Honor Your Father

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.”

Don’t Call anyone Father

Matthew 23:8-10, ““But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 “And do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven. 10 Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ.”
In Exodus 20:12, we are commanded by God to honor our “father and mother.” Jesus says, in Matthew 23:8-9, to call no one father except God. So which is it? Can we refer to our earthly dads as father, or are we only supposed to use the term in reference to God?

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Show good works

(Matthew 5:16) – “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

(1 Peter 2:12) – “Keep your behavior excellent among the Gentiles, so that in the thing in which they slander you as evildoers, they may because of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation.”

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The NT authors quote Psalm 110 more than any other chapter in the OT.[1] But, are the NT authors mishandling this passage? Lets’ consider a few of the claims of the critics.

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Problem: Deuteronomy 6:5 states that we should love God with “all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” But in addition to these three areas, Jesus adds a fourth. He says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt. 22:37). Was Jesus adding to Scripture here?

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Problem: Jesus says in Matthew that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. But, if we love ourselves first, before we love our neighbor, then this would be putting self before neighbor. Is Jesus teaching that we should be selfish?

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Problem: Jesus said that in the resurrection we will be “like the angels of God” (Matt. 22:30). But angels have no physical bodies—they are spirits (Heb. 1:14). Thus, it is argued that we will have no physical bodies in the resurrection. This, however, is contradictory to those verses that claim there will be a resurrection of the physical body from the grave (John 5:28–29; Luke 24:39).

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Problem: Amillennial interpreters argue that the Jews forfeit the Abrahamic covenant and the Davidic covenant, because they rejected God’s messiah. They support this view by pointing to passages in Matthew 21:43, where Jesus says, “Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people, producing the fruit of it.”

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Immediately (Matthew 21:19) – “Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.

Overnight (Mark 11:14,20) – “He said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again!” And His disciples were listening. . .20As they were passing by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots up.”

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Problem: In Matthew, the cursing of the fig tree occurs after the cleansing of the Temple. In Mark, Jesus curses the fig tree, and it withers 24 hours later. The major problem is that Matthew says that the fig tree withered “at once” (Mt. 21:20). Which was it? Did the tree wither immediately or did it take 24 hours?

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The fig tree outside of the Temple wasn’t bearing fruit (v.19). Green figs were nasty to eat, so the people would wait to eat them. Carson writes, “That it was not the season for figs explains why Jesus went to this particular tree, which stood out because it was in leaf. Its leaves advertised that it was bearing, but the advertisement was false. Jesus, unable to satisfy his hunger, saw the opportunity of teaching a memorable object lesson and cursed the tree, not because it was not bearing fruit, whether in season or out, but because it made a show of life that promised fruit yet was bearing none.”[1] Lane adds, “Just as the leaves of the tree concealed the fact that there was no fruit to enjoy, so the magnificence of the Temple and its ceremony conceals the fact that Israel has not brought forth the fruit of righteousness demanded by God.”[2]

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Problem: Matthew places the cursing of the fig tree after the cleansing of the temple. But Mark places the cursing before the temple was cleansed. But, it cannot be both. Did one Gospel writer make a mistake?

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(Matthew 21:12) – “And Jesus entered the temple and cast out all those who were buying and selling in the temple, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who were selling doves.”

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Problem: Critics note that Jesus chased out the money changers with “a scourge of cords.” Why was he so angry here?

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Problem: At Jesus’ triumphal entry, Matthew records that the people shouted, “Hosanna to the Son of David; blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” (Mt. 21:9). Of course, this is a citation of Psalm 118:26. Why did the crowds shout this particular psalm?

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