 |
|
|
 The Fourth Commandment
In the Luther Bible, the fourth commandment reads
“You shall honour your father and your mother, that you may live long in the land that the Lord, your God, will give you.” In the standardized translation used by the Catholic and Protestant Churches in Germany, it says: “Honour your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land, which the Lord, your God, gives you.”
Christ, the revealing Spirit, teaches the following: Our Father and mother, too, are our neighbour. We should respect and cherish them, we should carry them – like all people – in our heart, but honour is due to God, our Lord, alone. So we should differentiate between “respecting” and “honouring”. We honour God by loving Him above all things, by setting Him above our human aspects and by clearing up our humanness, our sinfulness, with His power. We respect our neighbour by wishing him well from our hearts, by meeting him with understanding, by not being envious of him or belittling him, by leaving him his freedom and by doing for him first what we expect of him.
Children, like parents, are children of God. And so, they are brothers and sisters. In the child which, in the process of growing, has to learn and form the programmes for its life on earth, lives a mature spirit being. The parents are just older in years; according to the law of God they are brothers and sisters to their children, who are entrusted to them for care and protection.
The words “so that you may live long in the land that the Lord, your God, gave you” mean: The person who keeps the laws of God will have a harmonious life. He will not have any serious turning-points in his life either, neither through severe illnesses or through an early death. He will also live in peace with his neighbour, and so all those who keep this commandment and the other commandments will be able to live peacefully together “in the land”.
to "The Fifth Commandment" / return to "The Third Commandment"
"The letter comes alive only when the person begins to fulfil the commandments. Through this, he gradually grows into the all-encompassing law of love and life. Only the one who fulfils the laws with his heart and in the spirit of love will recognize the all-encompassing law and so find his way to the truth, which is within, in the soul of man."
from:"This Is My Word"
Also available as a book "The Ten Commandments of GOD" from Verlag DAS WORT.
|
|
