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 grown?

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 honor 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 begin a

new family group. We're no longer under the authority of our parents the way we once were.

We have left that family structure and started a new one. That's why the Bible never says to

adults, obey your parents. But we're still to honor them. Sometimes I think both parents and

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