Important Texts for Christian Education, Part 3

Welcome to There’s No Place Like Home. This is our third week looking at Scripture passages that I believe are foundational for Christian education and home schooling. The previous two weeks, I spoke from Deut. 6 and Psalm 78. Today I want to share from Ephesians 6:1-4. Listen to these verses. Eph. 6:1Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Eph. 6:2“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: Eph. 6:3“that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” Eph. 6:4¶ And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord. Here we see clearly that there is a duty both for children and parents. And like Ephesians 5, I think the reason that fathers are addressed last is because they have the greater responsibility.  Children are called to obey their parents in the Lord. This means that the obedience of children to fathers is to be motivated by obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think we can add this obedience to parents can only be given through the power of Christ. Fathers are then given a calling in verse 4 that is both negative and positive. The negative: do not provoke your children to wrath. I think this is an important reminder for parents who are engaged in homeschooling. Is our work always easy? Hardly.  We do it not because it is painless or an endless source of joy. We do it because we believe God has called us to provide our children a Christ-centered education. Because we are with our children from morning to night, we must be careful not to provoke our children, cause them to be angry. Fathers are especially warned about this, but I don’t see why this command would not also apply to mothers. The positive is that fathers and also mothers must bring to their children the training and admonition of the Lord. The word translated as bring up is used in Eph. 5:29 where it has the meaning of nourish. That might not be the best meaning here, but perhaps it is not a stretch to say that we are to nourish our children in the training and admonition of the Lord. What a challenge this is. And we cannot do this in our own strength. How we must desperately pray for the Lord Jesus Christ to strengthen and guide us. Christian education is a great blessing! But may we not bring shame to our great God by doing this in our own strength.