Ephesians 6:1-4 - Parents as Disciplers

Introduction

We live in the 21st century in the United States of America. We live in the rural South, and some of us have done for our whole lives. In many ways, we are a product of cultural and economic and political and religious influences, many of which have shaped us without our knowing it. One of the ways that we have been influenced is in our deeply held beliefs about the family.

Many Americans still value and honor marriage, though divorce and cohabitation rates continue to increase. And many Americans still think of children as a blessing and a joy, even though raising kids is one of the costliest endeavors we can undertake in this world (financially, emotionally, and in every way). The American Dream once included financial stability, social prestige, and an intact and lasting nuclear family (a husband, a wife, and 2.5 kids).[i]

For many Americans in their 40s and 50s, that American Dream is proving more elusive than they expected it to be. For many younger Americans, they see the American Dream either as an impossible ideal or as a front for oppression.

Unless you live under a rock, you can’t help but see and feel the overt assault in our culture on the traditional family. June is “pride” month in America, and in many ways all year round we are being told that the biblical model of marriage and family is not only outdated; the traditional family is an institution of oppression for those with sexual desires or a personal “identity” that does not comport with the traditional notions of motherhood, fatherhood, or child-rearing.

Friends, it may well be that one of the most counter-cultural and impactful Christian witnesses you can provide for our confused American society is to get married, stay faithful, have kids, and give yourself to raising those children according to biblical standards of virtue, morality, and gender distinctions.

It’s important for us to understand that “the Family” is not an American or western concept, but a biblical one. The confusion of our day is not a war against tradition; it’s a war against God’s good design and a war against the lordship of Christ. And it’s a war that Christians must fight… not by yelling at those who disagree with us, but by living a life of obedience to Christ that will stand as a consistent witness… a witness against those who refuse to obey, and a witness for those who may come to realize that raging against the Lord is a losing battle.

Over the course of this year, we’ve been talking about how to live as Christians in the world, and we’ve already covered a lot of ground. We started by trying to explain the centrality of the local church. Local churches don’t “make Christians” per se… churches can’t make anyone a Christian. But local churches are the only institution on earth that Christ has authorized and commissioned to “make disciples,” which includes the authority and the responsibility to announce to the watching world who is “in” and who is “out” of the kingdom of Christ.[ii]

Christians must first understand themselves as Christians– in the way that the Bible defines Christian belief and practice, under the lordship and blessings of Christ, in the context of Christ’s own institution for His people (i.e., the local church) – in order to live faithfully in all other contexts of life in this world.

After considering the local church, we aimed to define biblical marriage, manhood and womanhood, and the complementary relationship and roles we all have as God’s image-bearers who are meant to live according to His design and instruction. Contrary to all of our modern American sensibilities, we do not have the right nor the authorization to define marriage or sexuality or gender in any way that suits us. The more we align ourselves with the way God has designed us to think and speak and act, the more we will generally enjoy the blessings and avoid the cursing that the book of Proverbs teaches and warns us about.

Today, we’re extending our consideration of the most basic institution of human society from marriage to the family. And we must continue to ground our perspective of what is ideal and what is wise and what is good in the Scriptures, and not merely in our cultural experience or our personal preference or even in our own family traditions.

I also want to admit here that many of us in the room may not be able to make direct application of the biblical commands I’m trying to explain and apply today. Some of you are empty nesters. Some of you have children older than I am. And some of you are single. But I hope we can see that we can all make application of these commands and this teaching – either directly or indirectly.

If your kids are grown and gone, then your godly example of Christian discipline still influences your adult children, and you also serve as an example of Christian manhood and womanhood to those young people who are connected with your church family. If you have grandkids, then your intentional love and care for them ought to be marked by a similar embrace of the same sort of responsibilities God gave you as a father or mother. And if you are single, then you ought to be preparing yourself to take on the responsibilities of family (as God has designed them) or you ought to be looking for ways you can help fellow church members bear these responsibilities well while they are in the thick of raising kids.

Much more could be said on all of this, but the bottom line is that there are always innumerable indirect applications and further implications of everything we read in the Bible… and these commands about parents and children are certainly applicable in numerous ways beyond the immediate context of families with young children.

