Exodus 21:12-17

It doesn't have to go all the way to murder. Maltreatment of a parent through striking or cursing is placed on a par with murder and kidnapping, and is punished in the same way—capital punishment: death. There are going to be no rebels in the place of safety.

Men may overlook and reject God's judgments, but do you think that God will overlook His own law? I don't think so. Do you know what curse means? It means something that is not as strong as you might think it is. It simply means to belittle. Have any of you young people belittled your parents? Almost all of us do going through life. It means "to make light of." It means "to be contemptuous of."

Think of what I just said about what the word "curse" means. It means to belittle. It means to speak contemptuously of. Jesus is saying there that He agrees with Exodus 21:12-17. For a child to speak contemptuously of, to consider his parents as being foolish, puts him in danger of the death penalty.

Again, I tell you, this is not John Ritenbaugh's law. This is God's law, and it is Jesus Christ, our Savior, saying that He agrees with it. He's going to be the God who judges. Cursing is placed on par with murder, and there is a reason why, and that is because it proceeds with this same attitude of heart, and is punishable by death. I want you to think of this now in relation to parents. The majesty and office of God is violated in the person of the parent, because God holds the parent as His representative and of types of Him, and thus the Fifth Commandment is broken, and the wages of sin is death. It's that simple. In terms of the penalty, it is just as wrong to curse parents as it is to curse God.