Non-believers are still trying to overthrow God as did the devil in heaven when he wanted to be above God.
When we place our own things above the things of God, we are doing what the devil did when he was cast out of heaven.
When children disobey their parents, showing contempt for their authority, they are doing what the devil did, refusing to acknowledge the authority of God through His ordained authority on earth, the parents.
Ephesians 6:1 "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right."
There are those who think that because they are now grown, there is no longer a mandate to honor or listen to their parents. Sadly those who do not honor their parents in adulthood, do not because they never did in childhood. They hid their inner feelings of rebellion to be able to live in peace, but their heart was never submitting.
Someone else told the story of the little boy who was told to sit down in the chair, the little boy declared boldly, "I am sitting down, but on the inside I am standing up."
People do not all of a sudden change into something different because circumstances change. When we are out from under the law of our parents is when we see the real self. Those who had honor for their parents in childhood will maintain that honor even more so after adulthood.
It might be good to take a look at what honor looks like and what it is not. Honor is not necessarily sending a birthday card or gifts on the holidays, it is not attending family gatherings at the parents house, nor is it bringing cups of coffee or treats to them.
Honor is an attitude, some of those things mentioned may be an indication of honor, but often they are ritual to elevate self, rather than a sense of honor. When our activities our based on a sense of personal enjoyment or a need for acceptance, manipulation is used, to be able to show others you did something, it has little to do with honor.
Our attitude toward our parents, often is a reflection of our attitude toward God. Whatever our mental disposition toward our parents is also our disposition toward God. It is a matter of the heart condition toward authority as a whole that is an indication of our overall spiritual temperament.
When there is love and honor for our parents, no matter what they say or do, we have a deep seeded desire to love them and be loved by them. To show contempt for our parents through manipulation, intimidation and other forms of subtle disapproval toward their person, is sin and proof that we lack the honor God is talking about.
When there is a show of contempt and disrespect for parents and ultimately God, then there is an influence in the lives of our own children. Often those who have shown contempt and dishonor for their own parents or other authorities over them, will see that same contempt forming in their own children.
Those who dishonor others, through an attitude of superiority, dismissiveness and contempt, are teaching by example, fostering these things in the lives of those within their sphere of influence.
There is an old saying; "more is caught than taught." We may tell our children to honor their parents, but if they see the parents dishonoring their own grandparents, then the children are more likely to do what they see rather than what they are told. This is the reason so many children have gone bad today, the parents taught in words, but modeled in actions the opposite of what they wanted to convey to their own children. Sometimes it was a matter of one parent showing disrespect for another parent or it was one parent allowing disrespect on the part of the children toward the other parent. Whatever the case it is devilish and destructive.
God knew exactly what this looked like, He said;
Matthew 15:8 "'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME."
Parents often are able to discern dishonor in the most subtle forms coming from their children, they know when they are being treated with contempt, the object of contempt always knows. Just as God sees the contempt in the heart, so does the parent who has discernment.
It would be good for everyone to ask for wisdom on this matter, we are experiencing more of this rebellion than ever before. 2 Timothy 3 describes what it will like in the last days. There is no excuse for believers to act like this, they can ask Christ in them to show them their own heart. Non-believers can do nothing else, they are ruled and controlled by the father of lies and have no defense against his wiles. They are completely at his mercy.
2 Timothy 3
"3 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,
4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!
6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith;
9 but they will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs also was."
It helps to know that God warned us about this to comfort us, the same contempt that parents often feel on the part of their children is the contempt the world shows for Christ, the rebellion the devil had against God and the attitude of superiority adult children show for their parents. It is all connected to one thing......dishonor of God Himself.
May each one honestly reflect on their own attitude, evaluating it in terms of the Word of God, not comparing ourselves with ourselves or justifying ourselves in one way or another, rather honestly seeking for God to show us who we really are in His eyes.
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