Read:The Fourth Commandment Honor your father and your mother. What is this? or What does this mean? We are to fear and love God, so that we neither despise nor anger our parents and others in authority, but instead honor, serve, obey, love, and respect them. Now read John 2:1-12: The Wedding at Cana
2 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. 2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. 3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.” 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. 7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. 8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it. 9 When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.” 11 Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.12 After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples; and they remained there a few days. Now, watch this video of Bishop Eaton talking about the 4th commandment:
Bishop Eaton says that “There is not blind obedience that is required of us.” Because sin is real, there might be times when people do need to disobey those in authority. The clip from the movie Matilda, below, is kind of silly, but in real life, when parents and others in authority act in ways that are harmful or unsafe. If a parent or other authority figure is doing something that is not right or safe, or is hurting you, you do not need to obey that, and you can and should tell someone and get help.
Now watch this clip from the movie Matilda. Matilda’s parents aren’t exactly, umm, perfect. How should Matilda think about honoring her father and mother? Should she listen to them?
In the clip below from the cartoon Rugrats, you’ll see a retelling of a story of Hannukkah, when the Jewish people had to choose between obeying the 4th commandment (by obeying authority) and the first commandmant (having no other gods). Did they make the right choice? How do you know?
Now, click here to take a short quiz.