, this whole "first four Commandments" thing is about honouring God, first and foremost, above all other things. That's the executive summary, nothing more important than that.

Now, I'm wondering if you or I were God, what would we have put down as the next commandment? Well, if it were me, I think 'don't murder' would be number 5. I mean what can be more important than that. Don't steal. Don't commit adultery. Mmm, I think those should have come next but number 5 probably "don't murder". So, what does God choose as Commandment number 5? Here it is:

Honour your father and your mother so that your days maybe long in the land of the Lord your God is giving to you.

See, this 'honour your father and mother' comes ahead of murder, ahead of adultery, ahead of stealing, lying and jealousy. Honour your mum and your dad. I don't think I would have even had that one in the top 10 – maybe in the top 20 but probably not in the top 10. Yet where does God put it? Number 5, the very next Commandment after He's given four commandments about us honouring Him first and foremost.