The purpose of the Ten Commandments is to point out sin as Paul informs us in Romans 7:7 and note Paul is

expressing this long after the cross. Below you will find more on the meaning of each commandment in brief with
the option of reading much more detail if required.

1. The First Commandment is about Loyalty. Read more detail.

The Creator of the universe declares He is our God and our deliverer and asks us to demonstrate our love for Him
by having no other God's. The First Commandment is the first of a series of four that define our relationship with our
Heavenly Father. Establishing, developing and maintaining that personal relationship with the true and living God is
the most important commitment we can ever make. That is the primary focus of the first of the Ten
Commandments, You shall have no other gods before Me. We should love, honour and respect Him so much that
He alone is the supreme authority and model in our lives. He alone is God. We should allow nothing to prevent us
from serving and obeying Him.

2. The Second Commandments is about Worship. Read more detail.

The one and only true God loves us so much that He is jealous of our love and does not want to share our love by
us bowing down to meaningless idols. The Second Commandment goes to the heart of our relationship with our
Creator. It deals with several crucial questions. How do we perceive God? How do we explain Him to ourselves and
to others? Above all, what is the proper way to worship the only true God? The Second Commandment is a
constant reminder that only we, of all created things, are made in the image of God. Only we can be transformed
into the spiritual image of Christ, who of course came in the flesh as the perfect spiritual image of our heavenly
Father. This Commandment protects our special relationship with our Creator, who made us in His likeness and is
still moulding us into His spiritual image.
 3. The Third Commandment is about Reverence. Read more detail.
God asks us to respect His Holy name and not to use it in vain. The Third Commandment focuses on showing
respect. It addresses the way we communicate our feelings about God to others and to Him. It encompasses our
attitudes, speech and behaviour. Respect is the cornerstone of good relationships. The quality of our relationship
with God depends on the love and regard we have for Him. It also depends on the way we express respect for Him
in the presence of others. We are expected always to honour who and what He is. Conversely, the use of God's
name in a flippant, degrading or in any way disrespectful manner, dishonours the relationship we are supposed to
have with Him. This can vary from careless disregard to hostility and antagonism. It covers misusing God's name in
any way. The Hebrew name for “vain” is “shaw” and means vanity, falsehood, iniquity and emptiness. Simply
summed up, “shaw” means showing disrespect and this is what we do when we take God's name in vain.

4. The Fourth Commandment is about Sanctification and Relationship. Read more detail.
God starts off the fourth Commandment with the word “Remember”. This is because He knew we would forget it.
God asks that we keep it set apart for Holy purposes so we can draw nearer to Him. The Fourth Commandment to
remember the Sabbath concludes the section of the Ten Commandments that specifically helps define a proper
relationship with God, how we are to love, worship and relate to Him. It explains why and when we need to take
special time to draw closer to our Creator. It is also a special sign between us and God forever, that it is Him that
sanctifies us Him alone we belong to and worship. The Sabbath, the seventh day of the week was set apart by God
as a time of rest and spiritual rejuvenation. So why is this Commandment so frequently ignored, attacked and
explained away by so many? Could it be because the challenges to the Sabbath Commandment are views
generated by the ruler of this present evil world? After all, this being wants us to accept these views because he
hates God's law. He does all he can to influence us to ignore, avoid and reason our way around it. On our
calendar the Sabbath day begins at sunset Friday evening and ends at sunset Saturday evening.

5. The Fifth Commandment is about Respect for Parental authority. Read more detail.
God instructs us to show love for our parents by honouring them. The Fifth Commandment introduces us to a series
of Commandments that define proper relationships with other people. The fifth through to the 10th serve as the
standards of conduct in areas of human behaviour that generate the most far reaching consequences on
individuals, families, groups and society. Families are the building blocks of societies that build strong nations.
When families are fractured and flawed, the sad results are tragic and reflected in newspaper headlines every day.
Any individual or group, including whole nations that understand the importance of strong families reap the rewards
of an improved relationship and blessings from God. The Fifth Commandment shows us from whom and how the
fundamentals of respect and honour are most effectively learned. It guides us to know how to yield to others, how to
properly submit to authority and how to accept the influence of mentors. That is why the apostle Paul wrote,
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first
Commandment with promise: that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth” Ephesians 6:2-3.

