Children, obey your parents in the Lord
Sun, 26 March, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
As we come to the end of the book of Ephesians, we have Paul’s instructions for the family. Paul ended the last chapter with a discussion of the relationship between husbands and wives, and today he deals with the relationship between children and parents, and workers and employers. In our meditations for today, we will consider what Paul tells us about children and parents.
What do we learn from this?
The family is very important to God. He has established it, and as we saw yesterday, the relationships within the family display the spiritual relation of the church and Christ.
In God’s order of things, children are to submit to their parents. Why? First of all because it is the right thing to do. To disobey your parents is wrong. It is a moral issue, and unlike the ceremonial law that was fulfilled in Christ and we no longer have an obligation to keep, we are still under the requirement to obey our parents. Paul reminds us that obedience to parents is the fifth of the ten commandments. It (like the rest of the ten commandments) is a moral law, and as such, we are required to keep it. Obeying your parents is the right thing to do.
But Paul also points out the element of promise in the command. There is a principle here: obedience is better than disobedience, and there are consequences to obeying and disobeying. God blesses obedience, and He curses disobedience.
We know from the book of Job that there isn’t a one to one relationship here. We don’t see that every disobedient child lives “short in the land” and every obedient child lives “long in the land”. But we do see that there are consequences to our actions, and in general, children will be happier and more blessed as they obey their parents. Paul is being very practical in pointing out that it is to your benefit to obey this command of God.
Where is Christ in this passage?
Children are to obey their parents in the Lord. This means that as they are obeying their parents, they are in fact obeying the Lord. They are obeying Jesus Christ by obeying their parents.
This is no surprise to us as Jesus told us, “Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me.” Do you love Jesus Christ? If you do, you will obey His commands. He commands that you obey your parents. Therefore, as you obey your parents, you are displaying your love for Jesus Christ.
