Ephesians 6:3

3. Well with thee For conduct early well regulated by home law, is likely to he followed by that well regulated conduct which will secure the well -being through life. The child and the youth that obeys and honours his parents in the spirit of the command that is, in the Lord, and as obeying Christ is a true Christian. And as the promise is given to him in that spirit and character, never, but as he apostatizes from that spirit and character, can it be otherwise than well with him. Misfortune cannot ruin him, death cannot destroy him, eternity will set its perpetual seal upon his well -being.

Live long on the earth He to whom God’s law, commencing with parental law, is a regulator in life, keeps apart from violent counsels and violent men. Temperance, regular industry, and upright behaviour, are great prolongers of life. This is just as clear as the reverse fact that violence, intemperance, debauchery, war, or wild excitements of any kind, are the real murderers of three fourths of mankind, even in civilized Christendom. The average of human life would be lengthened by a purification, commencing in home law, of human character. So pointedly does the decalogue look to the right sort of parentage for the right sort of an age, a nation, or a race.

Meyer well refutes the notion that the promise of the fifth commandment was addressed to the people as a whole, by noting that them and thee show that it was a promise to each individual. Yet the long life of each would be the long enjoyment of Canaan to the whole.