Transferring Authority – The Fifth Commandment

Transferring Authority

The fifth commandment

Exodus 20.12; Deuteronomy 5.16

“Honor your father and your mother, 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.”

Ephesians 6.4

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”

Kids need to learn to honor others as well.

As its supporting precepts and statutes make clear, the fifth commandment creates a trajectory for honoring not only parents but all others as well. Neighbors, preachers, teachers, civil authorities, the poor, visitors, the disabled, even the creation itself – all benefit from what kids learn at home about loving and honoring their parents. So if we’re working hard to teach them how to honor us, we’re really doing more than making for a happy home life; we’re actually sowing the seeds of a decent, stable, and prosperous society. But we need to make that conscious transfer for our kids, at the time appropriate for each. We must expect them to honor their Sunday school teachers, instructors at school, coaches, and other adults with whom they have contact. That will involve helping them deal with negative attitudes, learning the right ways to address people, monitoring their tone of voice and language, and even using their bodies in proper ways (standing up when the elderly approach, for example, or holding open a door for a friend). All these ways of honoring others are nothing other than the practical outworking of the Law of God in loving our neighbors as ourselves. But such learning doesn’t just happen. We need to help our kids make the transfer.

What opportunities do you have each week for helping children learn to honor others? What are some practical ways you can demonstrate for kids?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is 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.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.