Ephesians 6:1

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

[6:1] 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.”

Notice the progression of Ephesians chapter 5:

Be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1)

All believers are to walk in love (just as Christ) (Eph 5:2)

Do not imitate the world (Eph 5:3-17)

Be filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18)

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Eph 5:21)

Imitate Christ in your marriage (Eph 5:22-32)

Wives respect, husbands love your spouse (Eph 5:33)

Children:

• Imitate Christ
• Be filled with the Spirit
• Submit to your parents
• Obey and honor, in other words, Love and respect your parents (Eph 6:1-3)

What we see in this passage is an accumulated understanding of the roles within the church, within the marriage, and within the family.

The war against the family:

God’s desire for the family: Deuteronomy 6:4-9

[4] “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. [5] You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. [6] And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. [7] You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. [8] You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. [9] You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Three causes of family problems:

1. Our sinful nature.

Our sinful nature, the curse of the Fall, is what causes men to be weak leaders who are unloving and uncaring to their wives, it causes women to usurp the leadership of the husband in the home, it causes children to be disobedient to their parents, and parents to be abusive to their children.

Only through a genuine saving relationship with Jesus and a desire to be filled with his Spirit can we ever hope to have Christ control our lives and our homes and to live up to the standard of the Christian home that God commands in his word.

God calls all children to be obedient and respectful. Obedience is the act; honor is the attitude. Neither come naturally, however. The Minnesota Crime Commission acknowledged that when it issued this report appointed by the governor back in 1926: “Every baby starts life as a little savage. He is completely selfish and self-centered. He wants what he wants when he wants it: his bottle, his mother’s attention, his playmate’s toys, his uncle’s watch, or whatever. Deny him these and he seethes with rage and aggressiveness which would be murderous were he not so helpless. He’s dirty, he has no morals, no knowledge, no developed skills. This means that all children, not just certain children but all children, are born delinquent. If permitted to continue in their self-centered world of infancy,given free reinto their impulsive actions to satisfy each want, every child would grow up a criminal, a thief, a killer, a rapist.”

2. The second cause of family problems is the satanic world system. Because satan is the enemy of God he seeks to thwart everything that God desires. If God desires to build strong, loving, spiritual homes then you know that satan wants to undermine and destroy everything that God does.

When over 80% of the media have no religious affiliation and an even higher number in the entertainment and television industry have no desire to follow biblical truth, should it be any surprise that we and our children are being fed a steady diet of anti Christ and anti biblical messages?

3. A third major factor in the attack on the home is humanistic philosophy.

Listen to these quotes from supposed experts:

One author and lecturer, F.M. Esfandiary, on humanist philosophy said, “To free the child we must do away with parenthood, we must settle for nothing less than the total elimination of the family.”

In 1979 those who wanted to change the family began to celebrate the international year of the child.  And they called for children to be freed from four things.  They should be freed from traditional morals or values; from parental authority, including any punishment; from religious discrimination, and from nationalism, or patriotism.  And it always interests me that 80 percent of the media in America have no religious affiliation.  So they carry the agenda very well and very aggressively.

In 1996 a U.S. senator wrote to pastor John MacArthur  to say that the anti-family forces are bent on fulfilling the following goals.  These are the goals he listed: abortion, government-controlled family planning, legalization of homosexual marriage…equal rights for children, government training for children and minimum wage for children for housework.  Can this really happen?  Can it really happen? In addition, children would be able to sue their parents for being forced to attend church.

Dr. Michael Novak wrote in Harper’s Magazine, “Clearly the family is the critical center of social force.  It is the seedbed of economic skills and attitudes toward work.  It is a stronger agency of educational success than the school, and a stronger teacher of the religious imagination than the church.  Political and social planning, in a wise social order, begins with the axiom, ‘what strengthens the family strengthens society.’  Even when poverty and disorientation strike as over the generations they often do, it is family strength that most defends individuals against alienation, lassitude or despair.  The world around the family is fundamentally unjust.  The state and its agents and the economic system and its agencies are never fully to be trusted.  One unforgettable law has been learned through all the disasters and injustices of the last thousand years; if things go well with the family, life is worth living.  When the family falters, life falls apart.”  And Michael Novak is exactly right.

