Reflecting on the Fifth Commandment

Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you. (Exodus 20:12)

We should fear and love God that we may not despise nor anger our parents and masters, but give them honor, serve, obey, and hold them in love and esteem. (Martin Luther)

First, the thing that might strike modern ears as odd. “Masters” in Luther's historical context principally referred to masters of apprentices. Since apprentices would have been youth, their masters would have been acting in loco parentis, using modern terms.

This commandment seems pretty straight forward, right? Obey your parents? Well, not exactly. “Honor” means much more than that, and the meaning also changes as the child moves into adulthood, marriage and becoming a parent. Straightforward obedience applies mainly during when the child is dependent on the parent, entirely or partly. It's the “honor” part that gets so sticky. It gets down into your heart - your attitudes, respect, affections. That's really challenging, especially during the teen years and early twenties, when young people think they know and understand more than they really do. I remember, when I was age 19 or so, how smart my parents “suddenly” became! Even as adults, parents should be respected, for advice, generally, and especially in raising one's own children.

This assumes, of course, that obeying one's parents is appropriate. God's is the higher authority and parents' authority derives from God, therefore obeying a parental command to commit or cover up a crime or a fraud would be wrong. It also assumes that one's parents are worthy of honor. A parent who beats or verbally degrades their spouse or children has made himself or herself unworthy of honor.

Just a Brief Thought on Prayer

If we haven't learned to trust God in "little" things, how will we trust Him with the "big" things? If, "Prayer changes things," the "biggest," most important, "thing" prayer changes is us - our priorities and our trust.

Reflecting on the Fourth Commandment

Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (Exodus 20:8)

We should fear and love God that we may not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it. (Martin Luther)

I think in this explanation Luther focused narrowly on a particular problem of his day (also a problem now, IMO) and thereby captured only part of what this commandment means. I see two purposes in this commandment.

One is that humans, over time, do more, better, if they get regular days and times of rest. God programmed times of rest into ancient Israel's religion and culture, including the weekly Sabbath. “Rest” sounds so formal and sterile! What do you, reader, find restful or, dare I say it, fun? Taking a nap? Reading a book? Playing tennis? Taking a hike? Writing an article like this? “Rest” is as individual as we are! God really did and does care about His people, including their/our physical and mental well-being!

The second is that God knows that we need regular times devoted to our relationship with God. If we are busy with our subsistence 24x7x52 – work, eating, family, sleeping - that consumes all of our time, physically and mentally. Our relationship with God will shrivel to almost nothing.

Jesus and Paul changed the focus for Christian believers from observing a specific day to every day belonging to God. Most Christians observe and have their church worship services on Sunday, but the New Testament does not command this. Christians need to reflect on the state of their relationship with God and ways of growing it. Regular worship services are good, IF one is truly engaged in what is being done – the praise and worship, the prayers, the preaching and teaching (Luther's concern). But that is just a start! The kind of fellowship Christians need in their lives goes far beyond sitting next to a fellow Christian once a week or 20 minutes of chatting over coffee and cookies or a potluck supper, milling around and eating with scores or hundreds of people. Real fellowship - in which lives and concerns are shared and people's spiritual gifts can be discovered, developed and exercised – happens in small, stable, groups that meet regularly. And our relationship with God needs alone time – with God's word, in prayer, listening to Him. Take time for rest; take time for your relationship with God and your fellow Christians.

Reflecting on the Third Commandment

You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. (Exodus 20:7)

We should fear and love God that we may not curse, swear, use witchcraft, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. (Martin Luther)

In this explanation, Luther begins two patterns that are found in the rest of his explanations of the commandments. First, he frames our reason for obedience as our love and fear (awed respect) for God, not for earning/maintaining salvation. Francis Schaeffer echoes this thought in his True Spirituality, calling it the “Law of Love”. The second pattern is that Luther identifies both negative duties (do not's) and positive duties (do's). This takes believers from formal outward obedience to re-forming the believer's manner of life and character.