6. The Sixth Commandment is about Respect for Human life. Read more detail.
God asks us to demonstrate love and not hate towards others by not murdering. We must learn to control our
tempers. Taking another person's life is not our right to decide. That judgment is reserved for God alone. That is the
thrust of this Commandment. God does not allow us to choose to wilfully or deliberately take another person's life.
The Sixth Commandment reminds us that God is the giver of life and He alone has the authority to take it or to
grant permission to take it. God wants us to go far beyond avoiding murder. He requires that we not maliciously
harm another human being in word or deed. This is why John wrote, “Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer:
and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” 1 John 3:15. God desires that we treat even those
who choose to hate us respectfully and do all within our power to live in peace and harmony with them. He wants
us to be builders, not destroyers of good relationships. To accomplish this we must respect this wonderful gift of this
precious possession, human life.

7. The Seventh Commandment is about Purity in Relationships. Read more detail.

God asks us to express and demonstrate our love for our partner by not committing adultery. Adultery is the
violation of the marriage covenant by wilful participation in sexual activity with someone other than one's spouse.
Since God's law sanctions sexual relationships only within a legitimate marriage, the command not to commit
adultery covers in principle, all varieties of sexual immorality. No sexual relationship of any sort should occur
outside of marriage. That is the crux of this Commandment. Most of us need the support and companionship of a
loving spouse. We need someone special who can share our ups and downs, triumphs and failures. No one can fill
this role like a mate who shares with us a deep love and commitment. Society suffers because we have lost the
vision that God had for marriage from the beginning. Marriage is not a requirement for success in pleasing God. But
it is a tremendous blessing to couples who treat each other as God intended. Most people desire and need the
benefits that come from a stable marriage. To return to what God intended, we must give marriage the respect it
deserves.

8. The Eighth Commandment is about Honesty. Read more detail.

God instructs us to show our love and respect for others by not stealing what belongs to them. The Eighth
Commandment safeguards everyone's right to legitimately acquire and own property. God wants that right
honoured and protected. His approach to material wealth is balanced. He wants us to prosper and enjoy physical
blessings. He also expects us to show wisdom in how we use what He provides us and He does not want
possessions to be our primary pursuit in life. When we see material blessings as a means to achieve more-
important objectives, God enjoys seeing us prosper. To Him it is important that generosity rather than greed
motivate the choices we make. Because they are qualities of His own character, He asks that we, from the heart,
put giving and serving ahead of lavishing possessions on ourselves.

9. The Ninth Commandment is about Truthfulness. Read more detail.

God says if we love others we should not deceive or lie to them. How important is truth? The Bible says that Jesus
is “the way and the Truth” John 14:6. To fully appreciate the Ninth Commandment with its prohibition of lying, we
must realize how important truth is to God. Jesus Christ said of God the Father, “Your word is truth” John 17:17.
The Bible throughout teaches that “God is not a man, that He should lie” Numbers 23:19. As the source of truth,
God requires that His servants always speak truthfully. Under God's inspiration, King David wrote, “…LORD, who
may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is
righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbour no wrong
and casts no slur on his fellow-man, who despises a vile man but honours those who fear the LORD, who keeps his
oath even when it hurts” Psalms 15:1-3, NIV. God expects truth to permeate every facet of our lives. Everything in
the life of a Christian is anchored to truth. God wants us as His children, to commit ourselves to truth and reflect it in
everything we do.

10 . The Tenth Commandment is about Contentment. Read more detail.

God instructs us not to covet because He knows it can entrap us into even greater sin. To covet means to crave or
desire, especially in excessive or improper ways. The Tenth Commandment does not tell us that all of our desires
are immoral. It tells us that some desires are wrong. Coveting is an immoral longing for something that is not
rightfully ours. That is usually because the object of our desire already belongs to someone else. But coveting can
also include our wanting far more than we would legitimately deserve or that would be our rightful share. The focus
of the Tenth Commandment is that we are not to illicitly desire anything that already belongs to others. The
opposite of coveting is a positive desire to help others preserve and protect their blessings from God. We should
rejoice when other people are blessed. Our desire should be to contribute to the well being of others, to make our
presence in their lives a blessing to them. The last of the Ten Commandments is aimed directly at the heart and
mind of every human being. In prohibiting coveting, it defines not so much what we must do but how we should
think. It asks us to look deep within ourselves to see what we are on the inside. As with each of the previous nine
Commandments, it is directed toward our relationships. It specifically deals with the thoughts that threaten those
relationships and can potentially hurt ourselves and our neighbours. Therefore, it is fitting that the formal listing of
these Ten foundational commands, which define the love of God, should end by focusing on our hearts as the
wellspring of our relationship problems. From within come the desires that tempt us and lead us astray.

