Every year on the calendars used in North America, one day is set aside to remember Mom — Mother’s Day.
While we may not know the origin of the practice, it is a very good thing to take time to emphasize the importance and dearness of our mothers. It gives her some respect in a convenient way that might not otherwise be available to us. Sadly enough, as important and as key a figure in our lives as Mother is, many times this day itself is the only expressed gift they get with a greeting card, box of candy or flowers as a token of love.
Normally as we grow older, there are many ways in which we recall our mothers — often it is her instruction and correction we remember in raising our own children. For those of us in the Truth, these are the more appreciated qualities we treasure for which we thank her.
The Word of God is the true means of instruction, but it is Mother who is God’s primary vessel to convey that instruction in the early years. She is the one to whom He has entrusted the weighty responsibility of nurturing -for she is the one who will probably be around the child the most.
We would like to point out that we view being a mother as a privilege and not a commandment. It may have been for Adam and Eve or in Noah’s day when the earth needed to be “replenished:” but in this age where wickedness abounds more like Sodom and Gomorrah every day, careful thought needs to be given to the real purpose of procreating. Our purpose should be to help create and mold those who will be part of that new age to come when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9).
We wonder how many look at motherhood, or fatherhood, with God’s ultimate purpose in mind. In the day to day correcting and guiding of little ones, we would think that His purpose would be the ideal to keep always before us rather than merely wishing to see a reproduction of ourselves in the union of husband and wife. To want children merely to adorn our own image is a limited view for those of us in the Truth who are, by His grace, children of God.
Children are not a novelty item to be decked out with the latest fashions or to receive all that this world can offer. Children are an entrusted gift, “an heritage of the Lord” for the Lord. They should be raised in singleness of heart always with the goal of the Kingdom at the forefront of the family’s mind.
Respect of Parents
Filial sentiments rank next to piety toward God and ensure most distinguished rewards. The first of the ten commands with promise attached is to “Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee” (Ex. 20:12).
The blessing of eternal life (thy days long m the land) is given to those who are obedient and submit to authority. See the point? If we submit to the authority of our parents, we can then transfer this attitude and submit to the authority of our Heavenly Father. We must train our children to learn obedience now so that in their adult life they may render obedience to their divine Father.
In Deut. 27, Moses and the elders of the people gave commandments which were later engraved in plaister after the people passed over the Jordan into Canaan. These were presented in the form of cursings for wicked acts and the second of these was “Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother” (v.16).
To “set light by” is to hold in contempt, to contemn, to despise, to lightly esteem to regard as base or vile. Pretty strong words, but to set light by is amplified as: despising one’s mother in Prov. 15:20; cursing one’s father and not blessing one’s mother in Prov. 30:11; despising to obey one’s mother in Prov. 30:17; dishonoring parents in Micah 7:6 — common things we hear about these days. Yet these very same things were reasons for which people could be put to death! They were capital offences!
“Setting light by” one’s parents was so bad in Christ’s time that he singles out the issue for reproof: “…Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightiest be profited by me; he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered” (Mk. 7:9-13).
Cursing one’s father or mother was as offensive and fatal as idolatry, murder, despising the sabbath or adultery (Ex. 22:20; Gen. 9:6; Ex. 35:2; Lev. 20:10).
Not Like Today
Another capital offence is found in Deut 21:19-21: “If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him will not hearken unto them: then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; and they shall say unto the elders of the city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear.”
This picture is a far cry from the principles and ethics of Jesus’ time and so much farther from today’s!! But instead of just being impressed with the severity of the punishment for the crime, shouldn’t we see the emphasis God has put upon obedience to one’s parents?
Obedience to Parents
The apostle Paul emphasized obedience when he wrote to the Ephesians: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right;” and to the Colossians: “Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.”
And let us take careful notice of what the apostle says in I Tim. 5:4: “But if any widow have children or nephews, let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.” To “requite” one’s parents is to recompense, to restore, to give back.
What were they to give back?
In this particular case, it was to provide for their parents as their parents had once provided for them. But this is not always necessary, for the apostle also said: “the children ought not to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children” (II Cor. 12:14). In most cases, the requiting of our parents takes the form of respect and obedience.
Instead of candy or flowers, we all have a much more effective way of “giving back” to our parents. Whether in deed or in memory, whether a widow or not, we have the instruction to “requite” our parents and “that is good and acceptable before God.”
Let us remember our mothers and our fathers not only with the temporary tokens of this world but also with the filial respect and affection that is pleasing to God and will contribute so importantly to our living for ever upon the earth.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One