On this Mother’s Day, we should know and honor our mothers.
1. “The Mother of All Living”
As Bible believers, we must accept all that the Bible teaches. Scripture says, “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20). Many professing Christians are calling into question or denying the historicity of Adam and Eve (e.g., some professors at Calvin College).
If Eve was not the mother of all living, then Jesus was either wrong or deceptive in what He taught because He taught that Adam and Eve were real and that they were the first people that God made (Matt. 19:4-5; cf. John 3:12). The Christian faith would then be worthless.
Jesus was not wrong or deceptive. We must know that Eve was the mother of all living, and we must honor her as such. We are to honor Eve by defending her historical existence.
We are to honor Eve also by heeding the teaching of key passages in the NT that speak of her (1 Cor. 11; 2 Cor. 11; 1 Tim. 2). God created her from Adam and for Adam and not vice versa (1 Cor. 11:8-9).
Eve was deceived by the serpent (2 Cor. 11:3). We must honor her by learning from her failure that we must guard ourselves against false teachers who preach another Jesus and speak of receiving another spirit and of accepting another gospel (11:4).
Adam was formed before Eve and was not deceived (1 Tim. 2:13-14). We must honor Eve by learning from her succumbing to deception that we are not to allow women to teach men or usurp authority over them in the church (2:12).
2. “Thy Mother”
Every person that has ever lived has come into the world in the same way: he came out of his mother’s womb (Job 1:21). In the Ten Commandments, God declares, “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee” (Ex. 20:12). The New Testament reiterates that teaching in Ephesians 6.
In various ways, we are to honor our mothers who gave us birth:
- heeding her law (Prov. 1:8; 6:20); obeying her (30:17; Eph. 6:1-3)
- making her glad by being righteous and wise (Prov. 23:24-25)
- blessing her (Prov. 31:28; 30:11)
- providing for her if she is widowed (1 Tim. 5:4)
3. “The Mother of Us All”
In Galatians, Paul teaches us vital truth for all believers. He defends justification by faith without works. In his defense of that doctrine, he says, “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:26). Paul speaks of one here whom he says is “the mother of us all.”
Paul says that the Jerusalem that is above is the mother of all believers, and that she is free. He contrasts her with the earthly Jerusalem that was in bondage in his day.
How do we honor heavenly Jerusalem, our mother? Some people are currently saying that we have misunderstood Paul’s teaching about justification and the Law. They are trying to get Christians to change their understanding of justification and salvation. To honor “the mother of us all, we must steadfastly resist all such teaching (4:30; 5:1).
Copyright © 2011-2024 by Rajesh Gandhi. All rights reserved.
