We find throughout the law that this commandment was put forth as the great foundation on which others were built. On him "that setteth light by his father or his mother" was one of the curses pronounced on Mount Ebal; and it was commanded, "He that curseth his father or his mother shall surely be put to death."
I. The keeping of this commandment implies and produces a certain temper of mind which we call meekness. So far as anything like peace can be obtained in this world, it can only be obtained by keeping this commandment, by obedience, obedience to God; and this cannot be shown but by obedience to those whom He has set over us.
II. The temper of obedience being, therefore, the very foundation of all true piety, God has so appointed it that men should be all their lives in conditions of life to exercise and practise this habit of mind, first of all as children under parents, then as servants under masters, as subjects under kings, as all under spiritual pastors, and spiritual pastors under their superiors.
III. It is in this temper of meekness, above all, that Christ has set Himself before us as our Pattern. Christ was willingly subject to a poor carpenter in an obscure village, so much so as even to have worked with him, it is supposed, at his trade. He, alone without sin, was subject to sinful parents.
IV. The more difficult it is for children to pay this honour and obedience to parents who may be unworthy, the more sure they may be that it is the narrow way to life and the strait and difficult gate by which they must enter. True love will cover and turn away its eyes from sins and infirmities. For this reason there is a blessing even unto this day on the children of Shem and Japheth, and a curse on the descendants of Ham.
Plain Sermons by Contributors to" Tracts for the Times,"vol. ix., p. 277.
References: Deuteronomy 5:16. J. Oswald Dykes, The Law of the Ten Words,p. 105.Deuteronomy 5:17-21. Ibid.,pp. 123, 139, 155, 171, 189. Deuteronomy 5:22. Old Testament Outlines,p. 49; J. Oswald Dykes, The Law of the Ten Words,p. 1.Deuteronomy 5:24. Spurgeon, Morning by Morning,p. 201.Deuteronomy 5:24-26. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. x., p. 203.Deuteronomy 5:29. R. D. B. Rawnsley, A Course of Sermons for the Christian Year,p. 209. Deuteronomy 5:31. J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Easter to Ascension Day,p. 182.