Section 6:1–4

Paul gave advice to children and their parents

The first relationship that Paul talked about was the marriage relationship (5:21–33). In this section, Paul talked about another relationship: that of children and parents. Children should obey their parents, and parents should train their children with love and Christian discipline.

Here are some other examples for a heading for this section:

Paul’s advice to children and parents (God’s Word)
-or-
Children should obey their parents

Paragraph 6:1–4

6:1–2

In 5:21–24 Paul told Christians to “submit” to one another and told wives to “submit” to their husbands. In 5:33 he told wives to “respect” their husbands. Now in 6:1, he tells children to “obey” and “honor” their parents. These words are similar in meaning. To respect or honor someone means to recognize/consider that person is worthy to love and obey. To submit to a person means to be willing to be under that person’s authority, to yield our rights to that person. To obey a person means to do what that person says.

6:1a

Children: Here the word Children refers to children whose parents are still taking care of them.

obey your parents in the Lord: There are differing views as to the meaning of the phrase in the Lord. Here are two of these views:

(1) It means that children should obey their parents “because they (the children) are united to the Lord” or “because they belong to the Lord.” For example:

because you belong to the Lord (New Living Translation (2004))

(New Living Translation (2004), Contemporary English Version God’s Word)

(2) It means that children should obey their parents because it is the will of the Lord. For example:

as the Lord wants (New Century Version)

(New Century Version)

It is recommended that you follow interpretation (1). Most English versions translate this phrase literally, and it is not possible to tell which interpretation they follow.

Lord: Here, the word Lord refers to Jesus.

6:1b

for: In the Greek 1b begins with a conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as for. This conjunction introduces the basis for his command in 1a.

Here are some other possible ways to introduce this basis:

Because
-or-
My reason ⌊for this command⌋ is that

this is right: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as right in this context means “conforming to God’s standard, just, right, proper.” The clause “for this is right” may need to be expanded. Some examples are:

for this is the right thing to do
-or-
because this is the correct thing that you should do
-or-
because this is what you should do
-or-
Because this is the right behavior to do

See righteous in the Glossary for more information.

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