Deuteronomy 21:18-21
New International Version
A Rebellious Son 18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid.
Monday - March 28
Luther highlights that all civil authority is an extension of the authority of the home (see Luther’s explanation of the 4th Comm.). Thus, the 5th commandment is not applied to civil authority, which needs to raise armies and maintain justice through means of force. “The Fifth Commandment―You are not to kill… Here we leave our own house and go out among the neighbors in order to learn how we should live among them… Therefore neither God nor the government is included in this commandment, nor is their right to take human life abrogated. God has delegated his authority to punish evildoers to the civil authorities in the parents‘ place; in former times, as we read in [Deut. 21:18–20], parents had to judge their children themselves and sentence them to death. (Martin Luther, The Large Catechism, the 5th Commandment).