“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.” Exodus 20:12 (Deut. 5:16)

This commandment of the LORD requires us to honor our parents as our God-given representatives. Children are to obey their parents; and parents – especially fathers – are to bring up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:1-4; Col. 3:20-21; Deut. 6:4-9).

And notice that this commandment contains a reason to obey – a promise: “that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth” (Eph. 6:3).

What does it mean? Well, to disobey and dishonor our parents brings us all sorts of trouble and usually leads to disobeying our teachers in school, our pastors at church, and our government leaders, resulting in a troubled life and often spiritual and eternal death. And, God punishes those who disrespect and disobey their parents and promises blessing and long life to those who obey and respect their parents and others in authority over them (cf. Prov. 30:17; Rom. 13:2).

This command, too, extends to others whom God has placed over us in civil government, the church, and at work and in school.

The Bible tells us: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God” (Rom. 13:1); and, “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you” (Heb. 13:17; cf. 1 Pet. 2:17ff.; Eph. 6:5ff.; Col. 3:18ff.).

The only exception to God’s command to honor and obey parents is that “we ought to obey God rather than men” when there exists a conflict between the will of parents and other authorities and the will of God Himself (Acts 5:29).

And this commandment does not end when we are grown because the Bible also commands us to honor and care for our parents in their old age.

1 Timothy 5:4 says to grown children: “Let them learn first to shew piety at home, and to requite their parents: for that is good and acceptable before God.”

Children sin against God when they disobey their parents and do not show them the honor and respect which God requires. Parents, too, are guilty of sin when they do not bring up their children to know the LORD and His ways. All of us are guilty when we do not submit to our government and its laws in all matters except where they contradict God’s Word. And, we are guilty when we do not heed the admonitions of our pastors and spiritual leaders when they rightly apply God’s Word to our lives.

How thankful we can be that Jesus Christ kept this commandment perfectly for us, not only in deed but in word and desire! The Scriptures tell us that He submitted Himself to His parents and honored them (Luke 2:51; cf. John 19:25-27). And, how thankful we can be that Jesus also bore upon the cross the just punishment for our sin (1 Cor. 15:3-4; 1 John 2:1ff.)! Through faith in Him, we sinners find pardon and forgiveness. In Him, we find strength and guidance to amend our ways and live in accord with God’s will and command.

Dear Lord Jesus, Son of God and our Savior, forgive our sins against the perfect will of You, our God and Maker, and give us the desire to live our lives for You in accord with Your holy Word. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.]

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Matthew 18:21-22 (Read Matt. 18:21-35)

How often should we forgive a brother or sister who sins against us? This is the question Peter asked of Jesus after Jesus instructed His disciples in regard to binding or not forgiving the sins of impenitent sinners and loosing or forgiving the sins of those who repent.

Note Jesus’ answer: “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” Jesus did not mean only 490 times, but all the time! Like our Lord, we are always to be “good, and ready to forgive” (Psalm 86:5).

The parable of the unforgiving servant which follows illustrates Jesus’ point to Peter. A certain servant owed the king such a great amount that he would never be able to work off and repay his debt. When the king justly would have sold him and all that he had to recover at least a part of this debt, the servant pleaded for mercy. And the king was moved to compassion and forgave the entire debt.

We, like the first servant in this parable, owe to God a greater debt than we can ever repay. Our sins against the LORD God are so great that there is no hope of us ever repaying or making amends for our sins – even thinking that we could do so is foolishness. God’s law, therefore, demands that we be cast into hell’s eternal prison and suffer there forever the just penalty for our sins (cf. Rom. 3:9ff.; 6:23a). Indeed, there is nothing we can do but plead for mercy!

And God, like the king in Jesus’ parable, is merciful. He sent His only-begotten Son into the world to live a righteous and holy life in our stead and then to pay in full the debt of our sins and the sins of all by suffering our just punishment as He was crucified and died on the cross. God accepted Christ’s atoning sacrifice and raised Him up and, in the Gospel, God offers to us through faith in Christ mercy instead of judgment, forgiveness instead of eternal damnation (cf. 1 Cor. 15:3-4; Rom. 3:21ff.; 5:6ff.).

