Respect for Authority and Authority That is Respectable

7/25/20    William    (see video HERE)

What would our nation look like if the authorities enforced the fifth commandment?

I’m becoming convinced that this commandment is the key to maintaining a peaceful, free and democratic law-and-order society, and that the failure of the authorities to inculcate and demand compliance to it is causing the civil disturbances and unrest we are now seeing.

What is this commandment, and who are the authorities that are failing to enforce it?  The commandment is found in Exodus 20:12 which tells us to ““Honor your father and your mother”.  It is the first commandment with a promise attached – “…so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

There is a problem with this promise, however. The long, prosperous and hopefully peaceful life it offers is given to young people who often haven’t developed the skills of delayed gratification and self-discipline needed to appreciate and receive it.  It is a promise for the future, so it requires some outside help, some authoritative assistance and training, to ensure that young people are able to follow it and receive its promise. 

This commandment needs enforcement, and those authorities who are so often failing to ensure our young people follow it and receive its promises are the very parents young people are told to honor, and the other authorities parents delegate to help them such as adult relatives, teachers, and law enforcement officers.

I was talking with a young man named William who is training to be a law enforcement officer himself.  He agreed that the people he will likely have the most difficulty with as a cop will be those who haven’t learned to follow this most basic of commands.  I believe we have in our country a crisis of authority in which too many young people haven’t learned to respect authority, and the authorities themselves have too often not been respectable. 

Paul recognized this in Ephesians 6 when, in his comments on the fifth commandment, he went on to write “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”  I believe Paul specifically mentioned fathers here because of our God-given responsibility to care for and protect our families, and too often that role is abandoned or abused, leaving children without the fatherly guidance they need to learn how to live under various levels of authority including teachers, cops, government, and even God Himself.

In our country the different cultures, subcultures, ethnic groups and socio-economic classes vary widely in their respect for authority and the unity of the family, and I see it as the greatest factor in the success of our children.  We can’t walk back this generational problem overnight, but Christians from every strata of our diverse society will do well to follow this command to teach respect for authority and be respectable as authorities in the lives of our young people.

Thanks, William, for allowing me to record our conversation.  It can be seen in it’s entirety on my YouTube Channel at https://youtu.be/gfHIMOlRXwo