May the Lord help us all benefit from and apply as well as we may the instruction we find in our passage today.

Let’s stand together as I read our main text from Ephesians 6.

Scripture Reading

Ephesians 6:1–4 (ESV)

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Main Idea:

Children are responsible to obey and honor their parents, and parents (especially dads) are responsible to disciple their children.

Sermon

1. The Family

The first thing we ought to note about our main passage this morning is its context. This direct instruction for children to “obey” and “honor” their “parents” (v1, 2) and for “parents” (especially “fathers”) to “discipline” and “instruct” their “children” (v1, 4) falls right after a lengthy section on “husbands” and “wives” (Eph. 5:22-33). It is God’s design that children be the natural and common result of marriage, which is the covenant union of a man and a woman for life.

It might go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway. Children born outside of marriage are no less deserving of dignity or parental care. All children need what God has intended (namely a mom and a dad who take responsibility for them), and the sin of the parents makes this need no less real. This is why Christians throughout history have been notoriously active in caring for orphans, aiding single mothers, and even adopting children into their own families.

That said, if you aren’t married, then you must understand that your decision to have sex outside of marriage is not only sin, but it may also cause terrible pain and difficulty for any children you may produce without the necessary foundation of a mother and a father who are committed to raise those children as they ought. Whatever the world might tell you, it is incredibly selfish to have sex with someone without you both being ready to take responsibility for your actions.

On the other hand, if an unmarried woman becomes pregnant, then what’s done is done, and it cannot be undone. Many talking heads in our society will tell you that abortion will solve your problem of pregnancy, but this is no solution at all. If a woman is pregnant, then an abortion doesn’t undo that pregnancy. It is an act of violence against the only innocent person involved in the affair.

If you or someone you know is considering abortion… to cover up the shame or the guilt, or to try to eliminate the consequences of your sexual promiscuity, then I plead with you to talk with some godly person you know. Tell them about your situation, and let’s make a plan to care well for that baby… who is a blessing from God, even if your choices have not been so good up to this point.

God intends (He has designed it so!) that children are the natural and common result of marriage. But we live in a fallen world, which means that sometimes children are born to unmarried parents; sometimes couples who want kids cannot produce them; and sometimes parents don’t take responsibility for the children they have. But none of these realities negates God’s design or commands.

It is not for us to redefine marriage or the family to suit our circumstances or to comply with our desires. It is for us to trust and to obey the God who made us, the God who sovereignly rules over all our circumstances, and the God who commands us to live according to His good instructions.

So, what has God instructed for the family?

2. Children Obey

Our Scripture passage contains four explicit commands, and the first two are directed at children. Verse 1 says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.” This command is nearly identical to what the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Colossae: “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord” (Col. 3:20). From this we may conclude at least a couple of things.

First, children who live with their parents ought to obey them. Boys and girls, the Bible says that you must “obey your parents” (v1). It says that you should “obey” them “in everything” (Col. 3:20). And it says that this is “right” (v1).

Notice, though, that I did not say “young children.” It seems to me that the biblical order is less interested in age than stage. If you currently live at home with your parents (even if you’ve been away for a time), then you are obligated to obey them. The simple fact is that you are enjoying the benefits of living under parental provision; therefore, you owe your parents obedience.

Each family will have to work out the details, but no mother or father should give away their own responsibility to command and instruct and discipline their kids as long as those kids remain under their direct care. If you have an older child who wants the freedom to do as he or she pleases, then there is a clear path for it. It leads right out the door of your house and into the door of their own residence, where their name is on the contract and their bank account pays the bills.

Friends, we do our children no good service by letting them live with simultaneously greater freedom and less responsibility. It’s our job to prepare them to take on the responsibilities of adulthood, and we must do this by giving them those responsibilities at or near the same rate as we increase their freedoms.

Again, I’m speaking in general terms here, because we will all have to work this out with all sorts of specifics for our own family. But if we don’t learn anything else from our text today, we must learn that parents and children are not peers or equals. The family is not an egalitarian organization where everyone gets to have an equal say in how things run. Parents have their responsibilities and children have theirs. And children are to “obey” (v1), not because it’s convenient, but because the Lord God almighty has set it up this way.

