Post by Cindy on Dec 4, 2015 13:15:46 GMT -5
There's a scripture about our parents that we often skip over thinking it really doesn't apply to us, or in our day. Or at the least, we'd never do it anyway. It's tucked in right after He talks about honoring our parents: “For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’” (Mark 7:10) First, we don't put to death anyone who curses another person, even their parents, but we can't just throw out what the Lord has said either. I've always thought the verse was quite literal and meant if someone literal cursed at their parents. Sadly, in today's world, that happens quite a bit, but since I'd never done it, I'd never really bothered to think about it.
Today for some reason it hit me that just maybe there was more to the word "cursed" then met the eye. First I checked other Bible versions to see what they said, and sure enough, it was translated differently in a number of them. Some said, "reviles", others, "speaks evil of," another "speaks disrespectfully," others said, "speaks evil", "speaks ill," or "insults". Now that brings it even closer to home doesn't it?
With that in mind I looked up what the word in the original language means and this is some of what I found:
2551 κακολογέω [kakologeo /kak·ol·og·eh·o/] v. From a compound of 2556 and 3056; TDNT 3:468; TDNTA 391; GK 2800; Four occurrences; AV translates as “curse” twice, and “speak evil of” twice. 1 to speak evil of, revile, abuse, one. 2 to curse. Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon.
GK 2800 κακολογέω (kakologeō): vb.; ≡ Str 2551; TDNT 3.468—LN 33.399 revile, curse, malign, speak bad about (Mt 15:4; Mk 7:10; 9:39; Ac 19:9+) Dictionary of Biblical Languages
to insult in a particularly strong and unjustified manner—‘to revile, to denounce.’ to speak against someone in such a way as to harm or injure his or her reputation (occurring in relation to persons as well as to divine beings)—‘to revile, to defame, to blaspheme, reviling.’ Louw, J. P., & Nida, Vol. 1: Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: Based on semantic domains
And so we see how the different versions get their translations. But what does it mean for us today? Well, we know that God ordained the family unit and that it is supposed to be a picture of our relationship with Him. We all have parents, and our relationship with them both when we were children and especially now that we're adults and should know what our Lord teaches, should be a picture of how we relate to the Lord. Often, those who don't have a good relationship with their parents shrug this off, thinking it just doesn't relate to them for this or that reason, and some of the reasons are quite logical and seem right to us, especially if the parent abused the child. Yet nowhere in the Bible does God say, "Honor your parents if they treat you in a godly way, or the way you think you should be treated, or the way society says they should treat you". He simply says, "Honor Your parents." Period. That really doesn't seem fair at all does it? But is it any different than when He tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who despitefully use us and do good for those who hate us? That's because the Lord is all about love and wants us to love others the way He loved us before we were saved and loves us even now and forever, in spite of our continued sinning. He wants us to be different from the world. He wants us to be like He is and that's what He is changing us to be like. That next line that says, "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”, really isn't going on to another similar subject. It's showing us what honoring our parents is about: our attitude, which is what's behind our words and actions. It's also showing us what honoring our parents is now, because "cursing, reviling, speaking evil of, speaking disrespectfully, speaking evil, speaking ill, or insulting" our parents is the exact opposite of honoring them.
Usually we tell ourselves that this really doesn't matter now because this is a quote from the OT law, and we're under grace, plus, God doesn't tell us to kill anyone anymore, instead He tells us to love them. So we heave a sigh of relief and go on to the next verse. Let's wait just a minute though and really check this out. Every word in our Bibles is directly from God to us and every single one of the count or they wouldn't be there. So why does our Lord specifically point this out to us today? First, just because we're under grace does not mean that we shouldn't obey God's law. No we don't have to be concerned with what foods we eat because Jesus declared all foods clean. He separated the laws about rituals from the laws about relationships with Him and others. Those we are still supposed to follow. He tells us several times that the two greatest commandments are to love God and love others and that ALL of God's laws hang on these two alone. Knowing that, we can see that we cannot get out of obeying this command, and it is a command.
OK, we know what He was trying to teach the pharisees and people of his time about not using tradition to get out of caring for their parents, and yes, that's also still important today, so let's look at that quickly. Jesus was telling them that just as the parents are to care for their children when they're young, as adults, the children are then to care for their parents when they either no longer can or even if they're just having difficulty. That is still very much true for today, and is something God expect from all of us. Although Jesus was specifically speaking of money and material things here, we also know from other scripture that He includes other things such as giving our parents our time and help even if it's just with things like helping them with chores. We're told over and over in scripture that we are to love others, pray for them, and that our love should not just be with words, but should be shown by our actions, by spending time with the person(s) and by aiding them in whatever way we possibly can. We're told this about other believers, about unbelievers, about friends, enemies and even about our parents.
