Blessing and Blessed – The Fifth Commandment

Blessing and Blessed

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.”

Laying hold on those covenant promises.

The idea of “the land” in Scripture has many uses. One of the chief of these is as a symbol of all that God has promised His people. If we want our children to know all the promises of God, and to be blessed and have a good and long life following Him, then we must teach them to honor us. But if we want to be blessed by our children with the honor God requires of them, we must bless them with the love God commands us to show them by making them the primary focus of our disciple-making at home and in the church. If we are faithful in blessing our children, we will blessed, as will others, and even into a future that outlives us; and the promises of God’s covenant will expand and spread through our lives into all of society. It’s fascinating to think how many lives might be impacted positively by the grace and truth of the Lord if parents can just learn to take seriously this calling to teach their children how to honor them.

Pray

Help me, Lord, in any way I can, to teach our children – at home and in church – how to honor their parents and others. I want to be faithful as a blessing to the children, because I want them to be a blessing to others, now and for the future. What everyday things can I begin to do, O Lord, to carry out what this commandment requires of me?
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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.