No, this does not mean that we baptize babies because the Fifth Commandment says, “Thou shalt baptize thy baby.” The Fifth Commandment says, “Honor your father and your mother.” It says nothing explicitly about baptizing babies—but it does say something else that is crucial.

The Promise Attached to the Fifth Commandment

The Fifth Commandment does not stand alone. It goes on to say, “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” In other words, the Fifth Commandment comes with a promise: the promise of long life in the promised land.

That promise was originally given to the children of Israel because they were viewed as part of God’s covenant family. Covenant promises were for covenant children—children who bore the covenant sign. This connection between command, promise, and covenant membership is key to understanding what follows.

Paul’s Use of the Fifth Commandment in Ephesians

What is especially striking is that the Apostle Paul quotes the Fifth Commandment in Ephesians chapter 6. He writes, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother.” Paul then adds, “This is the first commandment with a promise, that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Notice carefully what Paul does—and does not—say. He does not say, “Children in the Lord,” meaning only converted children who have repented and trusted in Jesus. Rather, he simply says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord.” He addresses all the children in the church in Ephesus, without exception.

Paul then grounds that instruction in the Fifth Commandment itself. He gives all the children the command—honor your father and mother—and he gives all of them the promise that goes with it, that it may go well with them and that they may live long in the land.

Covenant Children and Covenant Membership

If Paul applies both the commandment and its promise to all the children in the Ephesian church, what is he saying about them? He is treating them as covenant members. They are part of God’s covenant family.

And if they are covenant members, then they are owed the covenant sign. Covenant promises are for covenant children, and so, too, are covenant signs. The logic is straightforward: those who receive the covenant command and promise are those who belong to the covenant people.

From Circumcision to Baptism

In the Old Testament, the covenant sign was circumcision, given to the boys on the eighth day, with girls included by virtue of their fathers. In the New Testament, the covenant sign is baptism. It is applied by sprinkling and given to both boys and girls from their earliest days.

This, then, is the argument for infant baptism from the Fifth Commandment. If all the children in the church in Ephesus received the covenant promises attached to the covenant command, then Paul clearly viewed them as covenant members. And if they were covenant members, they were owed the covenant sign.

Baptizing God’s Covenant Children

This is why, this morning, we baptize Audrey and Ruth without embarrassment or hesitation. They are God’s covenant children. They will receive the covenant command to obey their parents. They will receive the covenant promise that it may go well with them. And this morning, they receive the covenant sign of Christian baptism.

Of course, baptism does not save them. But if they are saved later through faith in Jesus Christ, then this baptism will serve as a means of grace in their lives. And that is our prayer: that what has been put on the outside of them this morning—the cleansing of water—would, in God’s mercy, become a reality on the inside of them as well.