Text 2. Family Focus on Christ

CHILDREN, OBEY YOUR PARENTS

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

We have considered God's directives to wives and husbands in our previous messages. Now we will look at God's directives to children.

I'd like to underscore the title "Children, Obey Your Parents," because our text conveys God's directives to children. This is not a philosophy or tradition of any man of how families should be governed.

This is what Almighty God, who designed the family, has to say about the family. Therefore, it is important for us to receive these directives as the Word of the living God, not as the opinions of some man.

We studied what God says to wives, and then what God says to husbands. Now we are going to consider what God says to children.

God's directives for parents come primarily to the fathers not the mothers. Verse 4 says, "And, ye fathers, provoke not your children...."

Now I want to talk to the children. God has a very special word to you. This is God's Word to you in EPH 6:1-3, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth."

I want you children to do a little class work right now. Look at your Bibles and tell me God's two directives to you. What's the key word to the wives? Submit. What's the key word to the husbands? Love. Find the two key words to the children. They are obey and honor. God's directives to children hinge upon these two words. Honor your father and mother. Children obey your parents. We are going to try to open up the meaning of these directives to the children.

FOR OUR FIRST POINT, let's consider the word obey, what it means, the nature of that obedience, and the reasons for that obedience.

FOR OUR SECOND POINT, let's consider the word honor, what it means, and two reasons why we should honor our parents. It is God's commandment, and it has God's special promise.

The Word of God is for children, the same as for teen-agers, adults, and old folks. The first directive to the children is, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right," EPH 6:1.

What does the word obey mean? The word obey here is exactly the same word used in verse five with reference to servants. Verse 5, "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh...." Now that kind of obedience is very clear to us.

When a master calls his servant in, he gives positive directives of the servant's duties. He might say, "I want you to do this in the morning and that in the afternoon. When you are done, the rest of the day is yours." Once the master has given his directives, the servant must carry out whatever the master has directed by his words.

That is what it means when Verse 5 says, "Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh...." It means that when I receive a commandment from my superior, I carry it out as well as I can.

Now to children God says, "...obey your parents...." That means to listen to their directions, seek to understand them; seek to carry out their intent to the best of your ability.

What is supposed to be the nature of this obedience? The text says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord...." In other words, this is a religious obedience. It has to do with our responsibility to the Lord.

When children obey their parents, they are to look beyond their parents' commands, will and authority.

Children must learn to see that their parents are training them and bringing them up in "the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They must recognize that their parents' authority is in subjection to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who put parents over them. He made them His representatives to guide and direct their children.

When children are obeying their parents, they should be constantly thinking of the smile or frown of God.

That is why obedience to parents is a religious matter. A child can be obedient to his parents and not be a Christian, but no child can be a Christian and have a pattern of disobedience to his parents.

Some children obey their parents out of natural love. The fact that a child is obedient to his parents is no proof that he is a Christian. But, if he lightly disobeys his parents it is a proof that he is not a Christian. That shows that his rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ is not broken.

Since the Lord has put parents over children, rebellion against parents is rebellion against the Lord. By this a child is saying that he will not obey the Lord. The nature of obedience that God requires is religious obedience. "Children, obey your parents in the Lord...," EPH 6:1.

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord...," must also be understood to mean, you must obey your parents if your parents' command is not against the Word of God. If they ask you to do that which comes against Scripture, then you must obey God's Word. Jesus says in MAT 10:37, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me...."

In MAT 10 Jesus said that he didn't come to bring peace but a sword. He said that at times he would divide parents from their children and children from their parents. Those are the exceptional cases.

There are very few instances when parents ask you to disobey the law of God. God says that you are to do whatever a parent requires that is not in direct violation of His holy law. He says you are to obey them in the Lord with reference to the Lord's authority and presence, and the fact that the Lord will hold you accountable for what you've done.

What reason does God give for that obedience? Look at our text. The command is: "obey your parents in the Lord." What reason does Paul give? The text says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." He stops there. (….)