For they entered into these marriages not for the sake of appetite, but out of regard for the propagation of mankind. Fathers, "bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; ".
Ye children, reverence your parents. Ye parents, "bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
Instead of asking parents to give their children a fancy education in secular literature, instead of making them read comedies and recite the obscene writings of the theater, he asks the Ephesian laypersons, many of whom, as is common in a population, were engaged in the ordinary occupations of this life, that they should “educate their children in every doctrine and counsel of the Lord.” Overseers and elders ought to take note of this. .
Then he explains the allimportant thing about parenting: how children are to be brought to obedience. He traces the motive of obedience back to its source and fountain. He has already shown how the husband’s behavior elicits the wife’s obedience when he spoke primarily to the husband, advising him to draw her to him by the bonds of love. Similarly here also he shows how the parents’ behavior elicits the children’s obedience, saying, “Rear them in the instruction and discipline of the Lord.” Do you see how, when the spiritual motives are present, the physical effects will follow along? Do you want your son to be obedient? Rear him from the outset in the teaching and discipline of the Lord. Never regard it as a small matter that he should be a diligent learner of Scriptures. .
He does not say, “Love your children.” Nature itself takes care of this by implanting this in us even against our will. So that interpretation would be superfluous. Instead, what does he say? “Do not make your children angry.” So many parents do this. They do this by depriving them of their portion of the inheritance and their promises, by oppressing them with burdens, by treating them not as though they were free but as slaves. .
He does not say, love them, because to this nature draws them even against their own will, and it were superfluous to lay down a law on such subjects. But what does he say? Provoke not your children to wrath, as many do by disinheriting them, and disowning them, and treating them overbearingly, not as free, but as slaves. This is why he says, Provoke not your children to wrath. Then, which is the chief thing of all, he shows how they will be led to obedience, referring the whole source of it to the head and chief authority. And in the same way as he has shown the husband to be the cause of the wife's obedience, (which is the reason also why he addresses the greater part of his arguments to him, advising him to attach her to himself by the power of love,) so, I say, here also, he refers the efficiency to him, by saying, But bring them up in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. You see that where there are spiritual ties, the natural ties will follow. Do you wish your son to be obe...
In this manner let examination be made when he is to receive ordination, and to be placed in his bishopric, whether he be grave, faithful, decent; whether he hath a grave and faithful-wife, or has formerly had such a one; whether he hath educated his children piously, and has "brought them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; ".
I have taught the poor to rejoice in their own poverty; I have taught fathers to teach their children instruction in the fear of the Lord, children to obey their parents in wholesome admonition;
