they have played. In a comparable sense, it also means that wards whose
parents have died are to honor their guardians.
In a broader sense, this commandment means honoring our mon -
arch and government officials because on everyone’s behalf they provide
in a general way the necessities that parents provide in an individual way.
In the broadest sense, this commandment means loving our country
because it nurtures and protects us—it is called our “fatherland” from the
word “father.” In fact, it is the parents themselves who need to give
honor to the country and those who serve it, and to sow this habit in
their children.
In the spiritual meaning,honoring your father and your mother refers 306
to revering and loving God and the church. In this sense “father” means
God—the Father of all—and “mother” means the church. In the heavens
little children and angels know no other father or mother, since their
rebirth in that world comes from the Lord through the church. This is
why the Lord says, “Do not call anyone on earth your father, for your
father is the One in the heavens” (Matthew 23 : 9 ). (These words apply to
little children and angels in heaven, but not to little children and people
on earth.) The Lord teaches something similar in the prayer that is
shared by all Christian churches: “Our Father, who is in the heavens:
your name must be kept holy.”
In the spiritual meaning, “mother” stands for the church because as
mothers on earth nourish their children with physical food, so the
church nourishes people with spiritual food. For this reason in various
places in the Word the church is called “mother”; for example, in Hosea:
“Bring charges against your mother. She is not my wife and I am not her
husband” (Hosea 2 : 2 , 5 ). In Isaiah: “Where is the certificate of your
mother’s divorce, whom I put away?” (Isaiah 50 : 1 ; Ezekiel 16 : 45 ; 19 : 10 ). In
the Gospels: “Jesus reached his hand toward the disciples and said, ‘My
mother and my brothers and sisters are those who hear the Word of God
and do it’” (Matthew 12 : 48 , 49 , 50 ; Mark 3 : 33 , 34 , 35 ; Luke 8 : 21 ; John
19 : 25 , 26 , 27 ).
In the heavenly meaning,“father” stands for our Lord Jesus Christ 307
and “mother” stands for the communion of saints, meaning his church
that is scattered throughout the entire world. The following passages
show that the Lord is the “Father”:
A Child is born to us; a Son is given to us. His name will be called
God, Hero, Father of Eternity,Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9 : 6 )§307 the ten commandments 371