Who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment?

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Q 124. Who are meant by father and mother in the fifth commandment?

A. By father and mother, in the fifth commandment, are meant, not only natural parents,¹ but all superiors in age² and gifts;³ and especially such as, by God’s ordinance, are over us in place of authority, whether in family,⁴ church,⁵ or commonwealth.⁶

Proverbs 23:22

Listen to your father who gave you life,
and do not despise your mother when she is old.

Proverbs 23:25

Let your father and mother be glad;
let her who bore you rejoice.

Ephesians 6:1-2

6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), (ESV)

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1 Timothy 5:1-2

5:1 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. (ESV)

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Genesis 4:20-21

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.

Genesis 45:8

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. (ESV)

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2 Kings 5:13

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’?” (ESV)

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2 Kings 2:12

And Elisha saw it and he cried, “My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more.

Then he took hold of his own clothes and tore them in two pieces.

Galatians 4:19

my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!

2 Kings 13:14

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!” (ESV)

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Isaiah 49:23

Kings shall be your foster fathers,
and their queens your nursing mothers.
With their faces to the ground they shall bow down to you,
and lick the dust of your feet.
Then you will know that I am the Lord;
those who wait for me shall not be put to shame.” (ESV)

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Copyright © 2015–2026 Tim Hopper. Based on Calendar of Readings in the Westminster Standards by Dr. Joey Pipa. Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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