Why did god give to moses the 10 commNDMENTS \

God declared that the Israelites were his own people and that they must listen
to God and obey His laws. These laws were the Ten Commandments which were
given to Moses on two stone tablets, and they set out the basic principles that would
govern the Israelites lives.Jul 6, 2009

The first of the Ten Commandments God gave to Moses reads thus from the English Standard Version of the Bible: “You shall
have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). It would seem that anyone who understands just Who God is, would have no
trouble putting Him first in their lives. Believers should almost automatically center their lives around worshiping Him. However,
the biblical record, and the practical experience of believers everywhere, reveals that professing believers too often consider
faithfulness to God a secondary, or minor, priority. I have written, in my book Spiritual Suicide: The Crisis of Casual
Christianity, that one of the biggest problems with Christianity today is that Christians do not take seriously enough
their relationship with God. Many professing believers consider God to be merely an add-on to their lives instead of our Source,
Reason, Judge, Sustainor, Savior, and Future.

“No other gods before me”

The phrase, “No other gods before me” does not mean that God merely wants us to organize our gods with Him at the top. It
does not mean that, as long as we worship God first, we are free to have other gods also. It means that there are to be no
other gods in our lives but the one true God. The word translated ‘before’ in this verse does not have to do with time or
ranking. It is saying that we are to have no other gods in God’s sight. In other words, we are to worship nothing else in our
lives but the one true God. He is worthy of our complete and total commitment.

Love the Lord with everything you are

The Bible is very clear, in both the Old Testament and the New, as to what place God is to have in our lives. Humanity is
instructed, repeatedly, as to how we should exist, “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” (Mark 12:30 ESV; also see Deuteronomy 6:5, 10:12, 11:13, 13:3,
30:6; Joshua 22:5; Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27). Anything in the Bible, that is repeated so often, stresses its obvious
importance and preeminence. We should take these admonitions very seriously.
Too often, we let the pursuit of the necessary crowd out our time with God. With so many things going on in our lives, we
sometimes even push Him out of our thoughts. However, the Bible assures us that God will provide all those things we are
chasing after, if we will put Him first in our lives (Matthew 6:33). There exists no good reason for allowing anything to assume
a more prominent place in our lives than God.

Conclusion
God has given us the Ten Commandments. These commandments tell us how we should live. The first of these Commandments
tells us that we were created to live our lives worshiping God and giving Him first place in our lives. It tells us that we should
allow nothing interfere, interrupt, replace, or hinder our dedication to Him. When we do not live this way; when we allow
anything to usurp God’s place as Lord of our lives, our lives will be out of kilter. God will discipline us, in order to call attention
to the fact that we are worshiping something other than Him. He does this out of His great love for us. However, if we continue
to worship other things, we may find that we do not hear that great statement from Jesus on judgment day, “Well done, good
and faithful servant.”
Need tips for how to spend more time with God? Read this article: 7 Tips for Planning Quiet Time with God

What does the second commandment

teach us?
First of all let’s see what the second commandment says:

“You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on
the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship
them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of
the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a
thousand [generations] of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus
20:4-6)

Simplified version of the second commandment

This commandment, together with the others, was given by God to Moses at Mount
Sinai. At that time the surrounding nations worshipped many ‘gods’ together with a
supreme ‘god’ (represented by idols) who they believed controlled the different aspects
of their life. To ensure that they had the favor of these ‘gods’ they believed they had to
appease them in various ways. In the second commandment God was telling Moses that
He is different from these so-called ‘gods’. Below is a simplified version of a paraphrase
of the second commandment given by a Bible scholar:

“Do not think of Me like the rest of the nations think of their supreme god, finite and
limited. Do not think of Me in such a way. I am not limited and finite…Nothing can
thwart Me in My purpose… Nothing in the visible realm can capture who I am and what
I am like. In one sense, every visible thing reflects My nature and wisdom; for all of it is
My handiwork. But in another sense, nothing in the visible realm is like Me; nothing can
adequately represent who I am. I am too big to be understood in terms of any finite thing
in the natural order. Do not, therefore, think of Me as a God who can be represented in
terms of one finite image. If you do so, then it will not be Me, Yahweh, you worship; it
will be some other god of your own imagination. I am a jealous God. I, Yahweh, the all-
powerful, transcendent God, am the One you must worship. You must not worship the
shrunken deity of your imagination.”

