Marks of Parental Love

I. A Parent Admonishes.

Admonish---to put in mind---with a purpose of warning and reproving. Presupposes that something is wrong and intention is to correct.

Colossians 3:16 ESV

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

2 Thessalonians 3:15 ESV

Do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

2 Timothy 3:16 ESV

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,

II. A Parent Loves. (4:14b)

1 Corinthians 4:14 ESV

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children.

1 Cor

2 Corinthians 12:14–15 ESV

Here for the third time I am ready to come to you. And I will not be a burden, for I seek not what is yours but you. For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children. I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?

III A Parent Reproduces (4:15) A Parent Begets:

1 Timothy 1:2 ESV

To Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Philippians 2:2 ESV

complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Philippians 2:22 ESV

But you know Timothy’s proven worth, how as a son with a father he has served with me in the gospel.

Philippians 1:10 ESV

so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

Phil

Philemon 10 ESV

I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment.

Titus 1:4 ESV

To Titus, my true child in a common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Galatians 4:19 ESV

my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!

IV A Parent Leads by Example (4:16-17a)

V. A Parent Teaches (4:17b)

VI. A Parent Disciplines (4:18-21)

And idly fashioned it one day,

And as my fingers pressed it still,

And as my fingers pressed it still, It moved and yielded to my will.

It moved and yielded to my will.

I came again when days were past --

The bit of clay was hard at last;

The form I gave it, it still bore,

But I could change that form no more.

I took a piece of living clay

And gently formed it day by day,

And moulded with my power and art

A young child's soft and yielding heart.

I came again when years were gone --

It was a man I looked upon;

He still that early impress wore,

And I could change him nevermore.

-- Author unknown