Worship Through Honor

John 19:25-27

Exodus 20:12  “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”

    We continue our study through the commandments as we see how worshiping God correctly changes how we live.

    Isn’t the 5th commandment just for kids?  No, we can see from today’s reading that even as an adult Jesus was honoring His mother.  Honoring is to give great respect.  Jesus was showing His mother respect even in the most difficult moment of His life.  But does honoring mean blindly obeying?  No, obedience and honor are not the same thing.  Yes, obedience is important and can be a way of honoring but that isn’t exactly what God had in mind with this commandment or He would have said to obey your parents.  No, this word honor is about more than mere obedience.  There is a deeper thought included in this command.

    God set parents as authority figures in our lives as part of His grand plan of teaching us about authority.  No, not every parent is a good example of authority, but we live in a fallen world.  When God created man and woman He walked with them in the evening and when they sinned they feared Him because they knew He was their authority figure.

    Remember this commandment is one that shows how life is to be lived when God is in the right place in our lives.  We can’t honor our parents or any other authority figure if we aren’t honoring Him first.  And how do we honor Him?  By giving Him all the respect He deserves.

    We honor God by living in a way that points to Him.  By giving respect to our parents we are showing that we love and worship God, that He is our number one.  Whether that is as a child by obeying our parents or as an adult taking care of our parents as Jesus did for His mother or maybe even after our parents are gone by honoring their memory, the act of honoring our parents is really a way of worshiping God through obedience and living like Jesus lived.

Making It Personal

    Can you think of times from your childhood that you didn’t honor your parents?  How about times you did?  How did those times affect your relationship with God?

Making It Personal Kids

    How important is it to obey your mom and dad?  How important is it to obey God?  Did you know you can you obey God by obeying your parents?

Closing Prayer

    Father, thank You for parents to love us.  Teach us ways that we can learn to worship You better by honoring our parents.  In Jesus’ name, amen.