A second principle we can learn from our passage is that parental authority comes from God. Or to say it another way, children ought to obey their parents because God says so. The way it’s phrased here is, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord” (v1). The way it’s phrased in Colossians is, “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord” (Col. 3:20).

Matthew Henry commented on Ephesians 6:1, saying, “I take [this phrase ‘in the Lord’] as a reason: ‘Children, obey your parents; for the Lord has commanded it: obey them therefore for the Lord’s sake, and with an eye to him.’”[iii]

Boys and girls, God tells moms and dads how they should parent you, and God tells you that your job is to obey them. You don’t have to worry about all sorts of things that your parents do; you should obey, because God has told you to do it.

But, moms and dads, because God has delegated to us the authority to command, God is also the one who gets to tell us how we should wield that authority. You and I are not free to make any commands we’d like. And we are not free to keep silent about those commands we don’t like, because they will cost us, or because they are unpopular with other families, or because we’re afraid of how our children might respond. We must be diligent to give our commands in keeping with the teaching and the principles of God’s word.

What a terrible thing it is for us to command our children to do something that God forbids… or to forbid them to do something that God commands! Our kids learn a lot about who God is and what God is like by watching and listening to us. Again, God has set it up this way. He intends for us to reflect His own character and virtue and dependability and grace in the way we command and instruct and discipline our children.

I pray for my own sons and for all the children who are part of the families of our church… that God will help them to obey their parents, for this is right. And I pray that God will help us as adults to lead those children we love by our example and by our intentional efforts to direct them according to God’s word.

3. Children Honor

The second command in our passage is there in v2, and it’s a citation from the 10 Commandments. It says, “‘Honor your father and mother… that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land’” (v2-3). This is the fifth commandment of the moral law, and the Apostle Paul even notes that “this is the first commandment with a promise” (v2).

It’s been a few years back since we studied through the book of Exodus. In the middle of 2020, we came upon that climactic moment when God met with the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai and gave them the 10 Commandments and a whole host of other laws that are referred to as “the Book of the Covenant” (Ex. 24:7).

I won’t explain the details here, but the “the Book of the Covenant” was specific to the Old Testament nation of Israel, whereas the 10 Commandments reveal the timeless character and law of God. And there is both a biblical warrant and an historical precedent for understanding that the 10 Commandments have two sections or tables.[iv]

Jesus’s own summary of God’s moral law was, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your souls and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37-39). In other words, the first table of the law (commands 1-4) deal with our vertical relationship with God; and the second table of the law (commands 5-10) deal with our horizontal relationships with others.[v]

The fifth command, then, is the first one of the second table, and the fundamental starting point for any civilized and ordered society. The Old Testament promise to the people of Israel was that if children honor their parents, then the whole nation would do well… they would stay “in the land” (v3; Exodus 20:12), which was an old covenant way of saying that they’d remain in favor with God. But the same principle is basically true in any society. If we teach our children to honor their parents, then society will generally do well; but if we fail to instill this sense of honor in our kids, then society will break down.

The word translated “honor” here (v2) means to show reverence or to revere. The way we say it in the Minter house is respect. We try to teach our children to show respect for mom and dad, and by extension to show respect for other adults as well. This means that we are not merely aiming for begrudging obedience; we want our children to learn to obey out of or because of respect.

Now I certainly don’t mean to imply that we have mastered this concept in the Minter family. Cassie and I don’t always teach and model this well, and our boys don’t perfectly honor us and other adults… but we do aim for it.

May God help us all to live respectably in front of our kids, both in public and in private; and may God help us to teach our children to honor their parents.

4. Parents Correct

So far, we’ve talked about what God commands children to do in relationship with their parents – children obey and children honor. This is the whole of it. There are a million things children need to grow and develop into adults, but in order to do this well, children must obey and honor their parents.

The book of Proverbs begins, “Hear… your father’s instruction [listen to it; obey it], and forsake not your mother’s teaching [don’t leave it undone; don’t forget about it], for they [i.e., your parents’ instruction and teaching] are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck” (Prov. 1:8-9).

