Live Long and Prosper – The Fifth Commandment

Live Long and Prosper

Honor is the way to live long and prosper.

Read Exodus 20:12

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

Mr. Spock’s trademark benediction – “Live long and prosper” – has a nice ring to it. But did he ever offer any advice as to how one might go about doing that? The fifth commandment, particularly in its Deuteronomy 5.16 phrasing, holds the key. By honoring our parents – and, by extension, everyone else – we may be assured of long lives and prosperity in the social order. Now, of course, this is a general principle: not everybody who honors his parents can claim this as a right on his own terms. At the same time, it marks out the way to achieve communities of happy, contented, and successful people. Because in an environment where honor and respect are the practice of all, who could want for contentment or security or shalom? The wisdom of God, and not just His promise, is embodied in this, as in all, the commandments of His Law.

How can your keeping this commandment help your neighbor to “live long and prosper”?

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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.