All That We Have Discussed and understood in reference to honoring our father and mother is exemplified in the behavior of Jesus. We look now at Jesus as an example to help us see the fulfillment of this command and the measure of our own behavior. He honored his Father to the fullest extent and obeyed His will to the utmost of human ability. As a result, God has honored Christ, who now sits on the right hand of power in heaven.
How Jesus honored his Father
Jesus honored his Father in everything he did. For ease of comprehension, his honor can be broken into four different behaviors.
- Christ understood his Father’s will (Luke 22:42).
- Christ loved God above all other things (John 14:31).
- Christ obeyed his Father’s commands (also John 14:31).
- Christ humbled himself to his Father’s will (Phil. 2:3-8).
There are more detailed ways Christ honored his Father, but each has a root in these four aspects. Perhaps we can understand how Christ honored God most clearly by looking at a situation when doing so was most difficult. We read of Jesus praying to God in the Garden of Gethsemane in the gospel of Luke.
Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him… .He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, ‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done’ (Luke 22:39-43 NIV).
Understanding and honor
Understanding God is essential to loving and honoring him. We approach God intelligently, understanding that we are sacrificing our will, but also comprehending why. Understanding God’s will and plan is one of the main objectives behind our Bible study and Bible reading.
I’m sure that parents can relate to why it’s important for a child to develop an understanding of their will. At a very young age children can grasp the words yes and no. In time, children hopefully begin to appreciate why yes is yes and why no is no. Ideally, as they mature, children will make the right decisions even in situations in which their parents have not given them a specific command and are not supervising them.
Understanding ‘why’ helps children to move beyond simply following rules and into the development of character. It is easy to see that Christ leans intensely on his knowledge of God’s will while in Gethsemane.
Love and honor
Knowledge by itself is not enough for Jesus to bring honor to God. Just because we know what’s right and what’s wrong does not mean we will do what’s right. Jesus emphasizes that his love for God is his motivation to do what is right in his Father’s eyes. Transitively, Jesus implores his disciples to use their love for him as a motivation for their own obedience. This is all brought together in John 15:10: “If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”
It’s good to know that Jesus uses his relationship with his Father as an example to his disciples. According to Jesus, obedience, and love are the keys to righteous behavior and they here form the central theme of Jesus message to his disciples. I should emphasize that obedience by itself or for a reward is not righteousness [see Legalism vs. Faith— David Levin], but obedience as an outcome of faith and love is. According to Jesus, obedience is a work of love. Just look at the following verses all from John 14 & 15 in the NIV:
If you love me, you will obey what I command (14:15).
Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching’ (14:23).
But the world must learn that I love the Father and that I do exactly what my Father has commanded me (14:31).
You are my friends if you do what I command (15:14).
This is my command: Love each other (15:17).
Learning how to love
We need to love our parents! Perhaps it is not enough to just be told you should. Love is something that is very difficult to just start doing. Hopefully we do love our parents, and I only need to remind us how we put that love into practice. This much is clear: Jesus loved his Father and was therefore obedient to all his Father’s commands. Jesus’ obedience helped him to fulfill his Father’s will and to honor him.
I wish that everyone felt the love deep within his/her heart that I feel for my mother and father. I have been blessed, because my Mom and Dad make it easy for me to love them. But that doesn’t negate the point that to honor them is a command. Jesus is saying very simply to follow his example. If you don’t honor your parents because you love them, honor them because you love Jesus.
Jesus expected us to love and honor many individuals that we wouldn’t normally. We don’t always like our neighbors let alone love them. And how could anyone ever love his or her enemy? However, we can love our neighbor or our enemy regardless, if that love is an outcome of our love for God. Honor your parents by loving them, and love them by obeying them.
Humility and honor
It is not only Jesus who tells us to use his relationship with his Father as an example of honor. Paul brings Jesus’ humble and intelligent obedience to the remembrance of the Philippians. He pleads with the Philippians to honor one another by being of one mind, counting each other better than themselves, and looking to help one another. To help punctuate this message Paul gives us the example of Jesus:
Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who… being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient (even) unto death, yea, the death of the cross (Phil. 2:5-8 ASV).
Paul does something very special here. He takes Christ’s relationship with his Father and makes that the benchmark for how we should be to one another. To Paul, humility is the characteristic that best exemplifies Christ’s attitude. Jesus honored God by humbling himself to God’s will. Christ knew full well the plan of God. He understood why he was born in the fashion of a man. Understanding God’s will also meant Jesus knew what incredible power he had. Being a man, Jesus was tempted to misuse that power. So understanding the will of God was not enough. To that understanding Christ added a deep humility to put God’s will above his own.
Like Jesus, for us to honor our parents we must develop humility. It means that we’re going to do what they would like us to, even when it’s not what we want. We have to see honoring them as more important than honoring ourselves. But we don’t do it naively. We should also understand that God honors those who honor Him, but not as though we deserve it. What has a child done to deserve a parent’s care? But God gives grace to those who display the fruits of their love and faith. God responded to Jesus’ humble obedience by honoring him: “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9).
The fruits of love
The key to Jesus being honored by God was ultimately his obedience to the cross. Obedience however is but a fruit of love and humility. Paul sees obedience as an outward showing of Christ’s inward spirit of selflessness and love toward God and his brethren. One may fall into the trap of overemphasizing a legalistic dogma of obedience and reward when studying a commandment in the law. That is not Christ’s message, nor how he honored his Father. Christ understood his Father’s will, and he also understood his Father’s spirit. This understanding generated faith, love, adoration, and a humble acceptance of his role. These inner convictions of Christ found outward show in his obedience. Thus through it all Christ honored his Father.
Paul concludes his thoughts to the Philippians with this charge to continue in their obedience:
So then, my beloved, even as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12 ASV).
We attempt to work out our own salvation by implementing piece by piece a righteous and Christ-like character. As young people we need to learn to love, respect, and humble ourselves to honor our father and mother, even as Christ commanded that we honor his Father in heaven. We show this through a motivated love and service that is born out of a mind to understand God and a humble heart to esteem His will greater than our own. That we honor our father and mother is God’s will.
Jesus imitated his Father
Lastly, parents, we should remember that while Christ is a wonderful example for us youths in honoring our mother and father, Christ also had a wonderful example in God to use in developing his character. Christ worked to put his character and will in such union with his Father that Jesus could say when you saw him that you saw his Father. Think of how profound a claim that is to make. Now think, “When I see myself, do I see my father or mother?” Perhaps that last point may sound overstated. We each desire to be individuals and to create our own sense of self. However, the issue is not one of personality, brothers and sisters, it is an issue of character. As parents, do we display the qualities of righteousness from which our children can learn and emulate as servants of God? Young people will imitate. I’ve never seen a child who didn’t imitate those he or she was around. As parents find out, children imitate what they see more than what they hear. We should realize that Jesus did the same. Jesus tells us very plainly that he imitates his Father:
Jesus gave them this answer: ‘I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself– he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does (John 5:19-20 NIV). Jesus is our example, and God was Jesus’ example. Jesus honored God in all the words he spoke and all the works that he performed (John 14:10). He did so by loving his Father, intimately knowing His will, and humbly esteeming that will as greater than his own. The challenge is the same for us brothers, sisters, and young people. Let us learn to honor our parents better, honor our Savior better, and honor our Heavenly Father better. And may our Heavenly Father one day honor us, through grace, by sharing with us His glory.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One