Children and Parents.
I. St. Paul assumes that the life of children may be a life in Christ. Children are to obey their parents in the Lord, and parents are to nurture their children in the chastening and admonition of the Lord. Every child, apart from its own choice and before it is capable of choice, is environed by the laws of Christ. It is equally true that every child, apart from its choice and before it is capable of choice, is environed by Christ's protection and grace in this life, and is the heir of eternal blessings in the life to come. Christ died and rose again for the race. Children may obey their parents in the Lord before they are able to understand any Christian doctrine; they may discharge every childish duty, under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, before they have so much as heard whether the Spirit of God has been given; they may live in the light of God before they know that the true light always comes from heaven.
II. Paul had a sensitive sympathy with the wrongs which children sometimes suffer and a strong sense of their claims to consideration. Children are to obey and honour even unreasonable, capricious, and unjust parents; but it is the duty of parents not to be unreasonable, capricious, or unjust. The precept, "Nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord," implies a real and serious faith on the part of the parents that their children belong to Christ and are under Christ's care. Christian education is not a mission to those who are in revolt against Christ. The children are Christ's subjects, and have to be trained to loyal obedience to His authority. The education of which the Apostle is thinking is practical rather than speculative; it has reference to life and character rather than to knowledge. By "the chastening of the Lord" the Apostle means that Christian discipline and order of the family which will form the children to the habits of a Christian life. "Chastening" is not chastisement, though chastisement may sometimes be a necessary part of it. The order of a child's life is determined by its parents, and is to be determined under Christ's authority, so that the child may be trained to all Christian virtues. The primary condition of a successful Christian education is that the parents should care more for the loyalty of their children to Christ than for anything besides, and the second is that parents should expect their children to be loyal to Christ.
R. W. Dale, Lectures on the Ephesians,p. 378.
References: Ephesians 6:1-4. H. W. Beecher, Plymouth Pulpit Sermons,5th series, p. 167. Ephesians 6:2. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. ii., p. 213; J. H. Wilson, The Gospel and its Fruits,p. 205.