Fathers Are Honored by Obedient Children
Bobby Dockery

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am a Master, where is My reverence? says the Lord of hosts…” (Malachi 1:6).

THE CHRISTIAN HOME
Our fathers deserve to be honored, but there is always a danger that the honor we give them will be more a thing of bare formality than a genuine outpouring of respect. We may simply go through the motions without really honoring.

There is a spiritual dimension to this problem as well. All of us have two fathers—one on earth and One in heaven! It may be that we are guilty of a lack of genuine honor and respect where each of them is concerned!

1) Fathers are honored by obedience. Genuine respect is always linked to obedience in the Bible: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise” (Ephesians 6:1,2). Note the linkage between obedience and honor! A son or daughter who defies his or her father to his face… who deliberately disobeys a father’s instructions… who refuses to be submissive to a father’s wishes… is proclaiming loudly to the world, “I do not respect my father!” All the presents in the world on Father’s Day will not make up for a disrespectful attitude, which exhibits itself in disobedience. A present means nothing if there is no respect behind it—and respect obeys!

2) This is also true when it comes to our Father in heaven. God accused His people in the days of Malachi of refusing to honor Him because they refused to honor His instructions (Malachi 1:6; 2:9). Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me keep my commandments.” And then, in 1 John 2:3,4 we read, “Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”

3) We must obey God in every area of life! The Bible insists that “though Jesus was a son, yet He learned obedience…” (Hebrews 5:8,9). We must cultivate the same spirit of obedience as well! This is true when it comes to our standards of personal conduct, to the way we worship and serve God in the church, and to what we do in order to become His child! In the final analysis, the degree of your respect and honor for God is measured precisely by the extent of your obedience!

It is important to have the right kind of relationship with our earthly fathers—it is far more important to have the right kind of relationship with our Father who is in heaven. Are you honoring God with your obedience to Him? ❦

Copied from “The Reminder”
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