Short Sermons on the Ten Commandments by W. A. MC CUTCHEN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · May 16, 1907

Short Sermons on the Ten Commandments

By W. A. MC CUTCHEN

W. A. MC CUTCHEN

The Fifth Commandment

“Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Ex. 20:12.

Here we enter upon the second table of the decalogue. The first four commandments, contained in the first table of the law, all relate to man's duty to God; the last six, embraced in the second table, show man's relations to his fellow man. And how appropriate that this division of the law be introduced by dealing with the closest relation that can exist between God's created intelligences on earth—that of parents and children. Just as the first command of the first table makes the Heavenly Father first in the domain of worship, so the first commandment of the second table makes the earthly father and mother first in the domain of human relationships. On the two principles of love to God and love to fellow man “hang all the law,” hence it is divided into these two divisions which show the two relations.

One or two instances of the use of the term “honor” in the Scriptures will show what it is to honor parents: “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first-fruits of all thine increase.” Prov. 3:9. “If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways,” etc. Isa. 58:13.

From these scriptures we see that to honor God is to give unto him that which is his due. God claims the Sabbath and the tithe as his, and shows us in the passages already quoted that by rendering each to him we honor him. Likewise the child honors his parents by rendering to them that which is their due. And what is due the parents from the child? Certainly respect, reverence, and obedience are due them; and that, too, just as long as the child has parents, though he should be grown up and have children himself. Just as long as our parents live, they are our parents, and we their children, and the obligation to honor them rests upon us to the very end of their lives.

This raises the very important question, “Is there no limitation to the obligation to honor parents in obedience?” There is just one limitation in this matter, and only one, and a hint of it is given in connection with Paul's quotation of this commandment in Eph. 6:1, 2: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise.” “Obey your parents in the Lord.” That carries with it the idea that if the parents are not “in the Lord” and require something of the child who has arrived at the years of personal responsibility which he knows is contrary to God's will and requirements, then the child's duty to obey the parent in that thing ceases. As long as the child is too young to have a knowledge of right and wrong, the parent must act for him, but there comes a time when the child becomes personally responsible to God for his acts; and when that point is reached, and the parent requires him to disobey God, his duty is then to the Heavenly Father first.

As long as the earthly father is in harmony with the Heavenly Father, there will be no conflict of authority; but when there is a conflict, the authority of the Heavenly Father must take the precedence, just as it is the bounden duty of every citizen to obey the laws of the country in which he lives, even though they be oppressive, until those laws come in conflict with the higher law of God. When that point is reached, we, in the language of the apostles who had been forbidden by the authorities to preach Christ, are to say: “We ought to obey God rather than man” (Acts 5:28, 29), and act upon it. This shows there is a limitation to civil authority, and that it is reached when it touches (in conflict) the higher authority of God: so there is a limit to parental authority, which is likewise reached when it touches in the same way the same higher law, and is bounded by it.

Let this point be well considered and understood. I do not wish to be regarded as encouraging rebellion and

disloyalty on the part of children. This in a degenerate age, in which children are “disobedient to parents,” does not need any encouragement in that direction, and certainly God's law gives none. There is altogether too much disregard of parental authority now, and I would not lay the weight of a straw on the side of lessening the force of God's command against this sin. It is a very delicate matter to talk of the limitations of parental authority at all, for fear that some unregenerate heart, despising restraint, will seek to take advantage of it, and construe it into what is not meant; but candor and a conscientious dealing with the question compel the statements made in this connection. It is only when a principle is involved, however, that disobedience to the requirements of an ungodly parent is ever justifiable. When no principle is at stake, and the boy or girl is not required to compromise the truth or right in disobeying God, and life is not made positively unendurable or endangered, the parents' requirements are to be respected and obeyed, even though they might seem harsh, unjust, or unreasonable. But when a question of adherence to God's law is involved, then the Christian child can only take the alternative of regretfully disobeying its parent. Sad as this is, there will sometimes come to pass the words of Christ: “A man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” Matt. 10:36, 37.

Paul tells us that this fifth “is the first commandment with promise.” The promise in it is “that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee;” or, as Paul puts it in quoting the commandment, that “thou mayest live long on the earth.” Eph. 6:2, 3. Whether this refers to living long upon this earth, or upon the “new earth,” which is to be the place of final and perpetual abode of God's people, it is equally true that honoring father and mother has an important bearing upon the question in either case. It contributes to the longevity of children, and consequently of the race, in this world, from the fact that parents, who have the welfare of their children at heart more than any others could have, restrain them from indulgences and excesses that would affect their health and shorten their days, and warn them against dangers that menace their lives. In honoring the parents by regarding the instructions given them, they are saved from disease and death that would many times ensue sooner but for this obedience. But if we apply this promise over in the world to come, where the rewards and penalties for the keeping or failure to keep the commandments are really meted out to all, it loses none of its force or truthfulness, nor its interest to the child of God. And one strong reason which lends strength to this latter view is the fact that God did not give Abraham nor his seed any of this world, “not so much as to set his foot on,” but they sojourned in the land as in a “strange country,” and looked to the world beyond for the fulfilment of the promise and for the “land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Rom. 4:13; Acts 7:1-5; Heb. 11:8-13.

The question may be asked, Then if this promise refers to the future where the life is to be unending, why the expression “that thy days may be long upon the land,” etc., as if to indicate that though the days of the beneficiaries of this promise would be lengthened out, yet they would come to an end? “If it refers to the days to be spent in the new earth,” says the questioner, “why not say they shall be eternal, and not simply ‘long’?” In answer to this I quote Isa. 65:22: “They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.” Here we have the word “long” used in a promise and with reference to a condition which we know has its application and fulfilment in the new earth. If the latter view here suggested is the correct one, then the “long” days of the fifth commandment refer to the same period mentioned in Isa. 65:22. The Lord grant that it may be our happy lot to enjoy them.