Soil of Civility

Soil of Civility

A civil society must be learned in the home.

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.’”

The sad state of civility in our society today begins in the home. Children who do not honor their parents will not honor the Lord or anyone else, either.

We show honor in a wide array of ways—by our speech, attentiveness, service, giving of gifts and honors, and otherwise seeking the well-being (“shalom”) of others. Obedience to this commandment, practiced first in the home, then throughout the civil order, brings the fruit of God’s blessing.

For their parts, parents must not make it difficult for their children to honor them (Eph. 6:4). Instead, by providing an environment in which honoring others is simply a way of life, parents must teach their children and raise them to know and love the Lord. This they can do by their manner of living, the way they treat one another, the frequent use of their homes for hospitality, and by teaching the way of the Lord at every opportunity, in both formal and informal settings (Deut. 6:4-9).

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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.