content/08/02.md
---
pagetitle: Who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment?
date: February 19, 2020
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---
#### Larger Catechism
<span class="q">Q 124.</span> Who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment?
<span class="q">A.</span> By father and mother, in the fifth commandment, are meant, not only natural parents,[^fnref:wlc1] but all superiors in age[^fnref:wlc2] and gifts;[^fnref:wlc3] and especially such as, by God's ordinance, are over us in place of authority, whether in family,[^fnref:wlc4] church,[^fnref:wlc5] or commonwealth.[^fnref:wlc6]
[^fnref:wlc1]: <div class="esv"><h5>Proverbs 23:22</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p20023022.01-1">Listen to your father who gave you life,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and do not despise your mother when she is old.</p> </div> </div><h5>Proverbs 23:25</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p20023025.01-2">Let your father and mother be glad;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>let her who bore you rejoice.</p> </div> </div><h5>Ephesians 6:1-2</h5> <div class="esv-text"> <p id="p49006001.04-3"><span class="chapter-num" id="v49006001-3">6:1 </span>Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wlc2]: <div class="esv"><h5>1 Timothy 5:1-2</h5> <div class="esv-text"> <p id="p54005001.05-1"><span class="chapter-num" id="v54005001-1">5:1 </span>Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity. (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wlc3]: <div class="esv"><h5>Genesis 4:20-21</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p01004020.01-1">Adah bore Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock. His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.</p> </div><h5>Genesis 45:8</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p01045008.01-2">So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wlc4]: <div class="esv"><h5>2 Kings 5:13</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p12005013.01-1">But his servants came near and said to him, “My father, it is a great word the prophet has spoken to you; will you not do it? Has he actually said to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?” (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wlc5]: <div class="esv"><h5>2 Kings 2:12</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p12002012.01-1">And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.</p> <p id="p12002012.25-1">Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.</p> </div><h5>Galatians 4:19</h5> <div class="esv-text"><p id="p48004019.01-2">my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!</p> </div><h5>2 Kings 13:14</h5> <div class="esv-text"> <p id="p12013014.05-3">Now when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down to him and wept before him, crying, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div>
[^fnref:wlc6]: <div class="esv"><h5>Isaiah 49:23</h5> <div class="esv-text"><div class="block-indent"> <p class="line-group" id="p23049023.01-1">Kings shall be your foster fathers,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and their queens your nursing mothers.<br /> With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,<br /> <span class="indent"></span>and lick the dust of your feet.<br /> Then you will know that I am the <span class="small-caps">Lord</span>;<br /> <span class="indent"></span>those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” (<a href="http://www.esv.org" class="copyright">ESV</a>)</p> </div> </div> </div>