Matthew 15:4
For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.
God commanded children to honor father and mother as a binding duty of loving obedience, including heeding their commands, seeking their consent, and not abandoning their company, and He declared that cursing father or mother deserves death. Honoring parents is God's own holy moral requirement from Sinai, part of the Ten Commandments given by Thus saith the Lord, not a human tradition. Jesus spoke the words to rebuke the scribes, Pharisees and elders for making God's clear law void while enforcing their own traditions, interpretations, maxims and inventions above it, although they claimed to proclaim the law. Those traditions had accumulated from age to age until truth was mixed with error and taught for God's commandments, obscuring the clear meaning of His Word, distracting from the great principles of the law, and weakening respect for God and His law. The same nullifying recurs whenever human customs and maxims are made all-essential and of more force than the Ten Commandments, whether by rabbis holding back Christ's followers or by papal leaders setting the cloister above parental obligation and steeling youth against a father's weeping and a mother's claims.
Meaning and Setting
God commanded children to honor father and mother, making respect and honor for parents a binding duty of filial love. That duty includes heeding their commands, seeking their consent, and not abandoning their society for another calling without their knowledge. The same command declares that whoever curses father or mother is to be put to death.
Honoring parents is God's true requirement, not a human tradition. It is a holy moral requirement from Sinai, part of the Ten Commandments given by Thus saith the Lord. God's commandments from Sinai take precedence over human rules, yet learned teachers added a mass of tradition to their interpretation of Scripture and exalted the traditions and maxims of men above the Word of God. That handling distracted from the great principles of His law, supported unrighteous conduct, and left few understanding God's true requirements or practicing pure principles, so that all who looked to the religious teachers for proper education according to the Word became confused. The maxims and customs handed down through the rabbis from generation to generation were made all-essential and of more force and value than the Ten Commandments, with the precepts of men taught above God's Word.
The verse belongs to Jesus' rebuke exposing how the scribes, Pharisees and elders made God's clear law void while enforcing their own traditions, interpretations, maxims and inventions above it. Their teaching used interpretation and tradition to obscure the clear meaning of the commandments, distorted Scripture, and weakened respect for God and His law. Although they claimed to proclaim the law, they exalted their own traditions over God's commandments. His true disciples reject teaching that replaces God's commandments with human rules, and His church is marked by obedience to God's commandments while those who make void His law are marked as deceivers.
Tradition Against Obedience
The traditions that set aside the command had been received and repeated from age to age and from generation to generation, accumulating until truth was so mixed with error that tradition was taught for the commandments of God. Age does not turn error into truth, even when the oldest error is pleaded because of its age. His mission was to take away traditions and maxims, to remove the rubbish, to rescue truth from where it served in the enemy's lines to strengthen error, to restore it to its native loveliness, and to let it stand before the people to give recovery of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised.
That handling of God's word obscured its clear meaning and distracted people from the great principles of His law. It weakened respect for God and His law, while interpretation was used to support unrighteous conduct. Such traditions and maxims are human teaching that is worthless and harmful when set against God's word. The most learned teachers added a mass of human tradition to interpretation and exalted it above the Word of God, so that few understood God's true requirements or practiced pure principles, and all who connected with the religious teachers expecting proper education in accordance with the Word became confused.
The same nullifying of the command recurred when papal leaders set monasticism above parental obligation. Youth were taught to enter the cloister without their parents' knowledge and contrary to their commands, and to steel their hearts against a father's weeping and a mother's claims. That tradition desolated homes and deprived parents of the society of their sons and daughters. Filial love and duty include heeding parents' commands, seeking their consent, and not abandoning their society.
The customs and maxims handed down from generation to generation through the rabbis were made all-essential and regarded as of more force and value than the Ten Commandments, and the precepts and teachings of men were dwelt upon as of more value than the words of the living God. They kept back even His few followers and disciples from advancing in knowledge and becoming efficient workers. They confused all who expected proper education in accordance with the Word. Schools must not pattern after any already established school, nor introduce and sanction human customs, but must study the Word of God critically as the great lesson book and become what it directs under its guidance, lest misconception about the most essential work bring the same hindrance to spiritual education.
In youth He refused to interest Himself in the multitudinous traditions and ceremonies and meaningless forms that exalted the words of men above the word of God and required departure from the will of God. He refused to become a student in the rabbis' schools or to place Himself under their instruction. He shut out of His mind all sentiments and formalities that had not God for their foundation and gave them no place to influence Him, and He moved independently of their reiterated restrictions. Though the requirements of society and the requirements of God were ever in collision, He made no direct attack upon the customs or precepts of the learned teachers in His youth and would not needlessly place Himself in conflict with the rabbis in a way that would weaken His influence with the people in after years. His course taught that it is better to prevent evil than to attempt to correct it after it has gained a foothold in the mind, and He would not by His example lead others to place themselves where they would be corrupted.
God's plain Word, a Thus saith the Lord, must be heeded instead of discussing traditional lore that does not concern salvation while neglecting what matters eternally. It must be heeded instead of caviling over it, misinterpreting and wresting Scripture from its true meaning, and making desperate efforts to harmonize disobedience with Scripture. The same condemnation rests on those who are disloyal to God and transgress His holy Sabbath. The lesson is to know what is truth, to hold to Christ the greatest Teacher rather than turning to men, and to make the change the Jews should have made but did not make.