“My son, do not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands; for length of days and long life and peace they will add to you” (v. 1). Here, the voice of Solomon the father returns, not stern but gentle, imploring his child not merely to remember words but to treasure them in the heart. The commands of God are not burdens to be carried but lifelines to be held. To forget them is to forget who you are; to keep them is to be kept. And the reward for remembering? Not riches or fame, but something far better: length of days, long life, and peace. Not a life of ease, but a life with meaning—a life under God’s favor.
This echoes what St. Paul wrote, quoting from both Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you, and you may live long on the Earth’” (Ephesians 6:1-3). Paul reaches back into the Ten Commandments and holds up the fourth: a call not only to obedience but to honor—to see authority as a gift from God, not as a barrier to your autonomy. He reminds us that honoring our father and mother is not just about earthly parents but about honoring all those placed in authority by God. The promise is not a magical guarantee but a gracious truth: those who live under God’s order are blessed with stability, care, and often protection from many evils that come through rebellion and disdain.
In the Small Catechism, Luther explains the 4th Commandment: “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.” Like Paul and the author of Hebrews, Luther doesn’t just see the command as Law; he sees it as a reflection of God’s own Fatherhood. To obey those whom God places over us is to trust the hand of God who governs all things through means. As he writes in the Large Catechism, “So we have two kinds of fathers presented in this commandment: fathers in blood and fathers in office. Or those who have the care of the family and those who have the care of the country. Besides these there are still spiritual fathers… For the only ones called spiritual fathers are those who govern and guide us by God’s Word… Now, since they are fathers, they are entitled to their honor, even above all others” (LC I, 158-160). Where this trust lives, peace often follows—not only the outward peace of good order but also the inward peace of a conscience at rest under God’s design.
So then, Solomon, Paul, and Luther agree: to remember God’s Law, to honor those in authority, and to walk in the path of obedience is not only right but good. It shapes a life marked by peace, order, and often longer days. Not because God owes us for obedience but because He blesses what He commands. The Commandments are not meant to crush but to guide, and through faith in Christ, we find that even when we fail to keep them, He has fulfilled them on our behalf. In Him, we are children who are forgiven; and by the Spirit, we become children who remember. And in remembering, we are kept.
The Lutheran Column 