The first four commandments deal with our relations to God. They tell
us how to worship and when to worship; they forbid irreverence and
impiety in word and act. Now God turns to our relations with each
other, and isn't it significant that He deals first with family life?
"God is going to show us our duty to our neighbor. How does He begin?
Not by telling us how kings ought to reign, or how soldiers ought to
fight, or how merchants ought to conduct their business, but how boys
and girls ought to behave at home."
We can see that if their home life is all right, they are almost sure
to fulfil the law both in regard to God and man. Parents stand in the
place of God to their children in a great many ways until the children
arrive at years of discretion. If the children are true to their
parents, it will be easier for them to be true to God. He used the
human relationship as a symbol of our relationship to Him both by
creation and by grace. God is our Father in heaven. We are His
offspring.
On the other hand, if they have not learned to be obedient and
respectful at home, they are likely to have little respect for the law
of the land. It is all in the heart; and the heart is prepared at home
for good or bad conduct outside. The tree grows the way the twig is
bent.
"Honor thy father and thy mother." That word "honor" means more than
mere obedience--a child may obey through fear. It means love and
affection, gratitude, respect. We are told that in the east the words
"father" and "mother" include those who are "superiors in age, wisdom
and in civil or religious station," so that when the Jews were taught
to honor their father and mother it included all who were placed over
them in these relations, as well as their parents. Isn't there a
crying need for that same feeling to-day? The lawlessness of the
present time is a natural consequence of the growing absence of a
feeling of respect for those in authority.