The Title “First” Given to the Fifth Commandment

In the amplification of this reason, the apostle calls the commandment of honoring parents the “first commandment with promise,” [Eph. 6:2] to show that it is the first which has a particular promise added to it, so it is the first that God gave of any duty to be performed to man. The very order of the Decalogue shows the truth of this. The reason is clear; honor due to parents is the ground of all the duties required in the second table, for if duty is not performed to those who we are bound to by some peculiar bond, may we think that it will be performed to those who we are bound to at large? Now our parents are the persons to whom we are first and most obligated of all, and to whom we owe our first duty. They therefore who are rebellious against their parents, and refuse to do their duty to them, will hardly perform duty to any other. There is little hope that a disobedient child will prove a profitable member in church or nation. Absalom, who was a rebellious child, proved only to be a traitorous subject, and Hophni and Phinehas, who refused to hear the voice of their father, proved only sacrilegious priests. Therefore, if we aim to conscientiously keep any precept of the second table of the law—and we should keep all, for the same Lawmaker gave all, and Christ has said that “the second” table is “like unto” the first (Matt. 22:39)—then this command of honoring father and mother should be kept above the rest, at least if we may make distinctions about keeping any.
—William Gouge, 'Building a Godly Home vol. 3: A Holy Vision for Raising Children', 80–81.