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Fathers Are Honored by Obedient
Children
Bobby Dockery
“A son honors his father, and a servant his
master. If then I am the Father, Where is My honor? And if I am
a Master, where is My reverence?
says the Lord of hosts…” (Malachi 1:6).
THE CHRISTIAN HOME
Our fathers deserve to be honored, but there is always a danger
that the honor we give them will be more a thing of bare formality
than a genuine outpouring of respect. We may simply go through the
motions without really honoring.
There is a spiritual dimension to this problem
as well. All of us have two fathers—one on earth and One in
heaven! It may be that we are guilty of a lack of genuine honor
and respect where each of them is concerned!
1) Fathers are honored by obedience. Genuine respect
is always linked to obedience in the Bible: “Children, obey
your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and
mother, which is the first commandment with promise” (Ephesians
6:1,2). Note the linkage between obedience and honor! A son or daughter
who defies his or her father to his face… who deliberately
disobeys a father’s instructions… who refuses to be
submissive to a father’s wishes… is proclaiming loudly
to the world, “I do not respect my father!” All the
presents in the world on Father’s Day will not make up for
a disrespectful attitude, which exhibits itself in disobedience.
A present means nothing if there is no respect behind it—and
respect obeys!
2) This is also true when it comes to our Father
in heaven. God accused His people in the days of Malachi of refusing
to honor Him because they refused to honor His instructions (Malachi
1:6; 2:9). Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me keep
my commandments.” And then, in 1 John 2:3,4 we read, “Now
by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He
who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep his commandments
is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
3) We must obey God in every area of life! The
Bible insists that “though Jesus was a son, yet He learned
obedience…” (Hebrews 5:8,9). We must cultivate the same
spirit of obedience as well! This is true when it comes to our standards
of personal conduct, to the way we worship and serve God in the
church, and to what we do in order to become His child! In the final
analysis, the degree of your respect and honor for God is measured
precisely by the extent of your obedience!
It is important to have the right kind of relationship
with our earthly fathers—it is far more important to have
the right kind of relationship with our Father who is in heaven.
Are you honoring God with your obedience to Him?
Copied from The Voice of Truth International
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