“Honor your father and mother.” This 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;
- BSB “Honor your father and mother” (which is the first commandment with a 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),
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 20:12“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.
- Deut 27:16‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or his mother.’ All the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
- Matt 15:4–6For God commanded, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.’
- Prov 20:20Whoever curses his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in blackness of darkness.
- Mal 1:6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me? Says Yahweh of Armies to you, priests, who despise my name. You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’
- Ezek 22:7In you have they treated father and mother with contempt. Among you they have oppressed the foreigner. In you they have wronged the fatherless and the widow.
- Mark 7:9–13He said to them, “Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.
- Jer 35:18Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he commanded you;’
- Rom 13:7Therefore give everyone what you owe: if you owe taxes, pay taxes; if customs, then customs; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
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.
How Ephesians 6:2 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
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.