Whatever Happened to the Ten Commandments?

The Fifth Commandment

Honor your father and your mother, that your
days may be long upon the land which the LORD
your God is giving you

(Exod. 20:12).

The first four commandments, as we have observed, have to do with our duty to love and worship our Creator. The last six commandments have to do with our duty to man.

Our Lord summarized the two tables of the law when he answered the lawyer’s question: ‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’ (Matt. 22:36). Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets’ (Matt. 22:37—40).

The application of the Fifth Commandment extends much farther than to our natural parents. We have at least five kind of fathers: political fathers (the magistrate); grave, ancient men; spiritual fathers; domestic fathers (the house master); as well as natural fathers (fathers of the flesh).

In the Fifth Commandment are also included all superiors in age and gifts; and especially such as, by God’s ordinance, are over us in the place of authority, whether in the family, the church, or the government.

DUTIES REQUIRED IN THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT

According to the Larger Catechism, ‘The general scope of the Fifth Commandment is the performance of those duties which we mutually owe in our several relations, as inferiors, superiors, or equals’ (Answer to Question 126).

The duty of honour to superiors:

(‘The honour which inferiors owe to their superiors is all due reverence in heart, word, and behaviour’ — Larger Catechism, Answer to Question 127).

You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God: I am the LORD (Lev. 19:32).

The duty to pray and give thanks for superiors:

Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty (1 Tim. 2: 1-2).

The duty to imitate their virtues and graces:

Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct (Heb. 13:7).

The duty of willing obedience to the lawful commands of superiors:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise... Bondservants, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in sincerity of heart, as to Christ; not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men (Eph. 6:1—2, 5—7).

Listen to your father who begot you,
And do not despise your mother when she is old (Prov. 23:22).

‘Listen now to my voice; I will give you counsel, and God will be with you: Stand before God for the people, so that you may bring the difficulties to God.’... So Moses heeded the voice of his father-in-law and did all that he had said (Exod. 18:19, 24).

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully For what credit is it if, hen you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God (1 Pet. 2:18—20).

The duty of due submission to correction:

Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live? (Heb. 12:9)

The duty of fidelity to superiors:

Exhort bondservants to be obedient to their own masters, to be well pleasing in all things, not answering back, not pilfering, but showing all good fidelity, that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things (Titus 2:9—10).

The duty to defend superiors:

So David said to Abner, ‘Are you not a man? And who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not guarded your lord the king? For one of the people came in to destroy your lord the king. This thing that you have done is not good. As the LORD lives, you deserve to die, because you have not guarded your master, the LORD’S anointed’ (1 Sam. 26:15—16).

But the people answered, ‘You shall not go out! For if we flee away they will not care about us; nor if half of us die, will they care about us. But you are worth ten thousand of us flow For you are now more help to us in the city’ (2 Sam. 18:3)

An4 it was found written that Mordecai had told of Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s eunuchs, the doorkeepers who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus (Esther 6:2).

The duty of bearing with the infirmities of superiors, covering them with love:

Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh (1 Pet. 2:18)

But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness (Gen. 9:23).

The duty of superiors to love, pray for, and bless inferiors:

Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them (Col 3:19).

That they [older women] admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children (Titus 2:4).

Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you; but I will teach you the good and the right way (1 Sam. 12:23). So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, ‘It may be that my Sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.’ Thus Job did regularly (Job 1:5).

Then he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying: ‘Blessed be the LORD, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses’ (1 Kings 8:55—58).

The duty of superiors to instruct inferiors:

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up (Deut. 6:6—7).

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4).

The duty of superiors to reward inferiors when they do well:

Then the king said, ‘What honor or dignity has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?’ And the king’s servants who attended him said, ‘Nothing has been done for him’ (Esther 6:3).

The duty of superiors to reprove and chasten inferiors:

The rod and rebuke give wisdom,
But a child justify to himself brings shame to his mother (Prov. 29:15).

The duty of superiors to provide for inferiors:

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever (1 Tim. 5:8).

The duty of superiors to give a good example to inferiors:

The older women likewise, that they be reverent in behavior, not slanderers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things—that they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed (Titus 2:3—5).

SINS FORBIDDEN IN THE FIFTH COMMANDMENT:

The sin of neglecting the duties required of inferiors:

For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death.’ But you say, ‘Whoever says to his father or mother, “Whatever profit you might have received from me is a gift to God”—then he need not honor his father or mother.’ Thus you have made the commandment of God of no effect by your tradition (Matt. 15:4—6).

The sin of rebellion against superiors:

After this it happened that Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses, and fifty men to run before him. . . Then Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, ‘As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say, “Absalom reigns in Hebron!”’ (2 Sam. 15:1, 10).

If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear (Deut. 21:18—21).

The sin of cursing or mocking superiors:

There is a generation that curses its father,
And does not bless its mother...
The eye that mocks his father,
And scorns obedience to his mother,
The ravens of the valley will pick it out,
And the young eagles will eat it (Prov. 30:11, 17).

He who mistreats his father and chases away his mother Is a son who causes shame and brings reproach (Prov. 19:26)

The sin of neglecting the duties required of superiors:

Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD God to the shepherds: ‘Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Should not the shepherds feed the flocks? You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with the wool: you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them’ (Ezek. 34:2—4)

The sin of superiors who seek their own glory, ease, profit, and pleasure:

How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? (John 5:44).

He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him (John 7:18).

His watchmen are blind,
They are all ignorant;
They are all dumb dogs,
They cannot bark;
Sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber.
Yes, they are greedy dogs
Which never have enough.
And they are shepherds
Who cannot understand;
They all look to their own way,
Every one for his own gain,
From his own territory (Isa. 56:10—11).

Neither shall he [the king] multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away; nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold for himself (Deut. 17:17).

The sin of superiors who command unlawful actions:

Then a herald cried aloud: ‘To you it is commanded, 0 peoples, nations, and languages, that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre, and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up; and whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of a burning fiery furnace’ (Dan. 3:4—6).

‘But so that it spreads no further among the people, let us severely threaten them, that from now on they speak to no man in this name.’ So they called them and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus (Acts 4: 17—18).

The sin of superiors who dishonour themselves, or lessen their authority by unjust, indiscreet, rigorous, or remiss behaviour:

Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent (Gen. 9:21). Then the king answered the people roughly, and rejected the advice which the elders had given him; and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, ‘My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke;. my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!’ So the king did not listen to the people; for the turn of events was from the LORD, that He might fulfill His word, which the LORD had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying: ‘What share have we in David ? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, 0 Israel! Now, see to your own house, 0 David!’ So Israel departed to their tents (1 Kings 12:13—16).

Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling place, and honor your Sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people? Therefore the LORD God of Israel says: ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.’ But now the LORD says: ‘Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed’ (1 Sam. 2:29—30).