Parents and God

Recently at our youth group we studied three passages together that don't seem to go together at first glance. However, looking at context and specific parts of these passages shows the relationship. Not only the relationship between them, but the relationships between us, our parents, and God.

The passages we studied were:

Exodus 20:12
Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the Lord your God gives you.

Proverbs 1:8-9
Hear, my son, your father's instruction
And do not forsake your mother's teaching;
Indeed, they are a graceful wreath to your head
And ornaments about your neck.

here's the weird one...

Mathew 10:34-37 (Jesus speaking)
Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's enemies will be the members of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

What does he mean by that? Is the Bible contradicting itself? How can we honor our father and mother at the same time that we are turned against them?

The problem with this passage does not exist; the problem in our conception of this passage is where the inconsistency lies. The first two are pretty straight-forward, summed up, honor and obey your father and mother. However, the last one is slightly more difficult.

We are automatically drawn toward the middle of the passage, turning on our parents and family, when we should instead be looking at the END of the passage. The main point of this passage obviously isn't "thou shalt hate thine mother and father", because we are told in the previous two to honor and obey.We look to the end of the passage, where we are told that if we love father or mother more than Him, we are not worthy of Him. An easier way is to look at the inverse; if we love Him more than our father and mother, then we ARE worthy of Him.

The point of the study was that we are to love our father and mother, but not to the point of idolatry, that we are to obey our father and mother, but not to the point of disobeying God, but most of all, we learn that no matter what happens, God is to be the center of our lives and our hearts.