The Fifth Commandment
*The following post was originally written as a meditation for our Confession of Sin during Lord’s Day worship.
Confession of Sin
Acknowledging our guilt; resting in His grace.
The Fifth Commandment:
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12)
Notice, this command begins with a focus on obedience to our own parents—“obey your father and your mother”—but it concludes with a view to the larger context of the whole of human society—“that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”
From birth, our holy and loving God commands that we learn the importance of respecting, submitting to, and obeying the authorities he has placed over us.
For our own good, he commands that we learn how to humbly and willingly receive instruction, correction, discipline, and guidance from those whom he has set in charge.
If we only take a moment to consider a handful of words which describe people who have refused to learn these holy, God-given lessons, the staggering importance of this command becomes more clear:
Prideful. Obstinate. Domineering. Narcissistic. Controlling. Manipulative. Condescending. Self-centered. Disrespectful. Unsubmissive. Rebellious.
When God’s design for the structure of the nuclear family is rejected by man’s arrogance that he is ‘the author of his own story’ and can live however he deems best, we not only end up with:
Children whose hearts and minds are willfully enchained to rebellion, but
Whole societies of people whose demeanor, values, perspectives, and lifestyles bring devastation upon mankind.
This is why the command to respect and obey our God-given authorities—beginning at home with our parents—stands at the very forefront of the second half of the Ten Commandments.
God’s design for the classroom of the cradle is critical to the flourishing of the community.
Rebellion to authority is a fountainhead of tragic destruction.
Is there rebellion toward authority in your heart?
Are you frequently unsubmissive to the authorities which God has set in place in your life?
The Scriptures teach that: “All we like sheep have gone astray.” Rebelliously and unsubmissively, “we have turned—every one—to his own way...”
But praise be to God that even though we have broken God’s holy law and spurned his righteous commandments, “the Lord has laid on [Jesus Christ] the iniquity of us all,” (Isaiah 53:6).
Let us humbly confess our sin to the Lord now, and receive anew his abundant mercy to pardon our guilt by the blood of his Son.
We invite you to privately confess your sins before the Lord now. — (A TIME OF SILENT CONFESSION)
Assurance of God’s Forgiveness
37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. (John 6:37-39)