Honor and Fear – The Fifth Commandment

Honor and Fear

The Fifth Commandment

We honor authorities by fearing them.

Leviticus 19:3

“Every one of you shall revere his mother and his father….”

The instruction here is, literally, to fear one’s parents. Again we can see how the attitudes God requires of us toward Himself are inculcated in our relationships with our parents. Why should children fear their parents? Obviously, for the discipline parents can impose for acts of disrespect or disobedience (cf. Heb. 12:3-11). What child does not fear incurring his parents’ anger and whatever punishment may attend that?

This does not give parents carte blanche to tyrannize their children. When it is necessary to discipline children it should be done with tears of sorrow and not with strokes of anger. At all times a parent’s discipline must be conducted within a context of unbroken love. Thus children who fear the discipline their parents can inflict will receive it as a gesture of love and not of rejection (cf. Ps. 30:5).

In the same way citizens must fear civil magistrates, church members should fear their elders and pastors, employees should fear their employers, and all must fear one another—not a fear of harm that may be inflicted, but of deference and submission (Eph. 5:18-21) lest, by our lack of proper respect, we despise an image-bearer of God.

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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.