Fourth Commandment
What is the fourth commandment?
Honor your father and your mother.
What does this mean?
We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.
With the first three commandments under our belt we have what is called the “first table of the law.” This title refers to a two-fold division of the ten commandments into the first three and the latter seven. This division runs along the lines of our duty toward God and our duty toward our neighbor. Commandments one through three deal chiefly, then, with God, his work, his name, and his word. According to these commandments we know that God has elected to be our God, he has provided us with his name, and he has given us rest and holiness via his Word and Sacraments. Accordingly we handle these gifts appropriately by not having other gods, by using God’s name for godly purposes, and by resting from our labors and work.
As we proceed into the latter seven commandments we will no longer be treating our relationship with God, but our relationship with our neighbor and the first, nearest, and dearest neighbors that any person has is their parents. Parents are the ones to whom all of us owe life, sustenance, protection, community, education, and indeed every other good earthly gift. Because of how lofty and great office of fatherhood and motherhood are some have placed the fourth commandment in the first table of the law because by learning to honor, serve, obey, love, and cherish father and mother we learn how to honor, serve, obey, etc. our Heavenly Father and obey the first commandment.
In Luther’s own treatment of the fourth commandment we are introduced to his understanding of how human society is ordered according to the bible. Following the prophets and apostles, Luther recognizes that God has established society by dividing it into three “estates” or “governments.” The three estates are the church (ecclesia), the household (oeconomia), and the state (politia). Each estate has various offices, vocations, or stations with attendant duties and responsibilities. For Luther, the foundational estate, however, is the household because it is from the family that the church is formed and according to which the government has authority (Gen 2:24; 2:16: 9:6). The family or the household is the basic unit of society— a husband, wife, and children. According to their God given appointments, the father is the head of the household, the mother is the helpmate, and the children are blessed pupils and workers under their parents.
It is thus the duty of parents not only to provide the basic matters of “daily bread” such as home, food, drink, clothing, shoes, etc. It is especially their duty to raise their children both in the faith and in the state, to be good citizens of heaven and citizens of earth. For both, Luther and Melanchthon both put great stock in the artes liberales or the Liberal Arts. In our modern era, the word “liberal” bears particular connotations, however, the original latin root does not suggest a particular political platform, but rather a state of being, namely, “Freedom”. The “liberal” arts are the “free” arts or, to put an even finer point on it, “arts that make a person free.” Through the study of grammar, logic, and rhetoric (the trivium), and astronomy, music, science, and mathematics (the quadrivium), the liberal arts form a person who can read, think, and speak freely, not captive to simplicity, bias, fallacy, or ignorance. Such an education not only makes for good citizens, it is especially suited for the Christian because reading, writing, and speaking are the essential media of the Christian faith. The Bible is God’s Word and as such it needs to be read, interpreted, and spoken. If a person hasn’t been trained how to read, think, or speak, Christianity is fundamentally inaccessible. For this reason some of the greatest educators and educational systems in the world have belonged to the church.
Because of the strains and difficulties of this life, however, it often happens that parents are not able themselves to educate or discipline their children and as such they delegate some of their parental responsibilities to other various authorities. For this reason, Luther will distinguish between fathers according to blood and fathers according to office. Thus, the fourth commandment applies not only to parents in the strict sense, but also to all those who bear authority such as pastors (spiritual fathers), teachers (fathers of learning), government officials (civil fathers), and employers (fathers of business). All these various office holders are, like father and mother, worthy of honor, love, and respect because all of these offices have their institution and authority from God (Rom 13:1-7). This is especially true when the person who inhabits a particular office is found lacking. Despite human deficiency, each office holder has their sufficiency from God and is therefore still due obedience, honor, respect, and love.
This distinction between the office and the person is helpful in navigating the day to day strain that is part and parcel of obedience and submission. However, the question still remains whether or not we are to obey in every circumstance without question. The answer is, “No.” Acts 5:29 very clearly indicates that when there is a conflict between what God says and what others says, “We must obey God rather than men,” and likewise Jesus tells his disciples, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” No earthly authority ought to be obeyed contrary to the Word of God. Furthermore, in this regard it is helpful to distinguish between what the government and other authorities “permit” and what they “order” people to do. When one is “compelled” to sin against God, the Christian is compelled to civil disobedience, with the understanding that lawful and just civil punishment can and will ensue for all disobedience. However, when one is “permitted” to sin against God, the Christian is given to freely confess and live in a manner that accords with God’s will and truth. In our modern era, such “permissions” would include the government’s endorsement of sins like no-fault divorce, abortion, and same-sex unions.
Finally, it is worth examining what specifically is prohibited and commanded by the fourth commandment. The first couplet given by Luther is, “despising and angering” parents and authorities. This would include looking down upon them or making fun of them (Prov 23:22) and disobeying or rebelling against their God-given authority (Prov 15:20). In lieu of these, the Christian ought to receive and recognize those in authority as God’s representatives by honoring them (Mark 7:10-12), obeying our parents, pastors, teachers, employers, and government officials (Heb 13:17; Rom 13:1-7), and loving and cherishing them on account of their vocations (Luke 2:51). The fourth commandment not only comes with these prohibitions and commands, however. It uniquely also contains a promise, “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Of the commandments it is the only explicitly with this promise, but it is a promise that applies to the fulfillment of all the law. The law applies to the body and benefits the body. If obedience is rendered, life is given as a consequence. This is dramatically put on display negatively by the Deuteronomistic law concerning a “rebellious son” (Deut 21:18-21). This is perhaps the oldest rendition of the classic dictum, “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out of it.”
Prayer: Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood on earth is given: give unto us gratitude for the gifts of parents and others in authority and the humility to serve, obey, love, and cherish them as they fulfill the duties and responsibilities you have assigned to them in this life; through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
-Rev. Philip D. Bartelt
