Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 6:1-4:
And, ye fathers, provoke not your
children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord
(Ephesians 6:4).
This teaching comes in the
context of Paul’s “household code” in Ephesians. He addresses first here the
duties of children to parents, based on the fifth commandment (Ephesians 6:1-3;
cf. Exodus 20:12)
The corresponding admonition
to parents in Ephesians 6:4 is directed specifically to the father. This tells
us, as with the charges to wives and husbands (Ephesians 5:22-33), about the
special responsibilities of men, according to the order of creation, within the
family.
Notice again that these instructions
to fathers is what would have surprised the first readers. They assumed the
power and authority of the father as the Pater Familias, the head of the
household. In the Roman context a father was an absolute power in the home. He
literally had the authority of life and death when an infant was born. What the
first hearers would have been struck by is the fact that he had duties to his
children to treat them in a responsible and loving manner, seeking especially their
spiritual good.
Paul begins with a negative
command, “ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath” (v. 4a). Some modern
versions read, “Do not exasperate your children.” The father does not exercise
discipline and rule so as to crush the spirits of his children, or to make them
angry due to his cruelty or indifference or unloving spirit towards them.
R. C. Sproul wrote on this passage:
This doesn’t mean that every time a
child becomes angry with a parent, it is because the parents have been guilty
of unjust provocation. But there is such a thing as a belligerent, insensitive,
harsh, and stentorian type of discipline which so frustrates children that they
are filled with hostility and resentment towards their parents which then
spills over into the rest of their lives (Ephesians, 145).
Paul then offers two positive
commands:
First, but bring them up in
the nurture (paideia, a term referring to education and discipleship), and
second, in the instruction (nouthesia, counsel or exhortation) of the
Lord.
The Puritans described the
family as like a “little church.” The father acts as a pastor and as a priest
in his household. He is concerned for the spiritual well-being of his children
above all, just as his duty to his wife was for her sanctification (cf. Ephesians
5:26-27).
How beautiful it is when these
two things work together in harmony: When children honor parents in the Lord
and when godly fathers, alongside their wives and the mother of their children,
raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff
Riddle
Note: In the Practical Application at the close of last Sunday’s sermon on Ephesians 6:1-4, I offered a list of some of the duties of children and parents (fathers) drawn from some teaching from past years. You can review some of this sort of family material previously posted to my blog here:
Five Duties of Children to Parents.
Five Duties of Parents to Children.
The Puritan Thomas Vincent’s list of seven duties for children and parents (1674).
A
Summary of D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ book Raising Children God’s Way.
No comments:
Post a Comment