What it teaches

What the second commandment teaches us is that we must worship God as He truly is.
This is also what Jesus taught: “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true
worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to
worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth”
(John 4:23-24)

God cannot be an idol made by man. He is Spirit. The only way to know the truth of who
God is, is for Him to reveal Himself to us. God revealed Himself to the Israelites through
the 10 commandments. They could tell that God was holy, righteous and good. We have
a clearer revelation of God through Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God’s word.

People prefer to worship other ‘gods’

Inspite of this clear revelation of God, people prefer to worship ‘gods’ of their own
making rather than the True and Living God. These ‘gods’ can be anything from power to
pleasure and possessions. Anything that takes the place of God in our lives is an idol. Idol
worshippers are self-centered. They seek to gratify themselves and have no thought of
God.

We need to obey not only the second commandment but also all the other commandments
of God. They keep us connected with God and also keep us out of trouble with ourselves,
family, friends, and neighbors. God knows what is best for all of us and He wants all of
us to be at peace with Him and live in peace and harmony with one another.

What does the third commandment

teach us?
The third commandment is “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the
Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name” (Exodus 20:7). This means
that we must not use God’s name in a wrong or inappropriate way. Some people use the
name of God as a swear word, an exclamation of fear or surprise. This is one way that
God’s name is used inappropriately. Most people who are Christians wouldn’t say or use
God’s name in this way.
False prophecy

Another possibility is when people say “God says…” Maybe to add weight to what they
are saying, or trying to force others to obey their words. Unfortunately this is a way that
Christians sometimes misuse God’s name. Saying these words glibly, or when God has
not spoken, is something that God hates. In the Old Testament He used His true prophets
to speak out against the false prophets, who said that God had spoken when he had not at
all. Jeremiah 23:25, Ezekiel 22:28, Deuteronomy 13:1. False prophets were to be put to
death.

Although there are many people today who try and persuade people that God has spoken
through them. By this method, when he has not spoken at all, and although they will not
be punished by death in this world, God says he will not hold them blameless. For
Christians, when we know, love, and honour God. Then it is unlikely that we will take the
name of the Lord. God’s in vain, but we need to be careful in the words we say.

God does speak to us, God may well give us a message to give to someone else. But
make sure that the Holy Spirit has really put these things on your heart. Otherwise we
also may find that we are taking God’s name, using it inappropriately using it for our own
ends instead of to glorify God. Whose name we should always revere, and glorify before
him, and before the world.

It is a prohibition of blasphemy, specifically, the misuse or "taking in vain" of the name of

the God of Israel, or using His name to commit evil. Exodus 20:7 reads:

THE 4TH: “HONOR YOUR

FATHER AND MOTHER”
Categories: Features
Tags: Theology for the Laity

By Father Reginald Martin, O.P.

THE SECOND TABLET

As we have seen, the first three commandments govern our relations with God.
Our Catechism observes the fourth commandment “opens the second tablet of the
Decalogue.” (#2197) When God gave the commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, He
said, “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which the Lord
your God gives you.” (Ex. 20:12) This is a logical progression, and the fourth commandment does
indeed oblige us to respect and obey our parents, or those who take the place of parents in our lives.
FAMILY: THE FUNDAMENTAL UNIT

However, the scope of this commandment extends far beyond the bounds of our human families; it
lays the foundations not only for the commandments that follow, but for all the exchanges and
contacts that characterize human society and the Church. We shall consider these (sometimes
obscure) reflections of the family as this meditation unfolds, but we must first explore the immense
gift God has given us in the family, and the corresponding responsibilities that accompany this
treasure.

