Answer. That I show all honor, love and fidelity, to my father and mother, and all in authority over me, and submit myself to their good instruction and correction with due obedience; and also patiently bear with their weakness and infirmities, since it pleases God to govern us with their hand.
Exposition
The Laws of the second table of the Decalogue now follow, the obedience of which has respect to God as well as the commandments of the first table. The works, however, which are here enjoined are performed immediately towards men. The immediate object of the second table is our neighbor, whilst God is the mediate object.
Christ embodies the sum of the obedience required by the second table of the Decalogue in these words: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thuself; and lays down this rule for the better understanding of the precepts of this table: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets.” (Matt. 7:12.) Christ also says, in reference to the whole second table: “And the second is like unto the first” (Matt. 22:39); which must be understood: 1. Of the kind of worship which is enjoined in each table, which is spiritual, and more important than that which is ceremonial. 2. Of the same kind of punishment, which is threatened and inflicted upon all those who violate the commandments of either table; which punishment is eternal 3. Of the inseparable connection which exists between the love of God and our neighbor, which connection is like that of cause and effect; so that the one cannot be without the other.
Obedience to the second table is therefore necessary, and exacted from us by God just as much as obedience to the first table. The reasons of this are such as these: 1. That God himself may be worshipped by this obedience, and that our love to him may be manifested by the love which we cherish towards our neighbor on God’s account. 2. That our conformity with God may be made manifest by the love which we have towards our neighbor. 3. That human society may be preserved, which was formed and constituted by God for the praise and glory of his name.
This fifth commandment, moreover, respecting the honor due to parents, which Jereme expressly calls the fifth in order, is placed first in the second table: 1. Because it is the foundation, cause, and bond of obedience to all the other commandments belonging to this table. For if the obedience can be maintained and enforced, which is due from those who are placed in subjection to their superiors, who should command and preserve, in the name of God, obedience to the commandments which follow this precept of the Decalogue, then will obedience to all the other precepts necessarily follow. 2. Because God has connected with this commandment a special promise of long life, which is always regarded as a great blessing, to those who render obedience to this precept of the Decalogue.
This commandment consists of two parts: a command and a promise. The command is, Honor thy father and thy mother. The design or end of this commandment is the preservation of civil order, which God has appointed in the mutual duties between inferiors and their superiors. Superiors are all those whom God has placed over others, for the purpose of governing and defending them. Inferiors are those whom God has placed under others, that they may be governed and defended by them. Superiors are included in this commandment under the terms father and mother, and are: 1. Parents themselves, from whom we have proceeded. 2. Tutors and guardians of children. 3. Schoolmasters, teachers, and ministers of the gospel. 4. Magistrates, whether high or low. 5. Elders. All these persons, now, together with all others who may be placed in positions of authority, are comprehended under the term parents, as used in this commandment; and are to be honored by us, because God gives them all to us in the place of parents, whose duties they discharge, and are, so to speak, God’s vicegerents in ruling and defending us, having been substituted by God in the room of parents, when the wickedness of men began to increase in the earth.
God, in this commandment, makes mention of parents in preference to other governors, and requires that they should be honored: 1. Because the paternal power and government was the first that was established amongst men. 2. Because this is, as it were, the rule and pattern according to which all other forms of government should be formed and exercised. 3. Because this form of government is the most agreeable to men, so that they readily submit themselves to it 4 Because any and every contempt or disrespect shown to parents, is a sin of the most grievous and aggravated character, and therefore condemned by God and punished most severely, inasmuch as the obligation to honor and obey them is of peculiar force and strength.