Children and Parents

God Speaks to Children:

The 10 Commandments address children pointedly, as does this text. 

God speaks to children here and throughout the Bible.

• God spoke to Samuel

Children can hear God speak and understand what God is saying to them.

Children, you are very important to God.

Children, Obey Your Parents:

This is an echo of many similar instructions in the Bible. It is a repeated theme.

In the Lord. Paul is not addressing children everywhere so much as children in the church. He is talking to the Christian family where Christ is Lord.

• It is not the task of the child, except in highly unusual circumstances, to evaluate the spirituality of their parents. That is a mistaken notion. That is like saying, “I will obey my parents when they are right.”
• It is the duty of the child to obey God by obeying their parents. This is what Christians do. They submit themselves to the Lord. And God says, “Obey your parents.” Therefore, we obey our parents in the Lord.

For this is right (Col. 3:20: “this is well-pleasing in the Lord”).

This is the law of the Old Testament.

This is what Jesus did: Luke 2:41-52: Every year Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for the Festival of the Passover. When he was twelve years old, they went up to the festival, according to the custom. After the festival was over, while his parents were returning home, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but they were unaware of it. Thinking he was in their company, they traveled on for a day. Then they began looking for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they went back to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.When his parents saw him, they were astonished. His mother said to him, “Son, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously searching for you.” “Why were you searching for me?” he asked. “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he was saying to them. Then he went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.

• “Parents” in verses 41, 43, and 48 is the same word that is used in Ephesians 6:1. In Luke 2 the word includes the earthly father of Jesus, Joseph, who was not his biological father. Yet he is called his “parent.” 
• His mother (meiteir) said to Jesus, “Your father (pateir) and I have been anxiously searching for you” (v48). These are the familiar words for mother and father. Jesus already has a sense that his true Father is in heaven when he responds, “Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s (pateir) house?” (v49). 
• Jesus was twelve years old when this happened, at the very time that children begin to think they are adults. After Jesus’ time, Jews began the ceremony called bar mitzva. This is when a Jewish boy became a “son of the law,” a man. So in the Jewish world of the First Century, Jesus is on the verge of manhood. Yet he goes home and is subject to and obedient to his parents. 

Children, Honor Your Father and Mother:

This is the fifth of the 10 commandments that Paul is quoting. 

• The Ten Commandments are often divided into two tablets from the idea that Moses had two tablets on the mountain: And He gave unto Moses, when He had made an end of speaking with him upon mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God (Ex 31:18.)
• The two tables or Tablets are commonly divided into Duties Toward God and Duties Toward Persons. The character of the first four commands seems consistent with this division as does the character of the last five.
• The fifth commandment is honor your father and mother. It is the bridge commandment between the two Tablets. It fits most neatly in the second Tablet. 
• Parents are God’s gift to us. Obedience to them is akin to obedience to God.

The word “honor” in Greek comes from the word for “precious” or “valuable” or “dear.” The idea is that you would treat your parents as very valuable and precious to you. That you would communicate by actions and words your love and respect for them. Esteem them highly.

• This is a continuation of the first instruction to obey.
• “Honor” involves our hearts. So the Bible instructs us to obey out of love and respect, from our hearts.

This command comes with a promise: so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.

• Quality of life--It will go well with you.
• Quantity of life—macrochronos, “Live long.”

Fathers, Do Not Exasperate Your Children:

Who are the fathers? They are men like Joseph who are adoptive fathers or foster fathers. They are stepfathers as well as biological fathers. They are the men who have a role and place in their home.

Do not exasperate: “to rouse to wrath, to provoke, to exasperate, to anger.” 

First admonition to the fathers—do not provoke your children—is explained more fully by the second: instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. 

• “Bring them up” is a compound word with the prefix ek for “out or up” and the verb “to feed, to nourish.” The idea is that you will nourish them, nurture them, to maturity. You will help them grow up.
• How? Do this instead: train and instruct.
  • “Training” is “correction, instruction, nurture, chastisement.” It includes both positive and negative reinforcement. You are training your children with both.
  • “Instruction.” This word is about admonishing or exhorting. It’s what a good coach does for his players. 

Astros Manager A.J. Hinch was pressured to take the slumping George Springer out of the lineup. Springer had done miserably in the America League Championship Series against the Yankees, batting only .115. And in the first game of the World Series Springer struck out four times. He was the lead-off batter. The manager refused to pull him. Instead, he encouraged him, exhorted him, and stood behind him.

“For him to have my back, it means the world to me,” Springer said of his manager. And her rewarded that encouraging, faithful manager by hitting five homeruns in the next six games and becoming this year’s World Series MVP.