First with a Promise

First with a Promise

The foundation of a well-ordered society is in the fifth commandment.

Exodus 20:12

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”

Deuteronomy 5:16

“‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.’”

This is, as Paul notes (Eph. 6:2), the first commandment explicitly tied to a promise—although all the commandments, being part of God’s covenant with His people, are bound up in His precious and magnificent promises (cf. Deut. 6:1-3).

Honoring one’s parents is fundamental to a well-ordered and just society, one that endures and prospers and is pleasing to God according to His Edenic plan for creation (“that it may go well,” or, “that you may know good”). The fifth commandment thus intends to encompass the whole broad scope of honor and deference due within the civil order—parents, the elderly, rulers, others, and even the creation itself. To honor another person is to esteem him highly, to exalt and uplift him, to treat him with respect, and to serve as unto the Lord. Where such honoring of others is practiced, a society achieves a measure of stability that allows it to prosper and to endure.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.