After four commandments on how to relate to God, the Decalogue contains six commandments on relating to fellow humans. The first of these six begins: ″Honour your father and your mother″ (Deuteronomy 5:16). The word translated ″honour″ carries the idea of giving due weight to a person's standing, which in this case would be their standing as parents. Later, Moses pronounces a curse on those who dishonour their parents (27:16). The importance of this command is evidenced by it being quoted five times in the New Testament (Matthew 15:4; Mark 7:10, 10:19; Luke 18:20; Ephesians 6:1-3). How can we honour our parents?

First, we honour them through obedience. Paul interprets this command as implying that children must ″obey [their] parents in the Lord″ (Ephesians 6:1). The phrase ″in the Lord″ implies that obedience should be offered up with Christ and in obedience to Christ. There may be times, especially after marriage, when we do not follow our parents' commands if they seem to break God's will (see Matthew 10:34-39). But we should always honour them, even when we cannot obey them.

Second, we honour our parents by treating them with ″respect″ (Leviticus 19:3). Though it's easy to be annoyed with our parents when they say or do things that we do not like, we never have the freedom to show disrespect to them.

Third, we honour our parents by caring for them when they are old. Hanging on the cross in the middle of His massive and painful undertaking of redeeming the world, Jesus took time to arrange for the care of His mother (John 19:25-27). Paul says that anyone who ″does not provide for their relatives . . . has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever″ (1 Timothy 5:8).

The practice of respecting and giving honour to parents and elders is becoming less common in our modern societies, so Christians need to be careful not to be swept away by this trend. Parents need to question the wisdom of being away from their young children for long periods (locally or overseas) because of employment. Such absence can make it difficult for their children to develop honour for them.

Honouring parents has a reward: ″so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land″ (Deuteronomy 5:16). Applying this promise outside the land of Israel in the age of the church, we could say that children who honour their parents will receive God's rich blessing. Just as the Israelites interpreted God's blessing in terms of a long life, in this era we interpret it in terms of a full life, where God leads and provides all that we need, culminating in eternal bliss.