Honor Your Father and Your Mother

Not many people think of honor as a virtue these days, yet the law of God remains unchanged: “Honor your father and your mother” (Ex. 20:12). Today, R.C. Sproul expresses our duty to give dignity and respect to parents.

How do you respond viscerally in your gut to the word honor? People may laugh at us for even considering this a virtue anymore, but I don’t think that one has to be religious to understand the value of human dignity and the value of showing respect to each other, to those who are in authority over us, and particularly within the bounds of the family. If you are a parent, do you not want the respect of your children? Do you not feel embarrassed for the ways in which you have failed to honor your own parents? And you may say, “But my father was not an honorable man,” or “My mother was not an honorable woman.” But God doesn’t say, “Honor your father and mother only when they’re honorable.” But theirs is a position, they hold an office, and even if they’re unworthy of that office, the office itself is still to be honored so that Christians should be scrupulous in demonstrating honor, dignity, and respect to every parent.