In the most narrow sense, this commandment forbids invoking God's Name as the authority to affirm something for the purpose of deception or to promise something one will not do (whether as deception or from carelessness). Luther took this further with examples of ways in which God's name could be used deceptively, abusively or trivialized. In Matthew 23:16-23, Jesus illustrated how this commandment is violated by showing how hair-splitting word games and traditions trivialized God, His authority and the value of people's words. And in Ephesians 5:4, Paul took this commandment in another direction, forbidding coarse speech.

Does that sound complicated or burdensome? It shouldn't be. As Jesus points out in Matthew 5:37, just be truthful, let your “authority” be your own character. And as Paul points out in Colossians 4:6, our speech should be gracious, seeking to help others. As for God's name, Luther got it right: seek Him in time of trouble, praise and worship Him and thank Him. If we focus on these “simple” things, we will have less opportunity for foul-mouthing or for befouling our own or God's character.

Quickie Miscellany

Had a couple of interesting experiences this weekend. I've always hated shopping for clothes, pants especially. For whatever reason, growing up, my Mom always had me try on several pair that didn't fit before "discovering" some that did fit. Maybe she was trying to "teach" me something. Maybe she just wasn't being realistic. Anyway, Friday my wife brought home a pair that were a waist size smaller than the size that has been getting really baggy ... and they fit. I'm not used to it being that easy! Then, Saturday, we went to the store to get a couple more pair - the price was good and I do need more - and found that the next waist size smaller fit! Two waist sizes smaller than what I've been wearing!

Friday I also learned that I have lost >25 lbs. in the past couple months. I haven't been this side of 300 lbs. this century, possibly not since before my youngest was born!

A thought ... God didn't settle for working through imperfect, forgiven, human beings, he chose to work through us!

Reflecting on the Second Commandment

You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them ... (Exodus 20:4-5A)

Because he regarded these verses to be explanatory of verse 3 rather than a separate commandment, Luther provided no explanation of these verses as such. In this Commandment we are forbidden to worship things – statues, pictures – as either gods or as representations of gods. Not even as representations of the true God or His heavenly creatures! God understands His creatures and our tendency to reduce our devotion to focus on tangible things, which are just created things. God doesn't want us worshiping false gods we have fashioned from things He created. If it's an insult to Him, it's all the more silly for us to be worshiping a creature as if it were the Creator. Nor does God want us reducing Him, in our minds, to something smaller that we ourselves are.

What does it mean to, “worship them or serve them”? The easy answer would be anything of our heart that should go to God. And that would be true, though not really all that useful as an explanation. Expressions acknowledging supreme worth (praise) belong to God. Expressions acknowledging sovereign power and authority (worship) belong to God. Expressions of total trust and reliance (prayer) should only be addressed to God. The unqualified loyalty of our whole being belongs only to God. Our things, our career, our family, even ministries we might work in are subsidiary to and have their validity in God. Even things such as “lucky (name of item)s” are expressions of a trust that belongs to God.

Reflecting on the First Commandment

You shall have no other gods before Me. (Exodus 20:3)

We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things. (Martin Luther)

As simple as this commandment and Luther's explanation sounds, there's a lot here. What are we pursuing and treasuring? Material things? Pleasures? Philosophical or political ideals (other than God)? In what are we placing our trust and reliance? Our bank accounts and investments? Our retirement plan? Government and its laws and programs? Ourselves? Some spiritual leader? Some human concept of god? Stars or planets? Are we trying to do or control things that we should leave in God's hands (Hello? Husbands?!)?

None of these things are, of themselves, evil, and each can have a valid place in our lives. But they are all created things or the works of created beings. They (we!) are all subsidiary to the ultimate Creator, God. God belongs at the center of our life, not things He Created. We owe our existence and being - all of us - to God, in particular our love, trust, praise and worship, and reliance for things in life bigger than us.