But all of this implies what v4 of our passage makes crystal clear: parents, especially dads, are responsible to “discipline” their children. In fact, there are two more commands here: one positive and one negative (a “do” and a “do not”).

The “do” command is, “bring [your children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (v4). The “do not” command is, “do not provoke your children to anger” (v4). Under this one heading of “discipline” or “training,” we must understand that parents have the responsibility to disciple their children with clear goals and rules… and with consistency.

If we regularly move the goalposts, or if we are changing the expectations, or if we give random penalties, then we will “provoke” our children to “anger” (v4) or “discouragement” (Colossians 3:20-21). We will make them feel as though they cannot please us, because they do not understand what is expected of them.

If you’re like me, then you can look back and notice many times you’ve made exceptions, or you’ve responded too harshly, or you’ve miscommunicated what you expect out of your kids. May the Lord forgive us, and Lord help us.

But rather than focus attention on our failures, it seems more productive to think about ways we can plan to do better. God’s commission for us as parents is to “bring [your children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (v4).

And God’s commission for all of us is to help one another in this effort. Think of the way the Apostle Paul tells Titus to exhort “older men” and “older women” to be examples and disciplers of “younger men” and “younger women” in Titus 2. Once again, this applies far beyond the parent-child relationship.

For the remainder of our time, I want to point out some corrective and some formative ways we might “discipline” our children. [vi] Now, the word “discipline” shares the same root as “disciple,” and they both have similar meanings. So, to be a disciple is to be a learner, and to discipline is to offer both corrective and formative instruction, and to do this both formally and informally. Let me explain.

Corrective discipline or training is probably what most of us think about when we hear the word “discipline.” We might think of punishment or consequences, and we are not wrong to do so. But there’s more to it.

Corrective discipline or discipling is the sort of training that points out errors and calls for repentance. A math teacher disciples her students when she says that 2+2 does not equal 5. A boss disciples his employees when he says that the workday starts at 8am, not 8:05. These corrective efforts are not unloving or cruel; they help the learner know what is expected and how to conform to it.

Parents must offer their children corrective discipline when they speak or act wrongly. “No, son. We don’t do it like that.” or “No, sweetheart. You shouldn’t say it like that.” And if they don’t obey, then we must apply consequences that are suitable to their understanding and to their posture. A child who is trying to obey, but failing, is a different situation than a child who is deliberately defiant.

But remember what we already discussed earlier. God is the one who delegates parental authority, so we must be diligent to offer correction (as best as we can) when we see errors that do not conform to God’s standard. And this means we can and should ground our corrective discipline in God’s word.

Now, anyone who has been a parent for more than 3 seconds knows that there are many household and family activities that don’t have a specific chapter and verse. The Bible doesn’t tell us how to fold a bath-towel or what is a good bedtime or how long our kids should be allowed to sit in front of a screen or what chores each child should do around the house.

But the Bible does give us a whole bunch of verses about what good character looks like, about what a godly man or woman ought to act like, and about what is morally right and wrong. For all those activities that do not have a chapter and verse, we may turn to passages like the one we’re looking at today. “God says that children must obey, so do what mommy says.”

And for all those times we do have a clear biblical standard, we ought to make our children aware of it. “We do not allow lying because God teaches us that the truth is priceless, and that lying is a devilish sin.” “You can’t steal your brother’s stuff because God teaches us that we should work diligently for what we have, and that theft is a sin.” “We do not allow sexual deviance of any kind because God teaches us that sex is for married people, and that sexual immorality is a sin that will destroy you and others.”

I trust we all get the idea here, but there’s one more aspect of this corrective discipline that we need to understand and apply. Brothers and sisters, we are not merely interested in raising our children to be moral or successful; we want them to know and to love and to trust and to follow Christ.

When our kids disobey, when they fail to meet expectations, and when they even deliberately rebel against our parental authority, we have wonderful opportunities to point them to Jesus. Just as we sin and need correction, just as we feel guilt and shame, and just as we have learned to run to the grace of God in Christ, so too our kids need to understand that Christianity is not mere moralism or behavior modification. Jesus does make moral demands on Christians, but the gospel is good news for sinners – the big ones and the small, the old and the young.

