Parents

Scripture stipulates that children should show respect and concern for their parents.

Honouring parents

Exodus 20:12 parallel Deuteronomy 5:16 See also Leviticus 19:3; Proverbs 23:22; Matthew 19:16–19 parallels Mark 10:17–19, Luke 18:18–20; Ephesians 6:1–3; Colossians 3:20; 1 Timothy 5:4

Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

Dishonouring parents

2 Timothy 3:1–2 See also Exodus 21:15–17; Deuteronomy 21:18–21; Ezekiel 22:7; Matthew 15:1–9 parallel Mark 7:1–13; Romans 1:28–32

But understand this: In the last days terrible times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,

Love between parents and children can be suppressed

Luke 21:16–17 parallels Matthew 10:21, Mark 13:12 See also Zechariah 13:2–3

You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you will be put to death. And you will be hated by everyone because of My name.

Love for God must surpass love for parents

Luke 14:26 See also Deuteronomy 33:8–11; Luke 18:28–30 parallels Matthew 19:27–29, Mark 10:28–30

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be My disciple.

Divine love surpasses parental love

Psalm 27:10

Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.

The belief that children were punished for their parents' sins

John 9:1–3 See also Exodus 20:5–6 parallel Deuteronomy 5:9–10; Job 21:19–21; Ezekiel 18:1–4

Now as Jesus was passing by, He saw a man blind from birth, and His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the works of God would be displayed in him.

Parents caring for their children

2 Corinthians 12:14 See also Proverbs 19:14, Proverbs 23:24–25; Hebrews 11:23

See, I am ready to come to you a third time, and I will not be a burden, because I am not seeking your possessions, but you. For children should not have to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

Children caring for their parents

1 Samuel 22:3–4 See also Joshua 2:8–20, Joshua 6:22–23; Proverbs 17:6

From there David went to Mizpeh of Moab, where he said to the king of Moab, “Please let my father and mother stay with you until I learn what God will do for me.” So he left them in the care of the king of Moab, and they stayed with him the whole time David was in the stronghold.

Mourning for parents

Leviticus 21:1–2 See also Leviticus 21:10–11; Numbers 6:2–7; Deuteronomy 21:10–13; Ezekiel 44:25

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and tell them that a priest is not to defile himself for a dead person among his people, except for his immediate family — his mother, father, son, daughter, or brother,

Parents and the marriage of their children

A man leaves his parents to marry his wife

Genesis 2:21–24 See also Matthew 19:3–6 parallel Mark 10:2–9; Ephesians 5:25–33

So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep, and while he slept, He took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the area with flesh. And from the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man, He made a woman and brought her to him. And the man said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for out of man she was taken.” For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.

Parents were responsible for vindicating their daughter's reputation

Deuteronomy 22:13–19

Sometimes parents jointly arranged their children's marriages

Judges 14:1–3

One day Samson went down to Timnah, where he saw a young Philistine woman. So he returned and told his father and mother, “I have seen a daughter of the Philistines in Timnah. Now get her for me as a wife.” But his father and mother replied, “Can’t you find a young woman among your relatives or among any of our people? Must you go to the uncircumcised Philistines to get a wife?” But Samson told his father, “Get her for me, for she is pleasing to my eyes.”