This is what our Lord expects of us and there's no way around it. For many of us, it would be impossible without the new nature He's given us and without His help. For those of us blessed enough to have a good relationship with our parents, it's not a problem. Although in our day, I have to say I see a lot of disrespect between children of all ages, including adults and their parents. They may not think there's anything wrong with their relationship, but if they're saved, they need to start looking at it through God's eyes instead of their own, and ask Him to change their hearts.
Let me quickly address one other thing about parents here. I always loved my parents, always, and had a good relationship with them when they were alive. But after I was saved, I got angry because my parents were not Christians and I felt cheated. I felt my children and I would have had a better life if I'd been raised to know the Lord. While I was in that frame of mind, the Lord pulled me up short and reminded me that He was the one who gave me to my parents to raise and that He knew they didn't believe and wouldn't when He did so. He was the one in control all those years, not them. So, He asked, "who are you really angry with?" Talk about opening my eyes! Of course I immediately confessed and repented of my sin and thanked Him for showing it to me. Because He showed me that I was able to set aside my anger right away and relax back into the love I'd always had for them.
Our sin natures are just plain awful. They're evil. Without the new nature the Lord gives us, we're just plain outright evil and come up with all kinds of excuses not to love people, including our parents. Even after we have our new nature, it's very easy for us to fall back into the habit of our sin nature, and we therefore fall into all kinds of sin like not honoring our parents. Sadly for us, we're the one who gets hurt when we do that for it disrupts our relationship with the Lord and hinders our prayers. (Matthew 6:14; Luke 6:37; Mark 11:25; James 2:13 etc) (see more about this here) What's even worse is that I see many Christians who treat their parents badly, which is a horrible witness about their faith to unbelievers. In fact, I've actually had unbelievers come up to me and comment about that very thing asking why they should become a Christian when they see Christians acting this way and unbelievers loving their parents! All I can tell them is that's why Jesus told us to follow Him and not other humans. Besides being a bad witness though, and besides hurting their own relationship with the Lord, whether they realize it or not, it also means that they may lose some of the blessings God has for them now and that they will be judged more harshly when the time comes because they have the Lord's Word and Spirit to guide them and they aren't listening. That just breaks my heart because I don't think they realize this as they seem to have closed their minds (or hardened their hearts?) to anything at all concerning their parents. I hope and pray that the Lord will open the eyes of more Christians to this very important commandment so we can all truly be a light in this dark world.
Today for some reason it hit me that just maybe there was more to the word "cursed" then met the eye. First I checked other Bible versions to see what they said, and sure enough, it was translated differently in a number of them. Some said, "reviles", others, "speaks evil of," another "speaks disrespectfully," others said, "speaks evil", "speaks ill," or "insults". Now that brings it even closer to home doesn't it?
With that in mind I looked up what the word in the original language means and this is some of what I found:
2551 κακολογέω [kakologeo /kak·ol·og·eh·o/] v. From a compound of 2556 and 3056; TDNT 3:468; TDNTA 391; GK 2800; Four occurrences; AV translates as “curse” twice, and “speak evil of” twice. 1 to speak evil of, revile, abuse, one. 2 to curse. Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon.
GK 2800 κακολογέω (kakologeō): vb.; ≡ Str 2551; TDNT 3.468—LN 33.399 revile, curse, malign, speak bad about (Mt 15:4; Mk 7:10; 9:39; Ac 19:9+) Dictionary of Biblical Languages
to insult in a particularly strong and unjustified manner—‘to revile, to denounce.’ to speak against someone in such a way as to harm or injure his or her reputation (occurring in relation to persons as well as to divine beings)—‘to revile, to defame, to blaspheme, reviling.’ Louw, J. P., & Nida, Vol. 1: Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: Based on semantic domains
And so we see how the different versions get their translations. But what does it mean for us today? Well, we know that God ordained the family unit and that it is supposed to be a picture of our relationship with Him. We all have parents, and our relationship with them both when we were children and especially now that we're adults and should know what our Lord teaches, should be a picture of how we relate to the Lord. Often, those who don't have a good relationship with their parents shrug this off, thinking it just doesn't relate to them for this or that reason, and some of the reasons are quite logical and seem right to us, especially if the parent abused the child. Yet nowhere in the Bible does God say, "Honor your parents if they treat you in a godly way, or the way you think you should be treated, or the way society says they should treat you". He simply says, "Honor Your parents." Period. That really doesn't seem fair at all does it? But is it any different than when He tells us to love our enemies and pray for those who despitefully use us and do good for those who hate us? That's because the Lord is all about love and wants us to love others the way He loved us before we were saved and loves us even now and forever, in spite of our continued sinning. He wants us to be different from the world. He wants us to be like He is and that's what He is changing us to be like. That next line that says, "Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”, really isn't going on to another similar subject. It's showing us what honoring our parents is about: our attitude, which is what's behind our words and actions. It's also showing us what honoring our parents is now, because "cursing, reviling, speaking evil of, speaking disrespectfully, speaking evil, speaking ill, or insulting" our parents is the exact opposite of honoring them.
