“Honor your father and mother” (which is the first commandment with a promise),
Parallel translations
- WEB “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with a promise:
- KJV Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise;
- NKJV “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise:
- NASB Honor your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise),
- NLT “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise:
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Honoring father and mother is the first commandment that comes with a promise. God attaches blessing to this command.
Overview
Paul cites the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16), noting it is 'the first commandment with a promise.' Honoring parents goes beyond mere childhood obedience to lifelong respect. By rooting his exhortation in the law, Paul shows the abiding moral authority of God's commands for Christian conduct.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Exod 20:12Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.
- Deut 27:16‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- Matt 15:4–6For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’
- Prov 20:20Whoever curses his father or mother, his lamp will be extinguished in deepest darkness.
- Mal 1:6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’
- Ezek 22:7Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.
- Mark 7:9–13He went on to say, “You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition.
- Jer 35:18Then Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites: “This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you have obeyed the command of your forefather Jonadab and have kept all his commandments and have done all that he charged you to do,
- Rom 13:7Pay everyone what you owe him: taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Every spiritual blessing is 'in Christ,' the head over all things for the church, in whom Jew and Gentile are made one new man by his blood.
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Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.