The New Testament binds a great responsibility on children when it says in Ephesians 6, verses 1-3, "Children obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honor 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". The key words are "honor" and "obey". There is no time limit on this. God does not free a child from this responsibility simply because he has now gone to college or is married. A child in the earliest years of adulthood makes a tragic mistake by neglecting his parents.
It is necessary that we say something about the word "obey". Children are to obey their parents "in the Lord". One must never forget that his allegiance to God comes before any man. That includes government, companions and parents. The early apostles expressed it well when they were commanded not to preach in the name of Christ. They responded by saying in Acts 5, verse 29, "We ought to obey God rather than men".
The term "obey your parents" indicates that the parents have laid down some laws or provided some instruction to guide the children. This is what is meant by the wise man when he said in Proverbs 22, verse 6, "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old he will not depart from it". It is understood then that the law is to be obeyed by the child is that which will make him a fine, decent, responsible person. Instructions of parents should be revered by children beyond the parents death. No time limit then on "Children obey your parents in the Lord" Ephesians 6:1. The other word that stands out so predominantly in the children's responsibility to their parents is the word "honor". The Bible says in Ephesians 6, verse 2, "Honor thy father and mother".
This responsibility deals with the child's attitude and respect toward parents. Webster's New World Dictionary says of the word honor, it is "High regard of great respect given". "Something done or given as a token of respect". The home for centuries has provided an environment for one to learn all of the ABC's of Christian living. It is in the home that seeds of character can be sown and given an opportunity to flourish. The great principles of God are to be taught, practiced and cultivated in the home. The child who has learned to honor parents can then effectively show high regard toward his fellow man. He later can easily show respect for a companion and his own children.
It is important that we pause to say that parents have the responsibility to provide the proper atmosphere in the home so that the child can develop an appreciation for law and order given by parents. Such an environment will cause children to rise up and call their parents "blessed". The example of parents set in honoring and loving one another is far-reaching in the heart and life-pattern of the child. When a child cannot see parents love, respect and honor one another, it is extremely difficult for him to rise above this obstacle and honor those that do not honor themselves. Remember, in order to manifest honor towards others, you must respect yourself.
Christ provides us with an example in all things. Having returned from the visit to the city of Jerusalem at the age of 12, the Bible says that Christ, "was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man" Luke 2, verses 51,52. Christ was obedient to his parents. His affection and respect for his mother was manifested from the cross. He was concerned about her care and well-being. He gave this responsibility to the beloved Apostle John (John 19:25-27). You shall always be children in the eyes of your parents and in the eyes of the Lord. Your response to the commandment, "Obey your parents" and "Honor thy father and thy mother", will be a pretty good yardstick measuring how well you will obey your Lord and give Him honor through faithful worship.
The child's responsibility is a lifetime achievement, an achievement that will be richly blessed in all walks of life. In the words of Ephesians Chapter 6, it is the first commandment with promise.
Colossians 3:20 ESV /
Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.
Exodus 20:12 ESV /
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
Proverbs 20:20 ESV /
If one curses his father or his mother, his lamp will be put out in utter darkness.
Proverbs 23:22 ESV /
Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.
Ephesians 6:1-3 ESV /
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
1 Timothy 5:8 ESV /
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Proverbs 30:17 ESV /
The eye that mocks a father and scorns to obey a mother will be picked out by the ravens of the valley and eaten by the vultures.
Ephesians 6:2-3 ESV /
“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”
Leviticus 20:9 ESV /
For anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death; he has cursed his father or his mother; his blood is upon him.
Ephesians 6:1-24 ESV /
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, ...
1 Peter 5:5-6 ESV /
Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you,
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 ESV /
“If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.
1 Timothy 5:1 ESV /
Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers,
Ephesians 6:1-4 ESV /
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Leviticus 19:32 ESV /
“You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13 ESV /
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ...
Romans 13:1 ESV /
Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Deuteronomy 28:1-68 ESV /
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ...
Ephesians 6:1-14 ESV /
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, ...
Genesis 2:24 ESV /
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Psalm 22:9 ESV /
Yet you are he who took me from the womb; you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.
Psalm 127:1-5 ESV /
A Song of Ascents. Of Solomon. Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain. It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil; for he gives to his beloved sleep. Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
Genesis 3:1-24 ESV /
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” ...
1 Samuel 2:30 ESV /
Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
John 5:23 ESV /
That all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.
Romans 8:28 ESV /
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Mark 7:8-13 ESV /
You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, ...
Numbers 30:2 ESV /
If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.
1 Timothy 3:2 ESV /
Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
John 12:26 ESV /
If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him.
Deuteronomy 30:15-16 ESV /
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it.
Exodus 20:11-14 ESV /
For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. “You shall not murder. “You shall not commit adultery.
1 Samuel 19:1-2 ESV /
And Saul spoke to Jonathan his son and to all his servants, that they should kill David. But Jonathan, Saul's son, delighted much in David. And Jonathan told David, “Saul my father seeks to kill you. Therefore be on your guard in the morning. Stay in a secret place and hide yourself.
Proverbs 1:1-33 ESV /
The proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel: To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth— Let the wise hear and increase in learning, and the one who understands obtain guidance, ...
Proverbs 1:8-9 ESV /
Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.
Exodus 20:1-26 ESV /
And God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, ...
Psalm 91:1-16 ESV /
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.” For he will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness is a shield and buckler. You will not fear the terror of the night, nor the arrow that flies by day, ...
Hebrews 2:9 ESV /
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Genesis 1:1-31 ESV
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day. ...
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