The duty divinely assigned to parents to train their children in the way of the Lord is seen in every dispensation that God has communicated with man – in the patriarchal dispensation in which God dealt directly with heads of households; in the Mosaic dispensation in which God dealt specifically with the nation of Israel; and in the gospel dispensation which has been in effect for all men ever since Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to heaven and the gospel began to be preached.
In the patriarchal dispensation, God said regarding Abraham, “For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him” (Genesis 18:18-19). It was God’s will that Abraham command his children to keep the way of the Lord.
To the nation of Israel, God instructed parents: “‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 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 6:4-9). This is the will of God in Israel’s families.
Hear God in the gospel dispensation today: “And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). In the context, parents, both mother and father, have been under consideration (vss.1-2). While fathers as head of the family have a primary role in spiritual training of their children, mothers are by no means excluded from training their children as they follow the leadership of their husbands and as they carry out instruction to love their children (Titus 2:4). Consider the example of Eunice and Lois (2 Timothy 1:5).
The things “written before” were written for our learning (Romans 15:4) and are examples for our admonition (1 Corinthians 10:11). Israel’s failures in their divinely assigned duty as parents had grave consequences: “When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10). These sad and sobering words warn us.
When parents neglect to teach their children the way of the Lord, they have neglected a sacred obligation and duty. When parents expect the church will do all the spiritual training of their children, they neglect a sacred duty. When parents expect their children will just pick up spiritual truth on their own, they neglect a sacred duty. On the other hand, when parents train their children at home in the way of the Lord, they are respecting and honoring God’s design for the family and demonstrating their faith in God and His way. They are obeying God. Parents, let us strive to fulfill this obligation to the Lord and to our children. If and when it slips in priority and is neglected, let us admit to ourselves and confess to God and get up and get going again with this most important duty!
-Larry Jones