The necessity of the family

In contrast, notice this study:

In their study Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency , Harvard University sociologists Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck identified four crucial factors in preventing future delinquency in young children:

1. The father’s firm, fair, and consistent discipline.
2. The mother’s supervision and companionship during the day.
3. The parents’ demonstrated affection for each other and forthe children.
4. The family’s cohesiveness—time spent together in activities where all participate.

The Bible says the same thing.

Psalm 127:3-5

[3] Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,

the fruit of the womb a reward.

[4] Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the children of one’s youth.

[5] Blessed is the man

who fills his quiver with them!

He shall not be put to shame

when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

The responsibility of children – 3 questions

What should children be expected to do?

Obituary of Jim Lofgren

LOFGREN, James Gilbert – 85 years old, died peacefully on Sunday, October 16th, 2016 at Chelsey Park Retirement Community, London. Jim was born on January 2nd, 1931 in Strasbourg, Saskatchewan, to Myrtle and Eric Lofgren. He was the fourth born of 10 children and left home at 12 years of age with his grade eight education, to make room for the younger children and find his way in the world. Jim always found profitable work. He began on a neighbour’s farm, sold farm implements, drove snow plow, worked for the Government of Manitoba, a trucking company and a grocery wholesaler. In the early 70’s he began a business called Horta Craft, distributing plant tags and labels to greenhouses. When that out grew his basement he moved the company to London, Ontario, where it continues to this day. Jim grew up in a time so unlike our day that his stories were often entertaining. He talked of taking a horse and sleigh to a one room school, and snow drifts that covered over fence lines in the winter. He told of playing a game of chicken with his brothers by throwing pitchforks at each other’s feet.

What should parents be doing?

Proverbs 22:6

[6] Train up a child in the way he should go;

even when he is old he will not depart from it.

What should we be training them to do?

Parents should be helping their children to understand how to please the Lord until they are spiritually mature enough to make godly decisions for themselves. They should then reinforce these decisions by living faithfully, praising feverishly, and rebuking frequently.

Ephesians 6:1-3

Children – tekna, all ages under the authority, living under the roof of their parents.

Obey, hupakouo, is made up of the Greek words for under and listen and literally means to “hear under” or to listen attentively and to respond positively. Children are to put themselves under the words and authority of their parents.

Submit is hupotasso – to place under

Within God’s family there is the constant battle to place ourselves under, whereas the result of the curse in Genesis 3 is to rule OVER.

If it is a struggle for the husband to love, the wife to respect, how much more difficult is it for the child to obey? And until the husband truly places himself under the authority of Christ, it will always be difficult for the wife to place herself under the authority of the husband, and for the children to place themselves under the authority of the parents.

In the Lord, refers to obedience to parents as a way in which we please Christ. When we obey are parents we are doing that which pleases Jesus. In addition, in the lord, also refers to the boundary in which we are to obey. We are to do that which Jesus would want us to obey. If our parents ask us to disobey a direct command of the Lord this verse tells us that we have an obligation to Jesus first. The parent who asks their child to lie, who encourages their child to skip church, who encourages their child to do something contrary to God’s word is the sinner and not the “disobedient” child. In a sense, in the Lord, is a reminder to the child of who we are truly obeying and honoring and it is also a rebuke to the parent who seeks to force a child to disobey the commands of God.

For this is right. Right refers to that which is correct, just, righteous. To obey and honor parents is to do exactly what is right, exactly what God desires, and to do exactly what we should be doing.

As we said, obedience is the right action of the child.

The right attitude that must also be cultivated is HONOR. This word means to value highly, to hold in the highest regard and respect.

If the husband is to submit through love, and the wife is to submit through respect, children are to submit through love and respect, obedience and honor, action and attitude.

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