As a child and a teenager, I don’t remember my mom or dad explaining this to me. My mom and dad were Christians, and they talked about what the Bible says is sin, but I can’t recall my mom or dad sitting me down and telling me that my disobedience demanded not only repentance but also faith or belief or trust in Jesus. I sometimes felt guilty for my sin, and even though I got in trouble, I knew I was going to sin again… and I needed to know what to do with that ongoing guilt and shame. Of course, I needed to mend my ways, but more fundamentally, I needed to learn about a Savior who suffered in the place of sinners like me.

It seems to me that adult Christians often emphasize belief as the necessary response for sinning adults, but Christian parents also often emphasize repentance as the necessary response for sinning children.

Friends, we all need to learn and to respond with both, repentance and faith/belief. And we should use the built-in opportunities that arise every day, where God has given us the ability to really show our children what it means to be repenting sinners who trust or believe in Jesus to forgive our sins… and to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus, who calls us both to trust Him and to obey Him.

5. Parents Form

I hope this last (brief) section will be more practical for us, and I’m turning my attention to the formative aspect of discipline (as distinct from the corrective). See again the positive command, in v4 of our passage, “bring [your children] up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (v4). The commission here for parents is the task of teaching and forming and shaping our children according to the Lord’s word. We would do well to teach them reading, writing, and arithmetic (or at least to ensure they are taught); but we must not neglect the more critical subjects of the gospel, the character of God, and the kingdom of Christ.

This command in Ephesians 6 is very similar to the Old Testament parental mandate in Deuteronomy 6. Some of you will know that the book of Deuteronomy is the record of what Moses told the people of Israel just before they actually went into the Promised Land. Moses reminded them of what they’d been through, how God had delivered them and preserved them. And Moses reminded them of what God had revealed to them, His laws and His promises.

Moses said, “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9).

The parental imperative for the people of God, both from the Old Testament and the New, is that parents are responsible to disciple their children. That is, parents are responsible to train up their children in the “instruction of the Lord” (v4)… and this includes formative discipline.

From the very beginning of Christianity, local churches have been organizations tasked with making disciples, and Christian families have been the training ground for discipling children. Parents (especially dads), it is our job to ensure that our kids know the fundamentals of the faith, and it is our job to show them what it looks like to live as Christians in the world.

Let me offer 3 ways we might practice formative discipline in our families. These are especially aimed at families with kids at home, but singles and married couples without children in the home may just as readily practice these disciplines. These are not exclusive to kids; these are the basics of discipleship for every age.

I’m going to break these into two categories: formal and informal. Formal disciplines are the sort of thing we put on the calendar, and informal are those that arise with little or no planning at all. I’ll mention 2 formal, and 1 informal.

First, prioritize the gathering of the saints on the Lord’s day. Brothers and sisters, our kids benefit from every aspect of this weekly event. Our kids learn that Jesus is truly important by observing the importance we place on being with Christ’s people and doing what Christians have been doing for 20 centuries. Our kids learn the vocabulary of Christianity by hearing and singing our songs. They learn the doctrine of Christianity by catching bits and pieces of our sermons. And they learn how to pray (to praise God in prayer, to confess sin to God, to thank God for His goodness and provision, and to ask for God’s help for more than just our personal health or conveniences) by listening to our public prayers.

Now, I know that I’m a pastor, and so I’m supposed to say this stuff, but I really do believe it… Brothers and sisters, there is nothing more comprehensively edifying that you can do for your kids than (for the next 20 years) to prioritize the weekly church gathering over everything else you might do on a Sunday morning.

Second, schedule time each week for structured family discipleship. Maybe you start your day together around the breakfast table, maybe you come together at the dinner table, maybe you sprawl out in the living room at the end of the day, or maybe you all carpool together on everyone’s way to work and school. Each family will do this differently, and some seasons of life will make this easier or harder, but all of us should be doing it.

Pages 6 and 7 of your bulletins each Sunday are designed to provide you with resources for exactly this sort of activity. You might ambitiously try to read through the whole Bible in a year with your spouse or your older kids. There’s a reading plan on page 7, and even a link to a tool that will send you email reminders. You might discuss the catechism question and answer on page 6 with your spouse and/or your kids, and you can go to NewCityCatechism.com for a web or mobile app that includes Bible citations, commentary notes, and even a suggested prayer for each question. This is especially helpful for young ones.

