As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
In the study of the 5th Commandment for children to honor their parents, this Commandment does not give parents a license to inflict upon those children of God in their lives, no more than being a child gives children a license to be brats.
I state this in coming from a household where my parents in the dad used Scripture to inflict and the mother used Scripture to suffer through. That is not what Christianity ever was meant to be, no more than my dad always throwing "honor they father" at me, while he neglected his duty as a parent in all of the work which is required of a dad and mom to lovingly nurture to give confidence to a child and to justly discipline a child fairly in order to show them that an ordered life is a peaceful life which will prosper them.
For those seeking a mandate in this explanation of carte blanche for adults, they will not find that here, as all of these Commandments are DUAL BALANCED, in God require of Himself in the first four Commandments the qualities of Mercy and Grace in perfection, and then mandates those characters to be developed in His children. God keeps Himself perfect first and then states that He expects the same from His faithful children, knowing they need assistance daily with Him to grow in those qualities.
Parents who think that birthing a child automatically enslaves a child to servitude, have completely disregarded their responsibility in first answering to God in rectifying all of their faults.
The best summation of this is in the explanation of Martin Luther:
God forbids us to despise our parents and other superiors by disregarding their dignity or provoking them to just anger by disobedience or by any other kind of wickedness.
In this, we read the caveats, that this Commandment is dealing with loving parents, who are not provoking their children to anger in order to make them discouraged or so they fail.
Colossians 3: 21
Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
This is the foundation of the Fourth Commandment and it's responsibility is on the parents, not the children, for God loved us first and not we who loved Him first. Likewise, parents love the children God provided them to be EXAMPLES of the Godhead, so the children in trusting the parents on earth, will readily trust their Father in Heaven, due to the diligent stewardship their parents have shown them.
Children who have honourable parents readily honor them, and thereby honour God readily.
- Lame Cherry
The Fourth Commandment
Honor your father and mother. [So that things will go
well for you and you will live long on earth].
Q. What does this mean?
A. We should fear and love God that we may not despie our parents
and masters, nor provoke them to anger, but give them honor, serve
and obey them, and hold them in love and esteem.
I have always been mystified in how the world is filled with bad parents and yet a like number of good children arise from them. In my life, I was so off put by bad parenting which was selfish and bullying, that I swore never to be like them. We witness this in as the pendulum of sin and debauchery allows children to indulge, that by instinct they eventually return to morality and set a better course than their parents did in societies which implode because of legalized sin.
I do not post these castigations against parents, but place them as a jerk on a short rope to those who think the Bible bestows unlimited authority to abuse others or to be sloven in not holding up their responsibilities, because that is not the case in the least, because God requires those He puts into positions of power, whether a President, Law Enforcement, Teacher or Parent to never abuse that authority in betraying the trust of those who are subject to them under penalties.
I Timothy 5:4
But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.
All children learn piety, or a right relationship with God at home, by the example of their parents or elders, leading chaste and respectable lives, in the adults first being obedient to God.
Ephesians 6:2 -3
Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;
That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
Being a parent is not being a tyrant or a miscreant. Parenting is a constant job that does not end when children are 18. I despise those parents who threaten their children with, "As long as you are under my roof" or "When you are a adult you can do what you want", because that is not Christian parenting. A Christian parent is there when their idiot child is 40 years old and tells them they are an idiot. Parenting does not expire with a change of address.
Most children if you treat them with respect, expect them to police themselves, require things fairly of them, they will respond with pleasure at having boundaries, as it comforts them to have rules which are of a benefit to them. Of course everyone makes mistakes, but that is part of all of our growing physically and Spiritually, in we do not repeat mistakes or ever are in a position that we leave children feeling isolated and alone, so they get into worse situations.
The Fourth Commandment is one of promise, for in a correct home,the parents are honourable, so the children in respect honour them and honour God. For home where the parents are failures, then the child must invest the effort to not be like their parents, not repeating their mistakes, praying for them in God to mould them, and to not degrade those parents in disrespecting them, as that reflects on the children poorly when others witness that, but instead to not let themselves to be taken advantage of, and to quietly esteem the position as esteeming a law enforcement officer for the authority they have.
As Martin Luther explains, you hold your parents in love and esteem. Love is as Mercy, meaning Charitable or Sympathetic and Thought of. In bad situations, this is not being taken advantage of or your existing in malice, neither of which is how a Christian is to live, as you are living for God to Honor Him, because He is your Heavenly Father for eternity, because some parents are trials as some children are, and some parents are ministering Spirits of Christ. Both are to be afforded dignity, for our actions reflect upon us and upon God, for everyone sees those who are longsuffering with horrid parents and they do note it, and everyone sees children who are there for their parents and appreciate the good souls those children are.
Nuff Said
agtG
