Ephesians 6:1–4 (ESV)
Children and Parents
6 Children,
obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that
you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
The Fourth Commandment is “Honor your father and your mother.”
What does this mean? Martin Luther writes “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.”
I pray: O Lord help me to honor my father and mother… and
to honor you. Amen.
Martin Luther, Luther’s Small Catechism with Explanation
(Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1991).