Respect Authority, Honor the Lord

Lenten Devotional Series Day 17. Today’s meditation is on the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12), “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.”

The commandment to honor father and mother makes plenty of sense for children. But what use is it for adults? How could it be anything more than an artifact of bygone patriarchy?

Every society, from nations to nuclear families, requires authority. Without leadership, order and discipline, societies large and small falter. Yet human history overflows with tragic stories of authority abused in every sphere, from despotic emperors to unloving parents. Authority: we can’t live with it, we can’t live without it.

In the fifth commandment, God summarizes his ideal for a social order built upon love and respect. This ideal summary is expanded in much greater detail throughout the rest of Scripture (e.g. Gen 18:18-19; Deut 4:9; 6:6-8; 11:18-21; Prov 1:8; 6:20; 22:6; Mark 7:6-13; John 19:25-27; Eph 5:22-6:4; Col 3:18-21; 1 Pet 3:1-7), such that parents and children have clearly defined roles. Children are to submit to their parents with joyful obedience. Parents are to love their children with godly discipline and generous provision, as they in turn submit to God. Likewise, God’s ideal is that the love and respect shown within the microcosm of the nuclear family should be replicated throughout the larger social orders of church and world.

Sin is the reason for the enormous gap between the ideal and the real. “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it.” Given our proclivities toward sin, it’s difficult enough to live under the authority of a loving, heavenly Father–much less submit to sinful, earthly authorities. And yet, as with all the other commandments, the fifth commandment is God’s life-giving gift to his redeemed people. As difficult as it may be, keeping the fifth commandment is God’s design for human flourishing, i.e. “that your days may be long.”

God knows those in authority over us are prone to sin, and so he limits their authority in two ways. First, he confines human authority to specific areas. For example, my pastoral authority does not include DC parking meters, as much as I wish it were otherwise. Second, God’s law always supersedes the mandates of earthly authorities. Neither parents, nor employers, nor the government, nor church leaders have the authority to force us to sin.

Nevertheless, within legitimate boundaries, we are called to submit to persons in authority over us. Whenever we honor them, we honor the Lord. And ultimately, when submission for us means genuine personal sacrifice, we imitate Christ. By virtue of his submission to his Father, we were redeemed from slavery to sin, the greatest tyrant of all.

Today in prayer, begin with the Collect of the Day (below). Then ask the Lord to show you what he sees in your heart attitudes toward authorities, whether in the home, church, workplace or government. Ask him to give you the grace to honor them appropriately, as they exercise legitimate authority over you. Then honor your heavenly Father using the words of the Lord’s Prayer.

The Collect of the Day. Almighty God, you see that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves: guard us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

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