Usually we tell ourselves that this really doesn't matter now because this is a quote from the OT law, and we're under grace, plus, God doesn't tell us to kill anyone anymore, instead He tells us to love them. So we heave a sigh of relief and go on to the next verse. Let's wait just a minute though and really check this out. Every word in our Bibles is directly from God to us and every single one of the count or they wouldn't be there. So why does our Lord specifically point this out to us today? First, just because we're under grace does not mean that we shouldn't obey God's law. No we don't have to be concerned with what foods we eat because Jesus declared all foods clean. He separated the laws about rituals from the laws about relationships with Him and others. Those we are still supposed to follow. He tells us several times that the two greatest commandments are to love God and love others and that ALL of God's laws hang on these two alone. Knowing that, we can see that we cannot get out of obeying this command, and it is a command.
OK, we know what He was trying to teach the pharisees and people of his time about not using tradition to get out of caring for their parents, and yes, that's also still important today, so let's look at that quickly. Jesus was telling them that just as the parents are to care for their children when they're young, as adults, the children are then to care for their parents when they either no longer can or even if they're just having difficulty. That is still very much true for today, and is something God expect from all of us. Although Jesus was specifically speaking of money and material things here, we also know from other scripture that He includes other things such as giving our parents our time and help even if it's just with things like helping them with chores. We're told over and over in scripture that we are to love others, pray for them, and that our love should not just be with words, but should be shown by our actions, by spending time with the person(s) and by aiding them in whatever way we possibly can. We're told this about other believers, about unbelievers, about friends, enemies and even about our parents.
This is what our Lord expects of us and there's no way around it. For many of us, it would be impossible without the new nature He's given us and without His help. For those of us blessed enough to have a good relationship with our parents, it's not a problem. Although in our day, I have to say I see a lot of disrespect between children of all ages, including adults and their parents. They may not think there's anything wrong with their relationship, but if they're saved, they need to start looking at it through God's eyes instead of their own, and ask Him to change their hearts.
Let me quickly address one other thing about parents here. I always loved my parents, always, and had a good relationship with them when they were alive. But after I was saved, I got angry because my parents were not Christians and I felt cheated. I felt my children and I would have had a better life if I'd been raised to know the Lord. While I was in that frame of mind, the Lord pulled me up short and reminded me that He was the one who gave me to my parents to raise and that He knew they didn't believe and wouldn't when He did so. He was the one in control all those years, not them. So, He asked, "who are you really angry with?" Talk about opening my eyes! Of course I immediately confessed and repented of my sin and thanked Him for showing it to me. Because He showed me that I was able to set aside my anger right away and relax back into the love I'd always had for them.
Our sin natures are just plain awful. They're evil. Without the new nature the Lord gives us, we're just plain outright evil and come up with all kinds of excuses not to love people, including our parents. Even after we have our new nature, it's very easy for us to fall back into the habit of our sin nature, and we therefore fall into all kinds of sin like not honoring our parents. Sadly for us, we're the one who gets hurt when we do that for it disrupts our relationship with the Lord and hinders our prayers. (Matthew 6:14; Luke 6:37; Mark 11:25; James 2:13 etc) (see more about this here) What's even worse is that I see many Christians who treat their parents badly, which is a horrible witness about their faith to unbelievers. In fact, I've actually had unbelievers come up to me and comment about that very thing asking why they should become a Christian when they see Christians acting this way and unbelievers loving their parents! All I can tell them is that's why Jesus told us to follow Him and not other humans. Besides being a bad witness though, and besides hurting their own relationship with the Lord, whether they realize it or not, it also means that they may lose some of the blessings God has for them now and that they will be judged more harshly when the time comes because they have the Lord's Word and Spirit to guide them and they aren't listening. That just breaks my heart because I don't think they realize this as they seem to have closed their minds (or hardened their hearts?) to anything at all concerning their parents. I hope and pray that the Lord will open the eyes of more Christians to this very important commandment so we can all truly be a light in this dark world.
!!
