“Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. “Honor your father and mother.” This is the first commandment with a promise: If you honor your father and mother, “things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.” Ephesians 6:1‭-‬4

Paul continues in his letter to the Ephesians about what a godly Christian home looks like.
He then talks to kids about obeying parents-a fav subject at my house for sure! He says that BECAUSE you belong to God, if you’re a kid, you should obey your parents as you would obey God! Paul states that this commandment, plainly stated by God in Exodus 20:12, is the 1st to come with a promise! (Remember, anytime you find a “first” of anything in God’s word, it’s significant.) The promise? ”  “Things will go well for you, and you will have a long life on the earth.” Okay, so that’s pretty significant-we’d all like to have a good, long life on the earth!

Paul then speaks directly to fathers-remember this was a different time & place in history where fathers were basically non-sympathetic dictators at home! He writes, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them.” So into a culture where a father as a household leader held absolute authority to treat his wife and children as property and where every abuse imaginable was common and lawful, Paul again begins to change the culture of the home! At it’s base, this advice, would cut the cycle of abuses that plagued these Mesopotamia homes and households. Not exasperating a child through anger would prevent that child from becoming and angry, easily provoked parent to the next generation! Instead, he wrote, “bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.” HE’S LITERALLY TELLING FATHERS (and mothers) HERE TO DISCIPLE
HIS CHILDREN! Wow, looking back to chapter 5, we see a pic of a home where the dad is a loving husband who serves and lays down his life for his wife as Jesus did for the church, where a wife loves her husband and respects him out of love, not fear, where kids obey their parents because the love God and where children are raised to love God and to be followers of Jesus! The pic of this home was in stark contrast to that of the world’s around them!

Our homes should be too (or at least headed in that direction)!

Think about it!