Honor your parents: What it truly means to honor parents

Many parents want to be honored by their children. This is a common sentiment amongst American parents. Most American parents feel entitled to being honored, and thus demand respect from their children. Many parents enforce this respect with punishment. The fact of the matter is that the Fifth Commandment refers to something very specific.

It says in Exodus 20:12 KJV:

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

This commandment, in context, cross-references the parent protection laws. "Do not strike your parents" refers to deliberately and repeatedly beating parents. "Do not curse your parents" means do not impose a gaslighting curse on your parents, meaning do not impose airborne gaslighting on your parents, at all. "Stubborn and rebellious son" refers to committing crimes as a young adult, thus making your parents look bad. Most parents were not believed when they said that their own children were abusing them. Most people said "where did they learn that behavior", thus blaming the victim. This commandment only applies to adults living apart from their parents, hence the language "deliberate". Apart from this commandment, a parent's only protection is with the secular law.

The Fifth Commandment is repeated in Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to secure, vulnerable rest in the love and grace of parents. Children are to rest securely in the sacrifice of parents, with parent believers resting securely in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Parents are to be extensions of Christ in the family home, dutifully and selflessly submitting to children just as they would to God, expecting absolutely nothing in return, with children resting safely and securely in the submission of parents. Parents are to submit to their children as their enemy, from beneath yet from above, revering and fearing children as vulnerable extensions of God. 

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by a child, including, but not limited to, the slughtest of offensive touch or speech perceived by a child, stemming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including any punishment or controlling demeanor towards children. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death by way of bloodletting, after punishing their children one last time. Parents who punished their children were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined under the Law as the slightest of damages or offenses stemminug from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen as holding your child hostage merely for things they did wrong, thereby treating your child as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up the Law in order to convict a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, waa anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child in his writings.

Children, in the Early Church, had lawful authority over their parents, and were able to issue lawful orders to their parents. Parents usually had to comply with the orders of children, usually issued through crying or whining. Parents could only say "no" to children if something they ordered was completely immoral or unworkable. Parents were not allowed, under Christian law, to speak against their child, or anyone else's child for that matter, lest they perjur themselves. Children were seen as sacrosanct in biblical times, meaning the guiding belief of parenting was that children could do no wrong, even if they did do things that were considered morally wrong, technically legally. Children had a lot of rights in biblical times, and parents were bondservants to the rights of children.

The Fifth Commandment only applies directly in certain specific situations, meaning those that constitute clear and deliberate elder abuse, which is rare and only convicts adult children living away from parents. Other than that, the Fifth Commandment, for minor children in particular, appoints parents as God-ordained head of household, but in a charitable and generous way. Mothers in particular responded to the every cry and upset in their children, even simple cries for attention, usually with skin-on-skin reassurance. By night, children co-slept next to mothers in skin-on-skin fashion. Parents submitted to children from beneath yet from above, fearing their children in the Lord.

Parents were caregivers to children, not lawgivers or lawmakers. Parents in biblical times focused on a secure attachment, which every Christian parent in the 1st Century strived for with their children. Early Christian mothers bonded with their children by way of skin-on-skin comfort and sustenance, with mothers and children being naked in the family home, and with children being naked wherever they went. 

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them be forever cast into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descend into the abyss which is the ever-burning Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!