Father's Day Lead-up

           Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:1-3)

            We’re on the lead-up to Fathers’ Day, and true to form and tradition, those who have to come up with verses and passages to share or to address are picking passages like the one that follows today’s, which tells fathers all about how they should behave. “Don’t exasperate your children,” the passage tells us, because on Fathers’ Day, it is apparently important to tell fathers what a bad job they’re doing. I think church buildings would collapse if a pastor were to parade the fathers in his congregation across the platform, sharing their praise for the job they’ve done in the last year. On Mothers’ Day, at least some mothers get flowers, or are honored by the flowers their children wear to take the sting out of the “Let me tell you how to be a good mother” sermon.

            The lecture to fathers is, I suppose, less uncomfortable than a lecture to children and wives, calling for the respect of their imperfect fathers and husbands. In fact, if you mention the idea of honoring or obeying fathers, you’re likely to hear “You don’t know my father.” Maybe not, but I knew mine, and I’ve watched others. I can guarantee that none of them are 100% deserving of honor or obedience. Put simply, fathers, being fallen just like the rest of us, fail to live up to the standards necessary to deserve nothing but honor.

            But deserving honor isn’t a prerequisite to receiving honor. None of us deserves honor, but we all crave it. Obedience doesn’t always mean that we end up doing the right thing, and there are limits to obedience and honor. We must obey God rather than man, but within the greater parameters of God’s express will, we are to honor and obey even if the father doesn’t deserve it, because the Father does.