It's Wednesday on Things Unseen, and this week we've been thinking about family life.

It's a tremendous amount of work, isn't it, if you're a parent?

But then, God willing, you have these moments when it seems the sun breaks

through and you realize what an amazing thing it is to have a family. What a blessing that God has

set the solitary in a home. It wasn't good for Adam to be alone, and it's not usually very good

for us either. One of the things that strikes me

as a wonderful expression of God's love for our families is that he devoted one of the ten

commandments to family life. The Fifth Commandment is a unique commandment really, isn't it,

in the sense that it's addressed to a particular human relationship,

a family relationship. Honor your father and your mother. That's a great key to happiness in the home,

and it's a beautiful thing to see when children honor their parents. But there are several

intriguing things about this commandment.

Let me mention one or two.

The first is that it's the only commandment that doesn't have a negative element in it somewhere.

The second is that although it's the fifth commandment, it's the first commandment about our

relations with others. Commandments one through four

have got to do with our honoring of the Lord. And that's true even of the fourth commandment,

the Sabbath Day, although it too has implications for others. They need to rest as well.

But the third thing to notice is it's a lifelong commandment.

But notice, it doesn't say children honour your father and mother.

It says everybody honour your father and mother.

It doesn't just apply to years one through 18 or whatever.

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