Training Up the Next Generation
Ephesians 6:1-4
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”-which is the first commandment with a promise – 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Today we will finish our look at this week’s verses by looking again at verse 4 – Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Looking at the last part of that verse we read again – bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. The sermon series we are sharing currently will talk about Biblical Family Values. We’re instructed in Deuteronomy to train up our children.
Deuteronomy 6:7 – Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Proverbs 22:6 – Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
Parents – your church wants to partner with you to train up – to rear – to raise up – your children in the way of the Lord. Two influences – the family/parents and the church – will make a larger impact working together than they could possibly do working a part. We want to be Biblically sound and to follow the admonition of our Lord to train up the children. Please – join with us as we team to make a difference in the next generation.
Just something to think about today as you go on your way.
Do Not Exasperate Your Children
Ephesians 6:1-4
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”-which is the first commandment with a promise – 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
As we continue to look at these verses, today we will begin to look at the final verse – Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
For a long time – as I was growing up – I wasn’t sure what exasperate meant. I had to look it up in the dictionary. Doing that today produces a definition for exasperate: to excite the anger of, according to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary. In the KJV the word used where NIV uses exasperate is provoke – In NEB it is goad to resentment.
According to John Macarthur Jr. (Successful Christian Parenting): the children’s duty in the home is to obey. The parent’s duty: to teach them that obedience in an environment of godly nurturing, without exasperating them in the process.
One commentary said that a parent’s job is to train their children in the ways of the Lord without bringing them to exasperation or frustration. In a world where EVERYTHING in our children’s environment seems to be pulling them away from God – training them in righteousness is not only against their sin nature – but against the grain of society.
Two forces are better combined than two a part – so the family and the church need to partner together to help train up the next generation in a loving way – a way that will lead them to love Jesus – instead of resenting the Lord, their parents, and the church.
Just something to think about today as you go on your way.
Honoring Your Parents
Ephesians 6:1-4
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”-which is the first commandment with a promise – 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Today we want to continue looking at these verses – “Honor your father and mother”-which is the first commandment with a promise-“that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”
Paul quotes one of the commandments here from Exodus 20:12 – Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
Dione mentioned this passage Sunday as he shared some of the passages his father taught him as a child. Honor your father and your mother he would say. Yet there is more – as Dione pointed out! It is actually the first commandment with a promise: Honor your father and mother-which is the first commandment with a promise. The promise – so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you or as Paul puts it – that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.
The people of God are called to honor their parents – and by doing so they will be granted long life. Sounds like a good bargain to me.
Remember what we said a few days ago – children (young and still at home) are to obey their parents – while all of us are called to honor our parents. Honoring them is not the same as obeying them. Obedience is doing what they say. Honoring is listening, and respecting their opinion, even if you might end up doing something different.
I have seen way to many people who seem way too anxious for their parents to be out-of-the-way rather than a treasure to be honored. My parents are both 82 and beginning to show signs of ill physical and mental health. Yet it is a blessing to be with them and to share life with them and I still, at 55, will ask my father’s advise and seek his counsel – if at times for no other reason than to honor him.
Just something to think about today as you go on your way.
Children – Obey Your Parents
Ephesians 6:1-4
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”-which is the first commandment with a promise – 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
For the next few days we will try to unpack this important passage to families. God gives loads of instructions to families in the Bible. This passage begins with verse one of chapter six by telling children to obey their parents. I like that! Don’t you? Dione said that this was one of the four Scriptures he remembers his father quoting all the time as he was growing up. It sounds to me like some good instruction!
As we look into the first part of this passage we see that the Greek word used for children suggests we are talking about young child. Possibly a child under parental care and nurture. Don’t ask me when that command is lifted – I’m not sure at what age we are not required to obey our parents – maybe when we provide for ourselves or something. What do you think?
Like many passages in the Bible – people often read the part they want to hear and not the rest or at least the context in which the passage is given. In the days to come we will look more deeply into these few short verses and what surrounds them.
Just something to think about today as you go on your way.
I gave the contrast here about young children obeying their parents because we are not always called to obey them – but – as we will see tomorrow – we are always called to honor them.
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