Honoring Our Parents

Honoring Our Parents

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Problematic attitudes toward parents.

  • Young children >>> Adult children
  • More independent, feel smarter >>> Despise parents
  • Pride
  • Familiarity breeds contempt (take for granted)
  • Self-entitlement

Why should we honor parents?

  • Unique parents given by God
  • Give us life
  • They have loved us
  • God’s clear command:
    • <Ex 20:12> “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
    • <Ep 6> 1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
  • Honoring parents is like honoring God.
  • <Mt 15> 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’

5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.

  • Jesus is best example of honoring God and parents.
  • “But what if my parents are not honorable?”
    • “Honor” given not just for “merits” but also for “rank”.
    • Forgive them as God has forgiven us.
  • “But what if my parents are non-Christians?”
    • Respect them for the wisdom that comes with age <Job 12:12>.
    • But if they ask us to contradict God, then obey God rather than them.
    • <Eze 20> 18 I said to their children in the wilderness, “Do not follow the statutes of your parents or keep their laws or defile yourselves with their idols. 19 I am the Lord your God; follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.
  • Honor parents >>> Submit to other forms of authority

How should we honor our parents?

  • Very young children >>> obey parents
  • Adult children?
  • God gives us parents for us to minister grace and love unto them
  • Accept them for who they are, don’t be too critical of them
  • Care most for their salvation
  • Take good care of them
    • <1 Ti 5:8> Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
  • Seek to delight them
    • <Prov 23:25> May your father and mother rejoice; may she who gave you birth be joyful!
    • Intimacy
    • Seek to understand them
    • Express appreciation
    • Seek their advice
    • Mutual sibling love
  • Honor parents not with material, but with heart (love).

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