When we look to God in faith, seeking His mercy in Christ Jesus and for the sake of Christ’s atoning sacrifice on the cross, God graciously forgives our entire debt of sin. “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).

But then there is the second part of Jesus’ parable. This same servant went out and found a fellow servant who owed him only a very small and insignificant amount in comparison with the huge debt which had been forgiven him. Rather than showing mercy to this servant as he had been shown mercy by his lord, he refused to forgive this small debt and “cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.”

When the king saw that his compassion and forgiveness had no effect on this unforgiving servant, he was angry and “delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.”

In our earthly lives, others sin against us many times; but this debt of sin, though it may seem great to us, is small and insignificant in comparison with the great debt of sin that the LORD God has forgiven us for Jesus’ sake. As a fruit of our faith, and as a result of God’s great mercy to us in Christ Jesus, we ought also to forgive those who sin against us, even “up to seventy times seven.”

In fact, the Bible urges us to “be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Eph. 4:32).

If we refuse to forgive from our hearts those who sin against us, neither will our heavenly Father forgive us; instead, He will cast us into the fires of hell to pay in full the punishment due unto us for our sins (cf. Matt. 6:12,14-15).

Forgive our sins, Lord, we implore, remove from us their burden sore, as we their trespasses forgive who by offenses us do grieve. Thus let us dwell in charity and serve our brother willingly. Amen. — “Our Father, Thou in Heaven Above,” Martin Luther, The Lutheran Hymnal, Hymn 458, v. 6

[Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.]

And when he had come near, he beheld the city and wept over it, saying, “If you, even you, had only known in this day the things which belong to your peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. For the days shall come upon you, that your enemies shall build a barricade about you, encompass you, keep you in on every side, and shall lay you and your children within you even with the ground. And they shall not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation.” Luke 19:41-44

Luke’s gospel tells us that Jesus, when He drew near to the city of Jerusalem, wept over it because its people did not recognize Him as their Messiah and Savior — they did not know and recognize the things which make for peace between God and man; they were hidden from their eyes. Jesus loved them and shed His blood in death upon a cross to redeem them, but they didn’t know and didn’t see and didn’t repent and turn to Him in faith!

As a result of their unbelief, God’s judgment would come upon them. The words of Jesus were fulfilled when the Roman armies besieged and destroyed the city and the temple in 70 A.D. The people were killed and taken away captive.

In Luke 21:20-24, Jesus had said, “And when you see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are in the midst of it depart from it, and do not let those who are in the countries enter into it. For these are the days of vengeance so that all things which are written may be fulfilled. But woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there shall be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword and shall be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”

But does Jesus also weep over you? Does He weep because He willingly went to the cross and paid in full for all your sins and yet you do not recognize Him and His sacrifice and you continue on in impenitence and unbelief?

The Bible says of Jesus in Matthew 9:36: “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion for them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.”

And people today are no different than people of Jesus’ day. They wander to and fro like sheep without a shepherd. They do not recognize their own utter sinfulness, nor do they recognize Jesus as God’s Son in human flesh and their Savior from sin and eternal death.

We see it in family members and friends, coworkers and acquaintances. They are lost and headed for the fires of hell and don’t even know it. They may know of Jesus, but they do not know Him and trust in Him for pardon and peace, forgiveness and life everlasting!

Yes, Jesus weeps, and we weep with Him in sorrow as we see people living their lives in ignorance of Jesus and what He in love has done for them — in ignorance of the judgment which is soon coming upon them.

Does Jesus weep over you? Does He weep because He loves you and went to the cross and paid in full for all your sins and yet you do not recognize Him and His sacrifice for you and you continue on in impenitence and unbelief?

