6/21/2026 - "Honor Your Parents" - Father's Day

Colossians 3:20 says, “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.” The fourth commandment takes that word and stretches it beyond biological parents to every place where God has put authority over a person. Government, teachers, employers, bosses, babysitters, and pastors all stand in offices that God himself has given.

Honor means more than simply liking someone or doing what that person says. Honor includes love, modesty, humility, and deference, as Luther says, “as to a majesty there hidden.” The commandment teaches that parents and other authorities are not honored because they are better, holier, or less sinful, but because God has placed them there to act as his agents. To despise them is not finally just to despise a parent, ruler, boss, or pastor, but to despise God’s ordering of life.

The heavier burden falls on those who hold authority. Parents are to love their children sacrificially. Government is to seek the welfare of citizens. Employers are to care for workers rather than exploit them. Teachers are to help students. Pastors are to watch over souls as Christ himself would. Authority is meant to show God at work, not self-interest at work.

The commandment exposes sin on both sides. Children back talk, disobey, ridicule, and care more about friends than parents. Adults forget that honoring father and mother has no end date, especially when parents grow aged and infirm. Citizens mock rulers, workers grumble about bosses, and congregations can treat spiritual fathers like “everybody’s garbage and footrag.” Yet authorities also fail. Parents lose patience, rulers serve themselves, bosses abuse power, and pastors become lazy, arrogant, or self-centered.

Jesus comes as the only one who perfectly honors the Father and perfectly honors every office God has established. As a child, Jesus obeyed Mary and Joseph. As a citizen, Jesus honored rulers, even under oppression and injustice. As a Jew, Jesus honored priests and religious leaders, even when they hated him and plotted against him. Jesus kept the fourth commandment in every place where fallen people break it.

His perfection is credited to sinners, and his blood washes away every failure of disrespect, dishonor, and disobedience. His self-giving death shows the Father’s love. The gospel then enables faith to see God at work even through weak and faulty authorities, and to honor, serve, obey, love, and cherish them for his sake.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Honor sees God’s hidden office Honor is not mere politeness or outward obedience. The fourth commandment asks the heart to recognize “a majesty there hidden,” even when the person in authority is weak, ordinary, or unimpressive. Such honor belongs to the office because God has placed the person there, not because the person has earned divine-like trust. [29:07]
• 2. Authority carries the heavier burden Authority is never given for self-protection, self-advancement, or ease. Parents, rulers, employers, teachers, and pastors are placed where others should be able to see something of God’s care at work. When authority becomes exploitation, neglect, laziness, or vanity, the office remains God’s, but the person holding it must answer to him. [31:44]
• 3. The commandment has no end date Honor for father and mother does not expire at adulthood, graduation, independence, or distance. The commandment becomes harder, not easier, when parents become aged, infirm, frustrating, or dependent. Mature honor is often revealed not in childhood compliance, but in costly patience when parents can no longer give back as they once did. [34:05]
• 4. Jesus honored where sinners failed Jesus honored parents, rulers, and religious authorities even when each office was filled by frail or unjust people. His obedience was not naive, since he saw every fault clearly and still fulfilled the law perfectly. His righteousness stands in the place of human dishonor, and his blood cleanses the failures exposed by the commandment. [41:46]
• 5. The gospel teaches real obedience The law exposes disrespect, but the gospel creates the freedom to honor without pretending authorities are flawless. Christ’s sacrificial love shows the Father and draws forth love, service, obedience, and honor from faith. The believer sees weak authorities truly, yet also sees God’s ordering hand behind the office.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [26:55] - Colossians 3:20 and Father’s Day
• [27:41] - The Fourth Commandment Explained
• [28:17] - Authority Beyond Biological Parents
• [29:07] - What It Means To Honor
• [31:19] - The Burden On Those In Authority
• [33:14] - Children And Lifelong Honor
• [34:50] - Citizens, Workers, And Daily Obedience
• [36:23] - Spiritual Fathers And Pastors
• [39:08] - When Authorities Fail Their Office
• [41:46] - Jesus Perfectly Keeps The Commandment
• [42:56] - Christ’s Blood Washes Dishonor Away
• [44:09] - The Gospel Enables Honor

1. In Colossians 3:20, what reason is given for children obeying their parents?
2. Which kinds of people were included under the command to honor father and mother besides biological parents? [28:17]
3. What words were used to describe what honor includes, beyond simple love or outward obedience? [29:07]
4. What examples were given of ways people often fail to honor those in authority, whether parents, rulers, bosses, or pastors? [33:14]

1. If honoring authority means recognizing “a majesty there hidden,” how does that change the way a person sees an ordinary or flawed parent, boss, teacher, ruler, or pastor? [29:13]
2. The commandment extends beyond childhood. Why does honoring father and mother often become harder in adulthood, especially when parents become aged, weak, or dependent? [34:05]
3. Authority is given so that others may see God’s care at work. What does it mean for a parent, employer, ruler, or pastor to reflect that care faithfully, and what happens when that calling is neglected? [31:44]
4. Jesus honored parents, rulers, and religious leaders even when they were sinful and unjust. How does his perfect obedience help believers think about their own failures to honor authority? [41:46]

1. Where is it hardest right now to show honor toward authority—in the home, at work, in civic life, or in the church? What specific patterns of speech or attitude tend to reveal that struggle? [35:06]
2. Honoring parents does not end at age 18. If parents are still living, what might love, patience, and honor look like in this season of life? If the relationship is strained, what would one small faithful step look like? [34:11]
3. In daily work, it is easy to grumble, slack off, or give the minimum. Where is there a temptation to treat work that way, and what might it look like to receive work again as part of Christian life before God? [36:23]
4. Many people find it easier to joke about rulers or complain about them than to pray for them. What usually comes out first in conversation about government—mockery, frustration, indifference, or prayer? What would it look like to change that pattern? [35:25]
5. Those who hold authority carry a heavier burden. For anyone who is a parent, supervisor, teacher, or leader in some setting, where is there a need for repentance—for impatience, self-interest, neglect, or harshness? [40:43]
6. Flawed authority can make honor difficult. How can a believer show real respect for an office without pretending that the person in that office is always right or always wise? [30:41]
7. Christ’s blood covers every failure of disrespect, dishonor, and disobedience. Where is there a need not only to change behavior, but also to receive forgiveness for specific ways of despising authority? [42:56]