The fifth commandment shifts attention away from how humans are to relate to God to how humans are to relate to one another.
More specifically, it starts out with how children are to relate to their parents.
God wrote, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you” (Ex 20:12; Dt 5:16).
But, what does it mean to honor your father and mother?
The Hebrew word translated “honor” is kaved, which has been translated a variety of ways, including “severe,” “heavy,” “liver,” “glory,” and “mass.”
In the present context, to honor a father or mother would mean to pay them due respect.
In fact, for those who failed or refuse to honor or respect his/her father or mother, and instead chose to curse them, the death penalty was to be carried out (Ex 21:17; Lev 20:9).
According to Sproul, “Honor towards parents anchors society, and it binds children to parents in the community of faith.”
It might be added that the anchor of society is the family, so long as the order in which the family operates is patterned after godly principles, like those found in the Ten Commandments, as well as passages such as Ephesians 5:22-6:4.
Of course, it becomes incumbent upon the parents to be honorable, even though the Fifth Commandment does not make any exceptions for refusing to honor them.
It is a curious thing, once again, why anyone would not want to have posted a command to honor one’s parents.
Perhaps it is that there are so many parents who have relinquished their personal responsibilities to “train up” their children in the way they should go, so that when they are old, they will not depart from the God-honoring principles they were taught, when they were children (Prov 22:6).
Or perhaps too many parents have never grown up themselves, and instead of doing what is honorable as adults, they would rather be their children’s “friends,” instead of role models to be admired.
Whatever the case, children are to place their parents upon pedestals, figuratively speaking, especially as the parents age and are in need of their children’s helping hands.
Even Jesus made that point when questioning the traditions of the Pharisees, when he rebuked the mistreatment of their parents.
Traditionally, the Pharisees made a big deal out of washing hands before eating, which Jesus’ disciples did not necessarily always do.
Jesus turned their legalism on its head by asking, “And why do you break the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?
“For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and mother, and, whoever reviles father or mother must surely die'” (Mt 15:3-4).
And how were the Pharisees reviling their parents, and encouraging others to do the same?
By failing to take care of them financially.
“If anyone tells his father or his mother, ‘What you would have gained from me is given to God,’ he need not honor his father.’ So for the sake of your tradition you have made void the word of God. You hypocrites!” (v 5-7).
In other words, failure to take care of one’s parents in terms of using one’s finances when they are in need is tantamount to negating God’s command, all the while pretending to honor God by stating that those finances are reserved for God’s service.
It is rank-and-file hypocrisy at its worst!
Therefore, children need to obey God’s command to honor their parents, with the additional provision, given the context, that the children would live long in the Promised Land where the Israelites were headed.
A similar principle could be generally applied to today’s young people.
If you want to live a long life, then honor your parents.
God will not only bless your obedience, but even he will be honored by your efforts.
