Circuit Rider Letter
November 2011
by Pastor John DiGiamberardino

The Ten Commandments

Praise God from whom all blessings flow! This is an exciting time for our church. We have begun a church-wide focus on the Ten Commandments. Many are meeting weekly in small groups to look deeper into the meaning and relevance of each commandment in their lives today.

The scripture says, “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” (Romans 15:4)

God deliberately choose certain historical events, in the lives of the great Old Testament saints, like Moses and the Israelites. God purposefully recorded those events in the Bible, because those events contain true spiritual lessons for us as followers of Christ today. Throughout the summer and now into the fall we have been looking at the life of Moses and letting it be our living classroom. God has been teaching us spiritual lessons that are illustrated in the life of this great man, so that we might have hope.

Commandment #5 deals with duties we owe our parents. Exodus 20:12 says, “Honor your father and your mother, so you may live long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”

What does it mean to honor our father and our mother? The word “to honor” in Hebrew means “to consider someone heavy/weighty.” To “honor our parents” means to consider them heavy with respect, dignity and esteem. To “honor our parents” means to revere them, to respect them, to venerate them. Not so much as a function of what they do or as a function of how they act. But as a function of who they are, the position they occupy - - namely, they are our parents!

God is a God of authority and God knows there is a need for authority in the universe. So Go began by setting up authority first in the Godhead itself. God the Son submits to the authority of God the Father. Then God the Holy Spirit submits to the authority of both God the Father and God the Son. After God established authority in the Godhead, God established “authority” in the heavenly places. There are regular angels, then there are archangels that rule over regular angels.

And finally God established “authority” here on earth: authority in human government, authority in the workplace, authority in our schools in our churches, in the military. But the first and foremost place God established authority here on earth is in the family. God wants us to learn how to submit to authority in general . . .by teaching us how to submit to our parents’ authority in particular.

For grown adult children, honoring our parents means that we treat them with ongoing esteem, reverence and respect. Not just in our minds, but that we do those things that actively communicate that message that we feel this way about them. It means, keeping in touch with them on a regular basis. Like doing things we know make them happy. How do you esteem, reverence and respect your parents as a grown adult?

We honor our parents as adult children by showing them that we value their wisdom and experience, by asking their opinion. If your parents are still around, pray for them, call them, visit them, do something unexpectedly nice for them. God promises to bless us when we do.

See You In Worship, 

Pastor John