We began this week of podcasts by asking the question, if your pastor announces he's going to preach

a series of sermons on the Ten Commandments, do you think, oh, great, or oh, groan? If it's the latter, oh, grown, then I suppose that

means that we're tending to think about the law the same way many of us think about police officers.

They tend to make us feel on edge and fearful that we have done or might do something wrong.

And yes, of course, the Ten Commandments do function that way.

They show up our sin for what it is, and that can be a very unpleasant experience,

but a necessary one.

But the police officer doesn't exist simply to make people feel guilty.

He or she is there for the protection of the public, isn't that true?

And in the same way, the Ten Commandments function like a well-trained, divine police force,

to protect us from moral harm and from

making shipwreck of our lives. And one of the things in the Fifth Commandment,

honor your father and mother, is a kind of genius of where it's placed in the commandments.

The first four commandments are essentially about our relationship with God.

The next six are about our relationships with one another.

And the first of them is about our relationship with our parents.

We are to honour them. And I want to comment on a couple of things

here. First of all, I think we should notice God doesn't say obey your parents. He says,

honor your father and mother. Now, there's a reason for that.

We're always to honor our parents because they gave us our life and they nurtured us.

When we're young and at home, that honor takes the form of obedience.

When we're older and perhaps married with our own children, we've begun a new

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