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Is the 5th Commandment a Hinge Commandment?
Is Honoring Your Parents a Hinge Command?
Could the 5th Commandment be a hinge commandment?
1. Honor – The first 4 commands are about worshipping God. We know from passages such as Exodus 12:42 that worshipping God in His way honors God. The last 5 commandments are focused strongly on our neighbors (although murder can happen in families – Genesis 4). Loving our neighbors is honoring them. Leviticus 19:32 ties honor to how we treat people, there specifically honoring the elderly.
Therefore honoring reflects backwards and forwards in other passages on how we treat God and our neighbors. Honor is a hinge.
2. Your Father and Mother – Often it has been noted how the 10 Commandments neatly are divided into the two Great Commandments. Jesus Himself makes this connection. Everything “hangs” on these two. In addition to that we could make the following organizational notion concerning the 10 Commandments:
• 1-4 – Our Relationship with God
• 5 – Our Relationship with Family
• 6-10 – Our Relationship with the World
Jesus again offers this organized way of seeing God’s commands when talking to the Rich Young Ruler. There he said, “honor your father and mother, and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 19:19). That is the 5th commandment followed by 6-10. How often has it been observed that everything begins in the home? How our family functions affects our ability to function in the world. Plus, God created families as a functioning worship training ground. Family is a hinge.
In this way, with both an emphasis on honoring and family, the 5th commandment becomes the hinge upon which the rest of the 10 Commandments turn.
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