Our look at morality continues with the home. The responsibility of parents involves the moral training of children. Paul wrote, "ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. (Ephesians 6:4). The New King James reads "bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." Fathers, as head of the household, have the God-given responsibility to see to training their children in God's way of living. This is not a new idea, for God required it of the Jews in the Old Testament period. Moses wrote,
Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates (Deuteronomy 6:4-9).
Moses, by inspiration, instructed these Jewish parents to teach their children His law. They were told to keep it before themselves and their children always. Parents were to talk about the law "morning, noon, and night" and have the words ever before them on their hands, doorposts, between their eyes. This is part of bringing them up as Paul instructs.
This training should be consistent, but not harsh. Paul wrote the Colossians, "Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged" (Colossians 3:21). When instructing children, the way and also the why needs emphasis. God did not arbitrarily choose the standards He gave mankind, he chose those which are for our good and children need to know that.
Children also have an obligation to listen to their parents. Paul also wrote instructions for children in Ephesians 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." Paul wrote the Colossian church "Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord" (Colossians 3:20). This requirement is one which Jesus understood and practiced. Luke records this about Jesus after He remained at the temple at age 12: "And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them" (Luke 2:51). If Jesus as God in the flesh was obedient to Mary and Joseph, then children today should also be obedient to their parents.
---Denny