Ephesians 6:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Next to marriage, the parent-child relationship is the second closest relationship which God has created in human society. Childhood lasts a very long time allowing the young to develop physically and mentally, and children remain dependent on their parents for many years making possible extensive preparation and training for adult life, but how many parents take their role seriously and understand the privilege given to them to shape another human life? Children are placed by God primarily in the care of parents, not of the state, and the state should only interfere in emergency situations. The fundamental responsibility of children is to obey their parents. This command is repeatedly given to children in the Bible and is the subject of the 5th commandment quoted by Christ in the New Testament (Matthew 15:4; Mark 7:10), and by Paul in the next verse. The obedience of children is so natural that it is regarded as normal among believers and unbelievers alike. It is true that child disobedience is characteristic of the fallen human nature in every age (Romans 1:30), but Paul makes it a feature of the final plunge of society into wickedness in the last days when children will be ‘disobedient to parents’ (2 Timothy 3:2). It is also a mark of the aggravated and unnatural betrayal that believers will have to face that ‘children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death’ (Matthew 10:21). Children obey their parents as those whom God has put in authority over their lives, and even the Lord Jesus Christ was subject to his earthly parents in his childhood – a remarkable matter. To ignore parental commands is to rebel against God himself, indeed, parents in many ways occupy the place of God in the child’s life. Just as God instructs us through the husband-wife relationship, so he does through the parent-child relationship. Christ teaches his disciples to pray to their Father in heaven, and this has meaning because we have fathers on earth. Obedience is submitting to the will of another, and this obedience ‘is right’. All that God commands is right and safe, leading to untold benefits. Obedience is not just an arbitrary matter required by parents for their own convenience but is kindly, teaching essential lessons for life that will allow the child to avoid many pitfalls later on. Parents may insist on obedience without explanation, but they do well to give the reason for commands to encourage the child to see them as reasonable. The child naturally understands that the parent has greater wisdom, and it is also natural and appropriate, because children owe such a great debt to parents as those who have provided for and cared for them in early life. They are to obey their parents ‘in the Lord’. This obviously does not mean that only parents who are in the Lord are to be obeyed, for the command is given to all children universally. It means that children obey parents because they know it is the will of the Lord, and pleasing to him; they obey ‘in conformity with the Lord’s will’.Does the apostle address children as believers? No, he addresses them as children. He does not assume that because they are in believing families they are therefore believers, members of the church and within the covenant of grace. This should be obvious for he proceeds to quote God’s commandment which applies not just to believers but to all human beings. Of course the commandments of God are particularly respected within the kingdom of God but that kingdom is entered by the new birth and not by natural birth. Nevertheless the children of Christians are in a uniquely privileged position and have greater reason than most for obedience. They are also conceived in the hope that they will trust in the Saviour, and therefore should conform to his will at an early age.