Honor Your Forebears–the rich heritage of literary, cultural, and liturgical achievement which our forebears have bequeathed to us are entrusted to our care in the present, for the sake of the generations to come.
The fifth commandment
Exodus 20.12
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”
Deuteronomy 5.16
“‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.’”
This mandate to honor our parents also extends to our forebears in the faith. We must not neglect to learn from the example and counsel of those who have gone before in following our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 15.4).
Further, the rich heritage of literary, cultural, and liturgical achievement which our forebears have bequeathed to us are entrusted to our care in the present, for the sake of the generations to come. We do not honor our forebears in the faith by failing in our stewardship over these treasures. Even though many of them are in the hands of secular curators – paintings, sculptures, works of literature – still we must honor those who have gone before us in the faith by learning what we can of this great cultural heritage and teaching it to our children and one another.
This series of In the Gates we present a detailed explanation of the Law of God, beginning with the Ten Commandments, and working through the statutes and rules that accompany each commandment. For a practical guide to the role of God’s Law in the practice of ethics, get The Ground for Christian Ethics by going to www.ailbe.org and click on our Book Store.
