Obedience at Home and the Work Place

Children Obey!

6 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.

1. What comes to mind when you hear the word obedience?

Obey

Obedience (vs. 1). The word translated “obey” implies a readiness to hear and has the sense of obeying orders. The child is to listen to, and carry out, the commands of his parents.

Obedience is a moral duty. Children are to obey because “this is right” (vs. 1). Filial obedience, therefore, is not based on anything accidental, nor does it depend essentially on the character of the parent. It is an obligation grounded in the very nature of the relationship between parents and children. It is a thing that is right in itself.

Obedience is a Christians duty - Adults must obey God too.

2. What are consequences for not obeying?

2 Timothy 3:1-5 - But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

Romans 1:30-32 - 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Honor

3. What does honor mean? to honor (so uniformly A. V.), to have in honor, to revere, venerate;

Honor (vss. 2, 3). The command to honor father and mother, quoted from the Decalogue, comprehends all the love, respect, and obedience that are involved in the filial relation. “Obedience,” says Salmond, “is the duty; honour is the disposition of which the obedience is born” (p. 375). (Note that this deep respect is to be paid to both “father and mother,” an indication that the wife’s place in the home is not a servile one.)

When we honor our father and mother we are blessed in that God will bless us.

4. What is a benefit if we honor our parents?

Father’s Do Not Provoke

5. What does provoke mean? irritate not, by vexatious commands, unreasonable blame, and uncertain temper [Alford]. Col 3:21, “lest they be discouraged to rouse to wrath, to provoke, exasperate, anger

The authority of parents is for the child’s good, not for the parents’ own selfish gratification. To make unreasonable demands of a child, to surround him with needless restrictions, or to punish him too severely will deaden his affections toward the parents and check his desire after holiness.

6. What can happen if a parent provokes their children?

On the positive side, fathers are charged to bring up their children - conveys the idea of development in character.

It is training and correction administered by the parents, but proceeding from the Lord.

The suggestion is that the Lord nurtures the child through the parents.

Employees and Employers

Bondservants and Masters

5 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man, 8 knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, whether he is a bondservant or is free. 9 Masters, do the same to them, and stop your threatening, knowing that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and that there is no partiality with him.