Ephesians 6:1-3: Children obey your parents: Part 3
Obeying your parents, why should we do it? On the one hand we have the pragmatic view of psychology which has finally admitted the age old wisdom of God’s ways and tells us that every child needs loving parents for various reasons.
On the other hand we have evolutionary views that tell us that we should be able to evolve beyond the need to have parents. Parenthood as an institution is no longer seen as sacred, but rather it is tolerated only in so far as it is useful.
Today you can divorce your parents; you can legally have yourself removed from the household. Also the state has taken many powers to itself including the power to take a person’s children off them and loan them back to the parents based on conditions formulated by their present philosophical commitments.
Another example would be the fact that it is practically illegal to home-school your children in a Christian education in the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and Sweden. The thinking behind this move on the part of modern states is that a child’s interests are not best served by the parent’s home-schooling a child but the state’s crafted curricula and learning environments. It is the opinion of many of these modern states that the state is best equipped to make an integrated citizen who can function in the present age.
As we continue looking at the Ephesians 6:1-4 we come to the child’s responsibility to obey and this obedience is grounded in the authority of God in the fifth commandment, ‘Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honour 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.” Today we will look at the responsibility of the children who receive this command and next week focus on the parents. We want to look at two things. What is the meaning of ‘obey’; and what is the motivation offered in the command?
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