"For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death."
Matthew 15:4
Part 1
In our verse for today, once again the Scribes and Pharisees have come to Jesus with a question, not to learn and grow but to try to trip Him up and make Him fail. They are asking why His disciples didn’t keep the “traditions of the elders” (v. 2). These are not Biblical rules, but the regulations made by the “old men” in ancient times, passed down by word of mouth, and have nothing to do with scripture text. Before He answered them, He asked them, “Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?” (v. 3). Jesus will eventually answer them, but first He will put them on the spot about disannulling God’s written Law with their traditions (vv. 4-6).
“For God commanded,”
God only needs to say something once, and it is binding. God never stuttered when He spoke, whatever He says is so. His commands are always binding, reject His words at your own peril.
“Saying, Honour thy father and mother:”
This command was not hidden, in fact, it is given several times in the Bible (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16; Matthew 15:4; 19:19; Mark 7:10; 10:19; Luke 18:20; and Ephesians 6:2). This was kept in front of God’s people so they would be reminded of their duty to care for their parents and even more importantly, to keep them in high esteem.
To “honor” them means a couple of things.
“1) to estimate, fix the value, for the value of something belonging to one’s self.
2) to honor, to have in honor, to revere, venerate.”1 (Thayer)
To honor our parents is, first of all, to value them. We are careful to treat “valuable things” with care. We ought to be careful how we speak to and treat our parents for we should value them much.
We also hold them in high esteem, being grateful for them. God chose our parents to be the ones to bring us into the world. That in itself is reason enough to revere them. For those of us who have godly, loving parents, we are doubly blessed. Our thankfulness ought to reflect that fact.
What does the Bible mean when it says to “let them die the death?” Come back tomorrow, and we will look at the Old Testament Law.
1. J.H. Thayer, Thayer’s Greek Definitions, the electronic version in eSword.