Occasionally you’ll run across the idea that while a young person is a child, he is required to obey; when he matures, he should honor his parents; then when he moves out and is no longer at home, he really doesn’t need his parents’ input or approval on his decisions.

While you might be able to finely split the word-definitions in Ex. 20.12 and Eph. 6.1-3 and come up with such an obligational scheme, that’s not the whole picture.

Consider the following proverbs:

• 15.20: A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish man despises his mother.
• 17.25: A foolish son is a grief to his father and bitterness to her who bore him.
• 23.22: Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
• 23.24: The father of the righteous will greatly rejoice; he who fathers a wise son will be glad in him.
• 30.17: The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.

Proverbs isn’t a book written to little kids or even specifically to young teens. The warnings about the adulteress (Prov. 5-7) would be rather out of place if the target audience were youngsters. Quite the opposite is true: even adults ought to listen to their elderly parents (Prov. 23.22).

I suppose that if you wanted to, you could split some hairs and call a technicality about what age/status allows one to stop obeying his parents. However, if you really want to do the biblical thing (the wise thing), even when your parents are old and you are grown, you will delight them and glorify God by listening to them and heeding their wisdom!