Honoring Our Fathers

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.” 
Exodus 20:12

This familiar command was the fifth in God’s list of Ten Commandments, the law of God, and it has never been abrogated. It was quoted by Christ as His own command when He said: “Honor your father and mother” (Matt. 19:19). The Apostle Paul also cited it as of special significance: “Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise)” (Eph. 6:2).

This all indicates that God considers the honoring of parents by their children to be of great significance. Since the father has been charged with primary spiritual responsibility for his family, it is of supreme importance that fathers lead their children properly and the children follow that lead with all due respect and diligence. God blessed Abraham as “the father of us all” (Rom. 4:16) because He could say concerning Abraham: “For I have chosen him, so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice” (Gen. 18:19).

It is not easy being such a father, but it is vital if our children are to come also to honor their heavenly Father. “For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?...Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live?” (Heb. 12:7, 9).

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). If we fathers diligently follow God’s word in leading our children, then they will honor their fathers - not only while they are children, but all their lives.