Honor Thy Mother and Jesus

Jesus said in Matthew 15:4-6, “For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death. But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.”

Honor thy mother is a clear command in scripture, a quotation of Jesus from Exodus 20:12, among other places. Implied by Jesus and unto those hearing Him, honor thy mother meant taking care of her in her old age, when she couldn’t take care of herself. This is repeated in 1 Timothy 5:8 by the Apostle Paul. Scripturally, this was and is a given. However, in their traditions, which would be found in their religious writings, the Jews had made a loophole.

When someone said, “It is a gift,” the Greek word doron, that meant money was designated to God. It was an excuse to keep from honoring one’s mother. Someone would just pronounce “doron” over everything he had, so he wouldn’t need to give it away to anyone, because it was “God’s.” Today someone might call this “virtue signaling.” This was a tradition that allowed him to disobey a command.

Jesus used this command as an example of how they undermined or nullified what God said by their religious writings. They weren’t for honoring God, but for obfuscating or avoiding what God said. Jesus said they made the command of God of none effect. The command to honor your mother still stands.