Honor Those Over Us
Ten Commandments
July 14, 2024
Rev. Dr. Gabe Sylvia
The sermon calls believers to honor and submit to earthly authorities—parents, spouses, employers, and rulers—as a training ground for submitting to God, critiques cultural devaluation of the old and exaltation of the young, and reminds listeners that God provides grace and the Holy Spirit (and the Lord's Supper) to enable faithful obedience and bring blessing now and in eternity.
Summary
The preacher unpacks the fifth commandment and Paul’s teaching in Ephesians, arguing that contemporary culture often undermines honoring parents by giving unearned status to youth and devaluing the elderly. He stresses that ‘inferiors’ simply means those under authority, not that they lack worth, and that children, wives, bondservants, and workers are called to show honor and obedience as training for submitting to the Lord. Wives receive grace through Christ to fulfill their calling; children learn lifelong obedience by practicing it early; and all believers are urged to respect earthly authorities (employers, leaders, teachers, etc.) because God places them in their roles. Finally, the sermon emphasizes that God not only commands this submission but equips us through the Holy Spirit and the Lord’s Table, calling us to prepare our hearts to receive the grace needed to live these demanding commands.
Key Points
- Culture often undermines honoring parents by elevating youth and devaluing the aged.
- ‘Inferiors’ refers to those under authority, not to diminished worth.
- Honoring and revering superiors is a training ground for obeying God and other authorities.
- Parents’ failure to demand obedience contributes to youth contempt for authority.
- Paul addresses specific relationships: wives, children, bondservants, and others under authority.
- Wives’ submission is framed as training in submission to God and is enabled by Christ’s grace.
- Children who practice obedience learn to submit to the Lord as adults; independent self-reliance is not the good life.
- Earthly authorities (employers, elders, teachers, officials) deserve respect because their work is hard and their placement is by God.
- God equips believers for obedience through the Holy Spirit and the means of grace (notably the Lord’s Supper).
- Obedience and honoring authority bring present and future blessing; we must prepare our hearts to receive grace upon grace.
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