You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
2 Honor
your father and mother (which is the first commandment with a promise), NASB
Honor, means to place a high value on, to prize, to revere.
Honor is a higher reverence of respect and obedience, and thus places the parents, both parents, in the superior position above the children. Children should look to their parents for their instruction, for their example, for their understanding, for their confidence, for their orientation in life.
The children look to both parents. The wife looks to the husband. The husband leads by principle. All look to Gods mandates.
In the same token as far as life's stresses go, the husbands relief comes through the wife, the wife's relief comes through her role in the home generally related to the children, the childrens relief comes through their being excused from life's obligations while they grow up and allowed to be kids for the greater portion of their childhood and training. And again, all look to God and receive their ultimate relief by means of their spiritual life.
And at the end of this verse, this mandate fulfills the first commandment of the ten-commandments, but added to this is the phrase, with promise.
No specific promise if mentioned, but the promise is general and therefore applies to Gods will. This then is a mandated attitude of the children toward their parents. No child should sabotage the parenting or reputation of their parents.
While there will be some children who will seek attention from others by putting their parents down with gossip and such, this is an obvious violation of this mandate. Children should look to and with pride, at their parents, regardless of whether their parents are great or small in society.
Parenting is not dependent on social acceptance, not dependent on financial success, not dependent on whether or not you have as much as others have.
God places us all in life with specific or general circumstances, and we all need to understand that God can promote or demote any of us at any given moment in time. Our current circumstances do not drive our overall success in life. Ones spiritual success is not something that can be identified or measured in this life.
The ultimate fulfillment of promise comes exclusively from God, and therefore following His lead in obedience to his mandates will accomplish the fulfillment of many if not all of Gods promises.
