The 4th commandment says, "Honor your Father and your Mother. What does this mean? 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."

This is the first and greatest commandment in the 2nd table of the law, or the law in which we see and hear how God commands us to live with our neighbor. Dr. Martin Luther, of blessed and holy memory, makes four distinctions or four different authorities that God places over us. These authorities are parents, teachers, governing authorities, and pastors. Luther also makes the assertion that to reject these authorities is to reject Him, and to obey these authorities is to obey Him. Luther exhorts the great joy children should have in their parents saying, "For God has exalted this estate of parents above all others; indeed, He has appointed it to be his representative on earth. This will and pleasure of God ought to provide us sufficient reason and incentive to do cheerfully and gladly whatever we can" (Large Catechism I.126).  God appoints parents, teachers, governing authorities, and pastors to be His representatives on earth. Teachers assist the parents in raising the children in the knowledge of academics and morality. When children are with their teachers, they should honor them the same way in which they would honor their parents. The governing authorities assist the parents in rewards and discipline. The government is given the sword to reward those who do well, and punish those who are wicked in society. It is not for the government to decide what is truth, right, or moral, but rather they are the dispensers of what God's law declares, and this law is written on every heart. The pastor, as Luther says, is due double honor, because he is the spiritual father, the one that dispenses the gifts of the cross and ushers sinners into eternal life in the proclamation of the Gospel. All of these are representatives of God; therefore, from womb to tomb we are given to honor, obey, serve, love, and cherish them. 

Why should we honor, obey, serve, love, and cherish these authorities? Well, because God tells us to. However, and even greater than this, is because they are standing in the stead of God; therefore, our trust is in them because they are given to provide for us. Parents, teachers, governors, and pastors are all given charge to provide for those entrusted to them. A parent is to gentle, patient, and kind, for this is his natural office. His alien work is to discipline, for he only does this only in order to curb a child when they are walking outside of the commandments. A pastor's primary function is to forgive sinners their transgressions and create in them a clean conscience. He preaches the law in order to reveal their sin, assert to them what a Christian delights in, and in this repentance is created in the heart in order that confession may flow from the lips and absolution may abound. We who are under an authority are blessed because we are taken care of by God Himself through these vocations. What a blessing it is to know that we have a God that cares for us, in both body and soul, and provides for us caretakers to provide for every need that we have. The fourth commandment is a delight for us when we know that it is God Himself who is providing for us through these vocations. 

However, our greatest and chief delight in the 4th commandment is knowing that our Lord Jesus the Christ kept this commandment for us. He honored His parents, listened to His teachers and respected them, obeyed the governing authority, and cherished the voice of His Father. When we break this precious commandment, we seek assurance not in our ability to try again and keep it better tomorrow, but rather in the reality that Jesus assumed our disobedience, our rejection, our negligence, and our rebelliousness on the cross and there put it to death. Jesus kept the fourth commandment in order that He could make the perfect sacrifice for our hatred for authority. Therefore, take heart my friends, for Jesus was found as the disobedient child, the rebellious teenager, the dishonorable citizen, and the sinful church goer, in order that you may be forgiven all of your sins.  

Peace be with you. May the devil be silenced, the world be hushed, and the Old Adam be drowned anew so that you hear only the voice of your Savior Jesus who says, "I forgive you. I love you. I claim you as My own forever," Amen.

Jesus' Sheepdog,

Pastor Hull