God asks parents to care for their children, so parents represent God in their children’s lives. This is
a vocation to love, so the examples we see of parents’ abusing their children are tragic for many
reasons. Our human sensibilities are properly outraged when individuals take unfair advantage over
the defenseless and young persons entrusted to their care. But our religious scruples should be
offended as well, for such behavior is a deliberate refusal to demonstrate and model God’s parental
and guiding love.

A POSITIVE COMMANDMENT

The fourth commandment is a positive commandment, directing us to do something good rather than
avoid something evil. To honor parents is an essential element of family life, and the family –
whether it is composed of those related by blood, or a voluntary organization of individuals who
elect to share their lives for the common good – is the social unit which establishes the fundamental
basis of all the Church’s social teaching. Our Catechism teaches

The fourth commandment is addressed expressly to children in their relationship to their father and
mother, because this relationship is the most universal. It likewise concerns the ties of kinship
between members of the extended family…Finally, it extends to the duties of pupils to teachers,
employees to employers, subordinates to leaders, citizens to their country, and to those who
administers or govern it.

This commandment includes and presupposes the duties of parents [and]…those who govern, all
who exercise authority over others or over a community of persons.(CCC #2199)

A UNIVERSAL COMMANDMENT

The fourth commandment sounds very simple, but fulfilling it affects every aspect of our social lives
and dealings with one another. However, each of these relations begins with the family, which sets
the pattern for our life in the world and our life in the Church. We see this very clearly in the New
Testament, where St. Paul compares a husband’s responsibilities to those of Christ’s, “Husbands,
love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her….” (Eph. 5:25), and where
he urges, “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not
provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.” (Col. 3:21)

A REFLECTION OF THE CHURCH

Because the family presents so vivid a picture of what the ideal society ought to resemble, “…it can
and should be called a domestic church…a community of faith, hope and charity….a sign and image
of the communion of the Father and the Son in the Holy Spirit.” (CCC #2204, 2205) The vocation of
marriage calls women and men to give themselves to one another in love, and to share that love with
their children. The security and stability of such love enables children to grow without fear and
experience the freedom and harmony that characterize life in God’s Kingdom. The family, thus,
becomes the classroom in which we come to know and love God, and to embrace the moral values
that are necessary for productive social life and essential for our Christian life.

A WORD FROM POPE FRANCIS

For a brief time after college, I worked in a nursing home. That job was probably one of the
hardest jobs I’ve ever had, because I worked with elderly people for whom I was not only a
caretaker but also a friend and companion. I worked on the dementia unit, and at first I
expected to be seeing the children of these lovely people visit often. Sadly, after only a
couple of weeks, I soon realized that these elderly folks rarely received visits from their
children, most of whom still lived in the vicinity. I was convicted by my experience to never
forget the loving care my parents have given me when they one day might need the same
care and attention.

The fifth commandment tells us to honor our father and mother. But how does this
command play out in real life when children are under their parents’ care, as well as when
they become adults? Let’s see what the Bible has to say about the fifth commandment.

1. The fifth commandment is rooted in God’s structure of creation.

God has given authority to various offices within the structure of his created order, and one
of those offices is the office of parent. The family was built into the fabric of creation from
the beginning with Adam and Eve. They were given the mandate to “be fruitful and
multiply” (Gen. 1:28). This was reiterated after the flood when Noah was also commanded
to repopulate the earth. The family structure not only provides for the population of the
world but also is for the good of children and society in general. Thus, the fifth
commandment is crucial for us to study and understand, because it relates directly to how
God has ordained and ordered this world.

2. Honoring our parents is one way we honor and love God.

Obeying parents is one way that children honor and obey God. The fifth commandment
comes with a promise, namely "that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your
God is giving you" (Ex. 20:21). Honoring parents was tied to the promise of a land that
would belong both to parents and their descendants. For Old Testament believers, living
and flourishing in the promised land was contingent upon obeying God's commandments
(Lev. 26:3-13). Children were included in God's covenant with Israel thus they too were
called to obey God in order to live in the promised land.

Children who honored their parents would be rewarded with peace and long life in the land
God gave to Israel. The punishment for children who continuously and unrepentantly
disobeyed their parents was death by stoning (Ex. 21:15; Deut. 21:18-21). When Paul
reminds the Ephesians about the fifth commandment, he purposefully leaves out the
reference to the land given to Israel (Eph. 6:2-3). This is because Christians today do not
have the promise of a specific land which the Lord gives them on this earth, but rather look
forward to the promise of the new heavens and the new earth (Heb. 12:18-24).

