Solomon grounds the fear of God, the basis of the whole religious life, upon the duty of obedience to parents.
I. It is not mere children to whom he is speaking; he is addressing young persons who have come to that period of life at which they can go wrong if they will, when the actual restraint of parents is past.
II. It is the mark of a young person being very much fallen from the safe narrow path, when he allows himself to be tempted, whether in company or in his own heart, to be ashamed or think lightly of the law of his father and his mother. If the lessons of childhood which we learn from our mothers be really and truly the most valuable that we ever do learn, is not Solomon right in speaking of him as in the true road to wisdom who reverences the law of his mother, and wears it with pride as a precious chain about his neck, and in declaring, on the other hand, the folly and wickedness of him who despises his mother's lessons?
III. That habit of mind which is indicated by the figure of the text is the habit of mind which leads to all high and noble feelings. Give me a man who has shown himself in all respects a good and dutiful son, and I have very little fear that he will be a good member of society, a loyal subject of the Queen, a man of open and honourable heart, a good husband, and a good father. This will be the case because excellence in all these conditions of life requires the same simplicity of heart, the same unselfishness, the same practical wisdom, and the same obedience to the behests of gratitude and of conscience which the keeping of the Fifth Commandment requires.
Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,2nd series, p. 262.
References: Proverbs 1:8. W. Arnot, Laws from Heaven,1st series, p. 25.Proverbs 1:9 . Ibid.,p. 30.