Mother’s Day – Ephesians 6:1-3; 1 Timothy 5:1-5
Mother’s Day – Ephesians 6:1-3; 1 Timothy 5:1-5
By Pastor Lee Hemen
May 13, 2018
When we are taught that everyone is “special” then the final outcome is that ultimately no one is. It becomes meaningless. Let me try to explain a little bit. When I was a young boy my father taught me some very important life lessons on how to be a man but it was my mother who taught each of us how we were unique. Notice I did not say “special” because she never said we were special just to say so like a lot of folks do nowadays instead she said we were special when we did something that was truly special. That’s what moms do; they keep you in the real world.
This Mother’s Day I wanted us to focus on why we should respect our mothers. Parenting in general has gotten a bad rap in America today and what I mean is good parenting. It seems as if there is no longer any consistency or heritage of what good parenting is all about. Recently I overheard a mother yelling at her preschooler to get her blankety blank blank bottom into the car. Now I know children can sometimes drive a person to distraction but I believe we need to refocus on what motherhood should be and why believers should honor their mothers. Let’s see why…
READ: Ephesians 6:1-3; 1 Timothy 5:1-5
To be fair the same mother that I overheard cursing at her preschooler to get into the car the next week was blowing her kisses and saying “Mommy loves you” as she pulled out of the driveway. Let’s see why we are to honor our mothers this morning. On this Mother’s Day we discover that…
I. Christians are to honor their mothers! (Vv. Ephesians 6:1-3)
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”--which is the first commandment with a promise—“that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
1. Here Paul writes that “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” Now notice Paul is not speaking to the world in general but to believers. He writes that children are to obey their parents “in the Lord.” What does this mean? While obedience is kind of a foreign word in our nation today we would do well to remember just how important it is. Paul writes that Christian children are to be obedient to their parents in the Lord. Paul meant in their spiritual instruction, in their personal following of God, and in how they respected him. Paul knew if children followed God they would be obedient to their parents. His reasoning was simple: “for this is right”. Obedience some would say comes from respect however many have forgotten that respect is not simply given, it is earned. Paul writes that his readers were to “Honor your father and mother” a reality that is often misplaced in our day. A life that is not focused on the Lord and filled with the Spirit of God is one that can never understand what real reverence means. Honor in our day and age is hard for a lot of people to give others because we live in such a victim-oriented world. It seems as if there is special kind of sport or enjoyment in tearing down anything or anyone that might have earned our respect or be honored in our world. The Boy Scouts of America is the latest victim. No matter how old we are we are to give honor, deference to our parents and especially our mothers. Certainly there are those whose parents may not have been the best sort but Paul is speaking to Christian households here, those who have given themselves to the love and discipline of the Lord Jesus. Paul wrote that this honor is required because it comes from “the first commandment with a promise”. It isn’t the only commandment with a promise from God nor is it the first or primary commandment one is to learn, rather it is the commandment with the promise of God “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Christians are to honor their mothers!
EXAMPLE: I know that any mother can at times be driven to distraction. I remember my mom telling us boys in rather a loud voice to “Just go outside for a while and leave your mother in peace!” Even though there were times we could drive our mom crazy we knew from what she taught us in how to treat the future women in our lives. We were to respect, be polite, and kind to older women, teachers, and all girls period. It wasn’t just a suggestion it was absolutely expected. We were to be gentlemen with any female in our life including our sister! We learn that this is expected from all believers as well. Paul teaches us that Christians are to honor their mothers!
I learned at an early age that boys were to act like gentlemen and girls were to act like ladies. Things like saying please, you’re welcome, and thank you was expected. Manners were taught to us from the time we were toddlers. It is interesting therefore for us on this Mother’s Day to learn that…
II. Christians are to treat women in the church like their mothers! (Vv. 1 Timothy 5:1b-5)
Treat… older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
1. Believers need to act as to exemplify Jesus in every way possible and especially where their mothers are concerned. Folks inside and outside of the church watch our lives very closely and as part of the family of God Timothy was encouraged by Paul to treat other believers as family. So gentleness, kindness, and morality were to be his motives so that “older women” would be treated “as mothers”. Not all women were treated with the respect they should have been during Paul’s day but Jesus changed all of that. Paul would teach that we “are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” and that there “is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26, 28 NIV)” This is why he tells Timothy that “younger women” were to be treated “as sisters, with absolute purity”. In a world that chewed up people and especially the weak, the orphaned, and the widowed Timothy as a believer was to “Give proper recognition to those widows who [were] really in need. But if a widow [had] children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents (mothers and grandmothers), for this is pleasing to God.” Family was to take care of family and especially their mothers! Paul told Timothy, “The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.” Paul is writing about a person’s focus in life. In that day single women and especially widows had very few options; either they had family who could care for them, they begged, or if they were young enough they became prostitutes. Note Paul’s emphasis is on their spirituality. Someone who focuses on her spiritual growth is to be commended while the one who focuses on only her own pleasure is spiritually “dead” without even knowing it already. The family of God is to take care of the family of God and Christians are to treat women in the church like their mothers!
EXAMPLE: My mom used to say that “Manners never go out of style”. Now you would need to realize that she was raised in the backwoods of Wyoming riding horses, driving cattle, living in a circus tent and log cabin, hunting and fishing, and going to a one room school through 7th grade, but her mother put a huge premium on well-behaved children. It is something sadly that has gone out of vogue. Children are seen as young adults, which they aren’t, and are way too pampered. I believe this is why many young men no longer know how to treat the women in their lives. Paul teaches us that Christians are to treat women in the church like their mothers!
Conclusion:
Christians are to honor their mothers! Christians are to treat women in the church like their mothers!
