Honor or Value Your Mother
Ephesians 6:1-3 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."
Healthy Families
We have celebrated another Mother’s day and I have seen a lot of good comments by children praising their mothers on social media. That is as it should be. In a healthy family, a mother should be obeyed by the children that she is raising and she should be respected or valued or honored even after the children leave home. I have always assumed that there is a difference between the responsibilities of children in the home and adult children who are establishing independent lives. Children in the home are to obey their parents “in the Lord”. I think that means that even a child would have the right to disobey should a parent ask them to do something illegal or immoral. I do not think parents have the right to make decisions for their children who have reached maturity. But I do think those adult children should always have respect for their parents who raised them. In the Bible, honoring them includes taking care of them in their old age.
Unhealthy Families
Most of us can be glad that we were born into families that raised us to respect God, industry, morals and governmental authority. We can be glad that we can respect the parents we were given. I have always been glad that Jezebel or Athaliah was not my mother. In 1 Kings 21:25 we read, “But there was no one like Ahab who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the LORD, because Jezebel his wife stirred him up.” She killed the prophets of the Lord, she tried to kill Elijah, and she did kill Naboth He was a man who would not sell his property to Ahab. Jezebel had him killed so that Ahab could take possession of the property. She was a woman who worshiped Baal and who had no conscience. Or how could one honor Athaliah who killed all of the children of her son who had been king so that she could usurp the throne? How could children obey these women while growing up and how could a godly adult child honor them? While the Old Testament command to honor your father and mother seems to require children to honor their father and mother at all times, I am glad that the New Testament explanation clarifies the need for children to obey “in the Lord.” I am glad that sometimes honoring a parent requires children to put the Lord first when the parents are not honoring the Lord. I am sure that it was assumed that parents where reverent and serving Jehovah in the Old Testament when the command was given,
Honorable Mothers
As we review Bible stories, there are a number of mothers that were beautiful examples of what mothers should be. Mary the Lord’s mother was one of those. Ruth in the Old Testament was another one of those. Timothy had a mother and a grandmother that are godly examples of what mothers and grandmothers ought to be as they pass their own example of faith in the Lord on to their children. In 2 Timothy 1:5 Paul reminds Timothy of “the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also.” Other scripture makes it clear that Timothy had to have his own personal faith in the Lord but having a mother and a grandmother that could teach him the truth and model it for him, certainly would have given him a reason to believe what they believed.
Godly mothers don’t hide the fact that they are sinners who needed to be saved. They don’t presume to teach their children to be Christians before they have taught them how to become Christians. If you had a mother like that, be glad. My mother is now in heaven; but if you have a living mother that you love and appreciate, tell her. It will make her day.
Bruce Collins
Meditation for the week of May 14, 2017