Ephesians 6:1-4 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.… I. Look at some of the ENCOURAGEMENT which we learn in the endeavour to bring them up to the Lord. 1. I would find encouragement in the general belief in a "Present God." This may be said to be the starting point of a religious education. 2. We have in children comparative tenderness of conscience. 3. There is in children a comparatively prompt appreciation of the love of Christ. To a child it is not so difficult to believe in that complete self-abandonment for the good of others which was manifested in the Cross of Jesus Christ. He can more thoroughly understand in that early part of his life even than he can at a later period, when the shadows of the world are cast upon that Cross - can appreciate the love which prompted the giving Himself for us, and can return it far more than at any later period of his existence. II. THE MEANS to be used for this purpose. 1. Instruction. It is knowledge, not ignorance, that is the mother of our devotion. We must seek, therefore, to illumine the understanding - to present to it those great objects of faith upon which the soul reposes. 2. Example. The instruction of the family is neither better nor worse than the conduct of its members: if the lessons are high and the conduct low, the effect will be low; if the lessons are imperfect, but the conduct excellent, the effect will be excellent. 3. These means must be applied and sustained in power by prayer. (C. M. Birrell.) Parallel Verses KJV: Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.WEB: Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. |
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