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A Godly Household

July 28, 2019

Scripture: Ephesians 6:1-9

I. Children obey their parents in a Spirit-filled home.

A. According to Ephesians 5:18 one characteristic of a disciple is that a disciple is filled with the Holy Spirit. The Bible teaches that the one God is a Trinity who is a family of three – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Since God is a family, and since God made human beings in His image, God designed us for family life. The first instruction Paul gives to children is found in vs. 1: Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. This is instruction for pre-adult children who are unmarried and living at home. Children will obey their parents.

B. What is the benefit if children do honor their mother and fathers like the fifth of the 10 commandments teaches? Verse 3 says that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land. Generally speaking, children are blessed physically and spiritually if they obey their parents. Obedience is good for children. Parents who know that obedience is ultimately good for their children will follow the wisdom of Proverbs 13:24: “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.”

II. Parents are to be treated as if they are Christ in a Spirit-filled home.

A. Notice again the command in vs. 1 to children: obey your parents in the Lord. What does that phrase in the Lord mean? It means as to the Lord or as to Christ. Children are to treat their parents as if they were Jesus. Just like Christian children are to obey Jesus, they are to obey their parents. If parents are going to be representatives of Jesus to their children, the parents obviously need a strong relationship with the Lord themselves. Paul assumes that parents will be raising their children in church. This letter from Paul would have been read in a church service.

B. Children need to see that their parents love Jesus and love church above other things. Meditate again on Ephesians 1:3-5: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In lovehe predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will.”

III. Parents are to care for their families like God the Father cares for His in a Spirit-filled home.

A. We have already seen that God is a Father from Ephesians 1:3. So, in Ephesians 6 Paul tells earthly fathers to parent their children like God the Father parents His children. In Ephesians 6:4 Paul commands fathers: do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. How might a father provoke his child to anger? Through excessively severe discipline, unreasonably harsh demands, abuse of authority, arbitrary rules, unfairness, hypocrisy, guilt trips and gross insensitivity to a child’s needs and sensibilities. God does not treat His children in any of these ways. Nor should earthly fathers treat their children in these ways. Instead, we are to give our children grace just like God has given grace to us.

Application:
Let the Holy Spirit fill you to live in godly ways with your family.

Sources:
The letter to the Ephesians
Commentaries on Ephesians by Peter O’Brien, Bryan Chapell, and Richard Coekin