The ethnic Chinese may believe that Christians do not fulfill their responsibility of filial piety. However, is that true? The ones who believe so have the follow arguments:
The ethnic Chinese have the custom of worshipping their ancestors. When Christians do not worship their parents after death nor prepare food for their ancestors, the typical person will think that believing in Jesus means that they do not honour their parents. But in reality, a person is hungry because of their physical body. Once they die, the physical body passes away, how can they be hungry? The ethnic Chinese are intelligent, but when we don’t contemplate on certain matters, we become foolish instead.
They feel that those who believe in Jesus deny their forefathers. In the Chinese culture, it is important to remember one’s origins and be respectful of those who died before you. However, when we look at our genealogy, there are only so many generations we can remember. If we must remember our origins, where does this ‘origin’ start? The Bible traces the first father of mankind back to Adam, the Son of God (Lk 3:38). Thus, God is the origin and forefather of mankind. Critics may condemn Christians that they deny their forefathers, but in reality, Christians acknowledge their forefather the most. The Bible teaches us that we must honour our parents and worship the Father of all mankind – God. This is similar to the principles of Chinese filial piety.
According to the ten commandments in the Bible, the first four commandments are towards God, and the last six commandments are towards man. The first of the commandments toward man is “honour your father and your mother” (Exo 20:12). This is similar to the Chinese teaching “filial piety is the foundation of all virtues”.
There is a well-known example in the book of Ruth. Ruth was a daughter-in-law who honoured her mother-in-law. She had compassion on her mother-in-law who lost her husband and her two sons. In order to care for her mother-in-law, Ruth chose to remain a widow (Ruth 1:16-17). Because of Ruth’s filial piety, she was greatly blessed by God, who prepared the wealthy and kind Boaz to be her husband. Moreover, the famous King David also came from her lineage (Ruth 4:17). Just as the Bible records, those who honour their parents will be blessed. On the other hand, “He who curses father or mother, let him be put to death” (Mat 15:4). In this world, there is no harsher teaching on filial piety than this.
There are people who compare their parents to the mountains or to the sea. The love and grace our parents showed us are great, but there is a God who loves us deeper and greater. One may say that the love of our parents comes from the love of the heavenly Father. Since we already know the teaching of filial piety, we must not only honour our father and mother on earth, but our Father who is in heaven all the more. God said woefully, “The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; But Israel does not know, My people do not consider.” (Isa 1:3). The ox and the donkey know their owner, but God’s people do not know Him. We know that we have a Father in heaven, who freely gives us the sunlight, air and water. With such great kindness and grace, how can we not know Him? How can we not love Him?
The greatest difference between animals and man is that man recognizes grace and knows how to give thanks. We know to return the good that our parents had shown us. Similarly, God loves us greatly as well; He loves and cares for us physically and is preparing a better place for us in heaven. If we do not know to return God’s love by loving Him back and worshipping Him, it becomes our sin. It is written, “acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace; Thereby good will come to you.” (Job 22:21). This is a promise God gives us, thus we should all greatly increase our love for our parents to love God more and to live a life filled with honour for God and with love for man.
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