Keeping the fifth commandment is part of the Christian's call to love God and love
neighbor as the good fruit of faith in Christ. Still, the family unit remains fundamentally one
of God's providential gifts for the flourishing of humanity. In God's wisdom, obeying the
fifth commandment will profit children in a general way (1 Tim. 4:7-8). Honoring parents
often leads to good and peaceful family relations and listening to parent's good counsel
can keep a child from making mistakes in life he or she might otherwise make.

3. Honoring our parents means more than doing chores.

The Heidelberg Catechism is helpful in fleshing out what it means to honor one’s parents.
Question 104 asks, “What does God require in the fifth commandment?”

Answer: That I show all honor, love and fidelity, to my father and mother, and all in
authority over me, and submit myself to their good instruction and correction, with due
obedience; and also patiently bear with their weaknesses and infirmities, since it pleases
God to govern us by their hand.

Honoring our parents doesn’t stop when we turn eighteen or twenty-one. The fifth
commandment is a lifelong command that includes respecting, loving, and faithfully
bearing with our parents. Although the way in which a child honors his or her parents
changes over time, the command remains. Here are some verses that show us what
honoring parents means:

Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching. (Prov. 1:8)

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
(Prov. 23:22)

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. (Eph. 6:1)

These verses do not mean we should obey our parents even when they command us to do
something sinful. Our obedience is first and foremost to God. However, if the parents are
doing their job correctly, they are raising children in the instruction of the Lord and this is
what we need to listen carefully to.

4. The fifth commandment has implications for parents as well.

As Paul explains, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the
discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). God has given parents authority over their
children; however, to mistreat one’s children is to abuse the authority God has given.
Parents are given to children for their instruction and protection, particularly to train them
in the commands of God (Deut. 6:7). Any behavior that contradicts this God-given role is an
abuse of authority and a corruption of what God intended to be for the good of children
and society in general. It is wise to listen to parents’ good counsel for our own well-being
(Prov. 1:8).

5. Family relationships have been rocky and difficult ever since Adam’s fall (Gen. 3).
Toddlers scream and throw tantrums, teenagers rebel against the rules their parents have
set up, and parents get angry and treat their children unfairly. This is true not just of
parent/child relationships but of any authority structure God has set in motion. As sinners,
we don’t like to do what we are told, and submitting to authority figures in our lives is
difficult for our independence-seeking wills.

The best example of this is the story of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32). In the story of the
prodigal son, the wayward son dishonored his father by asking for his inheritance early and
running off to squander it. It showed a lack of respect and love for his family, the people
who cared for him and fed him when he could not feed or care for himself. Are we not all
like the prodigal son in various ways? We take our parents for granted, demanding that
they take care of us, give us money, and then leave us alone so we can do what we want
with it. We turn around and abandon the very arms that worked for and cared for us.
Ultimately, this is a reflection of humanity’s rebellion against God, our heavenly Father. In
Adam, we all ran away from his loving care and provision and struck out on our own. We
squandered our wealth on sin and are now left with nothing.

6. Christ was the perfect child by honoring his earthly parents and heavenly Father.
Jesus was born into a family structure, and he obeyed this commandment perfectly even as
God incarnate. He honored his earthly father and mother by submitting to their care and
authority (Luke 2:51). When he was grown, Jesus provided for the future care of his mother
right before he died by telling his disciple John to treat her as his own mother (John 19:26).
Jesus obeyed his heavenly Father by keeping the whole law perfectly and submitting to his
will even to the point death. His death on the cross was Jesus’ ultimate act of obedience to
his Father. Christ’s obedience provided the way for every son and daughter to be adopted
into God’s own family where they are welcomed just as the prodigal son was welcomed
home by his father when he returned in repentance.

Even though we all fail in keeping this commandment, God provided the way for us to be
reconciled to himself and adopted into his family. Christ was the perfect son so that all who
repent and believe in him might be covered by his perfection and hear the Father say “For
this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost, and is found” (Luke 15:24).
As children made alive in Christ, believers are called to honor their parents now out of love
and gratitude to God for the care he provides through parents. This is a huge blessing and
one that children need to remember their whole lives long whenever they are tempted to
take their parents for granted.