---
This article is copyrighted © 2018 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.
By Pastor Lee Hemen
May 13, 2018
When we are taught that everyone is “special” then the final outcome is that ultimately no one is. It becomes meaningless. Let me try to explain a little bit. When I was a young boy my father taught me some very important life lessons on how to be a man but it was my mother who taught each of us how we were unique. Notice I did not say “special” because she never said we were special just to say so like a lot of folks do nowadays instead she said we were special when we did something that was truly special. That’s what moms do; they keep you in the real world.
This Mother’s Day I wanted us to focus on why we should respect our mothers. Parenting in general has gotten a bad rap in America today and what I mean is good parenting. It seems as if there is no longer any consistency or heritage of what good parenting is all about. Recently I overheard a mother yelling at her preschooler to get her blankety blank blank bottom into the car. Now I know children can sometimes drive a person to distraction but I believe we need to refocus on what motherhood should be and why believers should honor their mothers. Let’s see why…
READ: Ephesians 6:1-3; 1 Timothy 5:1-5
To be fair the same mother that I overheard cursing at her preschooler to get into the car the next week was blowing her kisses and saying “Mommy loves you” as she pulled out of the driveway. Let’s see why we are to honor our mothers this morning. On this Mother’s Day we discover that…
I. Christians are to honor their mothers! (Vv. Ephesians 6:1-3)
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”--which is the first commandment with a promise—“that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
1. Here Paul writes that “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” Now notice Paul is not speaking to the world in general but to believers. He writes that children are to obey their parents “in the Lord.” What does this mean? While obedience is kind of a foreign word in our nation today we would do well to remember just how important it is. Paul writes that Christian children are to be obedient to their parents in the Lord. Paul meant in their spiritual instruction, in their personal following of God, and in how they respected him. Paul knew if children followed God they would be obedient to their parents. His reasoning was simple: “for this is right”. Obedience some would say comes from respect however many have forgotten that respect is not simply given, it is earned. Paul writes that his readers were to “Honor your father and mother” a reality that is often misplaced in our day. A life that is not focused on the Lord and filled with the Spirit of God is one that can never understand what real reverence means. Honor in our day and age is hard for a lot of people to give others because we live in such a victim-oriented world. It seems as if there is special kind of sport or enjoyment in tearing down anything or anyone that might have earned our respect or be honored in our world. The Boy Scouts of America is the latest victim. No matter how old we are we are to give honor, deference to our parents and especially our mothers. Certainly there are those whose parents may not have been the best sort but Paul is speaking to Christian households here, those who have given themselves to the love and discipline of the Lord Jesus. Paul wrote that this honor is required because it comes from “the first commandment with a promise”. It isn’t the only commandment with a promise from God nor is it the first or primary commandment one is to learn, rather it is the commandment with the promise of God “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Christians are to honor their mothers!
EXAMPLE: I know that any mother can at times be driven to distraction. I remember my mom telling us boys in rather a loud voice to “Just go outside for a while and leave your mother in peace!” Even though there were times we could drive our mom crazy we knew from what she taught us in how to treat the future women in our lives. We were to respect, be polite, and kind to older women, teachers, and all girls period. It wasn’t just a suggestion it was absolutely expected. We were to be gentlemen with any female in our life including our sister! We learn that this is expected from all believers as well. Paul teaches us that Christians are to honor their mothers!
I learned at an early age that boys were to act like gentlemen and girls were to act like ladies. Things like saying please, you’re welcome, and thank you was expected. Manners were taught to us from the time we were toddlers. It is interesting therefore for us on this Mother’s Day to learn that…
II. Christians are to treat women in the church like their mothers! (Vv. 1 Timothy 5:1b-5)
Treat… older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity. Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help.
1. Believers need to act as to exemplify Jesus in every way possible and especially where their mothers are concerned. Folks inside and outside of the church watch our lives very closely and as part of the family of God Timothy was encouraged by Paul to treat other believers as family. So gentleness, kindness, and morality were to be his motives so that “older women” would be treated “as mothers”. Not all women were treated with the respect they should have been during Paul’s day but Jesus changed all of that. Paul would teach that we “are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” and that there “is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:26, 28 NIV)” This is why he tells Timothy that “younger women” were to be treated “as sisters, with absolute purity”. In a world that chewed up people and especially the weak, the orphaned, and the widowed Timothy as a believer was to “Give proper recognition to those widows who [were] really in need. But if a widow [had] children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents (mothers and grandmothers), for this is pleasing to God.” Family was to take care of family and especially their mothers! Paul told Timothy, “The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives.” Paul is writing about a person’s focus in life. In that day single women and especially widows had very few options; either they had family who could care for them, they begged, or if they were young enough they became prostitutes. Note Paul’s emphasis is on their spirituality. Someone who focuses on her spiritual growth is to be commended while the one who focuses on only her own pleasure is spiritually “dead” without even knowing it already. The family of God is to take care of the family of God and Christians are to treat women in the church like their mothers!
EXAMPLE: My mom used to say that “Manners never go out of style”. Now you would need to realize that she was raised in the backwoods of Wyoming riding horses, driving cattle, living in a circus tent and log cabin, hunting and fishing, and going to a one room school through 7th grade, but her mother put a huge premium on well-behaved children. It is something sadly that has gone out of vogue. Children are seen as young adults, which they aren’t, and are way too pampered. I believe this is why many young men no longer know how to treat the women in their lives. Paul teaches us that Christians are to treat women in the church like their mothers!
Conclusion:
Christians are to honor their mothers! Christians are to treat women in the church like their mothers!
---
This article is copyrighted © 2018 by Lee Hemen and is the sole property of Lee Hemen, and may not be used unless you quote the entire article and have my permission.
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