Kingdom Knights: Fight the Scandal

1 Peter 3:15-16: "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander." (NIV)

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Discussion Starter

Discussion Starter:Which is harder to do: Obey or Honor your parents?

posted by Jonathan M @ 4:56 PM  

6 Comments:

  • At 10:18 PM, January 29, 2006, Blogger David Ketter said…

    Excellent question.

    Personally, I think it is harder to honor your parents. I have a few answers - based on experience, logic, and philosophy (of course, I always have to complicate things with that, lol).

    Experience says that you can obey them without honoring them. Honor implies respect and willing submission to the authorities. Obedience can be done grudgingly or even without any quality.

    Logic. The law of God is impossible to keep. The Law of God says that we must honor our parents. Honor is the more difficult function and, without the grace of God, impossible. It's like the distinction between "You will have no other gods before me" and "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." One is negative in that it establishes the law. The other requires personal devotion. THAT is what God desires of us.

    Philosophy. Obedience in itself is worthless. Honor is above all things. Logos demands Honor unparallelled from His creation. Honor is as necessary to life as breathing. For without honor, importance disappears and all is as murky darkness.

     

  • At 10:16 AM, January 31, 2006, Blogger Jonathan M said…

    Yeah, I agree. The internal is always harder than the external.

     

  • At 4:30 PM, February 06, 2006, Blogger Lindsey said…

    I agree with David. It's easy to obey our parents, but I can do it with a bad attitude. Honoring them is much harder. Great question!

     

  • At 2:01 AM, February 11, 2006, Anonymous SimonTemplar said…

    I agree with the post, but I wanted to point out something I've been thinking about recently.

    It appears from the detail of scripture that Honoring your parents was intended to include honoring them financially.

    Specificly this is evident in the scripture where the Jesus indicts the pharisees because they had developed a tradtion that if a person gave an offering to the temple then they were excused from the responsability of honoring their parents with that money. The inference is that honoring your parents included something similar to paying a tithe to them.

    What do you think?

     

  • At 10:37 AM, February 11, 2006, Blogger David Ketter said…

    You are right in that, Simon. Honoring your parents meant that you would support them in their old age - or at any point should your mother become a widow. I think that, although circumstances have changed in that regard, children should still give financial assistance to their parents after they have matured and are independent.

     

  • At 7:26 PM, February 25, 2006, Blogger Soldier of ONE said…

    Hm, that question is a toughie. Yet I think David hit the nail on the head. Obedience is external. Honor is extremely difficult to fake, so it usually must be internal. I would have to say that it's harder to honor than to obey.

     

Post a Comment

Links to this post:

Create a Link

<< Home