The Bible tells us in Isaiah 53:6: “We have all like sheep gone astray. We have each turned to his own way, and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

We’ve all sinned and gone astray! We were all headed toward eternal condemnation! But God the Father sent His Son, Christ Jesus, and charged Him with our sin. Christ died in our stead. He bore the punishment for your sins and mine and rose again from the dead on the third day that we might repent and look to Him in faith and receive God’s pardon and forgiveness! God desires our salvation! He sent His Son to redeem us, and He sends His Word and the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sins and to move us to look to Jesus our Savior in faith!

There is sorrow when we do not repent and look to Jesus, but there is joy when we, by the grace of God, trust in Jesus and are saved!

O dearest Jesus, eternal Son of God and son of man, open my eyes to Your love and mercy, cleanse me from all my sins and give me life in fellowship with You, the Father and the Holy Spirit through faith in Your sacrifice for my sins. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from the Revised Common Version.]

“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4

With parenting comes great responsibility toward God, who creates and gives life to children in their mothers’ wombs (cf. Ps. 139:13-16; Gen. 1:27-28).

After giving His law, the LORD God, through Moses, commanded His people: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: and thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deut. 6:4-7).

And, as God’s people under Moses were to circumcise their sons and teach their children to know the LORD God and love Him, so also God commands parents today to bring their children to Him in baptism and to bring them up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4; cf. Matt. 28:18-20; Act. 2:38-39; Tit. 3:4-7; Col. 2:11-15; John 3:3-6).

Not doing so causes these little ones to sin or stumble in regard to faith in Christ Jesus and results in the eternal ruin of their souls.

And Jesus said: “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matt. 18:6).

This warning of God’s judgment upon those who cause children who believe to sin and fall away from their faith in Christ Jesus ought to make parents and others all the more diligent to bring up their children to know and trust in Christ Jesus as their Savior and to walk in His ways!

O God, for the sake of Christ Jesus and His perfect sacrifice on the cross for the sins of the world, mercifully forgive us where we have failed in our responsibilities to bring up our children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Give us Your wisdom and strength that we might bring our children to Christ in baptism and teach them all things that He has commanded. Amen.

[Scripture is quoted from the King James Version of the Bible.]

“Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” Acts 2:38-39

In his Pentecost sermon, Peter told his Jewish hearers that they had rejected and crucified the Messiah and Savior sent for them by the LORD God, and they were pricked in their hearts and asked what they should do.

Peter’s response to them was: “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, Save yourselves from this untoward generation.”

While we may not like to think of it, Messiah Jesus was crucified because of you and me as well. As it says in Isaiah 53:6, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”

And, when we continue on in our own ways instead of turning back to the LORD God and His Christ, we tread under our feet the Son of God and count the blood of the covenant which He shed on the cross to redeem us a common and unholy thing and despise and reject the gracious working of the Holy Spirit to bring us to repentance (cf. Heb. 10:29).

Peter’s answer to his Jewish hearers is just as valid today for you and me and the rest of this fallen and sinful world. We have, by our sins, crucified the LORD’s Christ and the only way we can be saved is to repent and be baptized in the name of Messiah Jesus for the full and free remission of all our sins. Then we too will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit who regenerates us and creates and preserves faith in our hearts in the Lord Jesus (cf. Tit. 3:3-7).

To be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ is, of course, to be baptized in the name of the Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – as Jesus Himself commanded (Matt. 28:19).

And, as Luther explained, to continue in baptismal grace is to continue to live in daily contrition and repentance, daily acknowledging and confessing our sins and failures and looking to the Lord Jesus and His blood shed for us upon the cross for our forgiveness and for life everlasting (cf. Romans 6:1ff.; 1 John 1:7 – 2:2).

O dearest Lord Jesus, Son of God and our Savior, forgive us for our sin and rebellion against You and grant that we live in continual repentance, acknowledging and turning from our evil ways to You for mercy, forgiveness, and life everlasting. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]