You might use your notes from the Sunday sermon and talk with your spouse and/or your kids about ways to apply the main idea to a particular circumstance of your own family. You might read the upcoming sermon passage each day of the preceding week with your spouse and/or your kids, preparing everyone to be great hearers of the preached word on Sunday and helping everyone to think through the meaning and some applications of the text on their own.

Brothers and sisters, the gathering of the saints on the Lord’s day is essential to the life of a Christian, but the daily disciplines of discussing and meditating upon Scripture, applying God’s word to everyday life, and systematic prayer are necessary features of Christian discipleship as well.

And again, it is not only the substance of what we are teaching or learning, but the practice of prioritizing these disciplines that shapes us and our kids over time. Even if our little ones don’t understand a single doctrine better in June of 2024, I trust that a year from now they will know more tangibly that mommy and daddy really believe that the Bible and church and prayer is important after they have seen us consistently prioritize such things for a whole year.

Third, a final discipline now, and an informal one. We should talk about God, about Christ, about the gospel, and about other church members all the time… and especially during the good times. When you sit to eat a meal, tell your kids that God is the one who thought up these great flavors. When you enjoy a nice day outside, pray with your kids and thank God for the beauty of nature and the pleasure of a cool breeze. When you go on a vacation together, pray with your family and thank God for His provision, that you are able to do something so great.

When you notice another church member who is a godly man or woman, point him or her out to your kids, and tell your children how thankful you are for that person in your life. Invite other church members over for meals with your family, and ask them to tell stories of how God has shown His goodness to them over the years. When you have everyday conversations with your kids, look for ways to turn toward the gospel of Christ and the trustworthiness of God.

Conclusion

I’ve heard it said that a lot of Christianity is caught and not taught. And I understand why people want to emphasize the informal discipleship efforts. But I think a better way to say it is that a lot of Christianity is caught as it’s being taught.

Once we’ve established a constant rhythm and vocabulary and practice for our homes that makes clear the doctrines and the substance of Christianity, then we may take advantage of a thousand spontaneous opportunities to reflect Christian hope, to show Christian grace, to walk in Christian obedience, and to expect virtue and humility among others in our home.

And I pray that God will use our efforts to disciple our children… that He will plant His word deep in their hearts, and that He will convict them of sin and grant them repentance and faith in Christ.

There is no way we can make our children Christians, but it is our job (especially dads) to train them up (to disciple them) in the instruction of the Lord. May God help us to be faithful Christian witnesses in the world by being faithful Christians who disciple the children under our care.

Endnotes

[i] See this data from Gallup: https://news.gallup.com/poll/27973/americans-25-children-ideal-family-size.aspx [ii] See my sermon notes on this subject here: https://sermons.logos.com/sermons/1051624-christ's-visible-kingdom [iii] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994). 2318. [iv] Here is a great introduction to the structure of the 10 Commandments: https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/themelios/article/ten-commandments-two-tablets-the-shape-of-the-decalogue/ [v] I perceive the fourth command, regarding the Sabbath, as the specific sign of the Mosaic covenant. Therefore, I believe that resting in Christ is the New Covenant application of this command, though I admit that a greater explanation is needed to show how I arrive at this conclusion. For an introduction, see this article: http://marcminter.com/2020/09/24/what-has-the-sabbath-to-do-with-the-lords-day/ [vi] Here is an article by Jamie Dunlop, explaining how formative and corrective discipline function in the life of a local church: https://www.9marks.org/article/class-ix-church-discipline

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aland, Kurt, Barbara Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger, eds. Novum Testamentum Graece. 28th ed. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. Logos Research Edition. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.

Schaeffer, Francis A. How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture. Logos Research Edition. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2005.

Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version (2015 Edition). Logos Research Edition. Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Logos Research Edition. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.

The Holy Bible: King James Version. Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009.

The Holy Bible: New International Version. Logos Research Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1984.

The NET Bible First Edition. Logos Research Edition. Biblical Studies Press, 2005.