LAW HOMILY: The Hidden Sin of Dishonor

The Fifth Commandment and the Call to Honor Authority

The law that we're focused on today is the 5th commandment, Exodus 20, verse 12. This is what it says, honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

Now the 5th commandment calls us to honor those who are in authority over us, not just in the home, but in every sphere that God has established, whether it be in families and governments or in the household of faith.

The Westminster Larger Catechism teaches that this includes not only our natural parents, but all superiors in age and gift, and especially as such, by God's ordinance, are over us in places of authority.

Honor as Inward Reverence, Not Mere Niceness

In other words, honor is not confined to the dinner table, it extends to every relationship where God has brought order. But honor is not simply being nice. Plenty of us can do that with a smile. But it's not passivity or pretending either, it's an inward reverence for God's order that expresses itself in word, tone, and action.

It builds up purposefully rather than tearing down. It moves towards unity rather than fragmentation. And yet, how often do all of us fall short of this? We live in a culture that disciples us to be suspicious of authority, and fluent in complaining.

That spirit can subtly slip into the church if we're not careful. When we treat leaders as if they're easily dismissed or perpetually disappointing, when we withhold honor until we all agree, or when we use words not to bless but to subtly divide, when we nurture criticisms more than prayer.

Hidden Forms of Dishonor and the Heart of the Command

Dishonor doesn't always look like a full-on Marxist rebellion. Sometimes it looks like murmuring. Sometimes it hides behind sarcasm. Sometimes it dresses itself in cleverness, but God sees through all of it.

And this command cuts down to the very cardiac muscle itself, the heart. And what it is teaching us is that God himself will hold us responsible not only for the tone, not only for the facial shapes that we make towards those that we are in relationship with, but the way in which our heart actually, whether we honor them or not.

And in that way, I think all of us have room for repentance. I think all of us have room to say that, yeah, there's been a time even this week where I was faking it. I was not thrilled, not pleased. I was not in a good mood.

This person saw what they saw of me, but what was really me was a little bit different. So with that, however that affects you, however that hits you, let us pray. Let us go to the throne of grace and let us receive his forgiveness because he is merciful and kind and good.

Christ, the Spirit, and Healing the Heart

And he died for all of our big sins and even our microaggressions. Let's pray. Lord, as I think about this, I think about how a disciplined man or woman, a self-controlled man or woman could mimic Christian honor by simply just being in control of their body.

And yet what we cannot mimic is the heart. What we absolutely need, the spirit of God to do a work in us is what we can't accomplish on our own. So Holy Spirit, I would just ask that you would do a surgery in our hearts.

That you would cause the internal feelings of disappointment, frustration, jealousy, bitterness, regret, whatever it is, that you would cause those things to be healed by the gospel of Jesus so that our hearts would actually be whole, so that our hearts would have peace, so that our hearts would have love because you first loved us.

And Lord, forgive us as we fall short. Forgive us as we fall short so much. When we think about the heart level issues, we fall short a lot. Lord, help us, help us to confess our sins joyfully and help us to receive your grace gladly because you gladly offered it to us in Christ.

It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.