May blessings praise, laudation and eulogy be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ the messiah who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm (Ephesians 1 v3) Amplified Bible Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right. Honour thy father and mother which is the first commandment with promise. That it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long on the earth. And ye fathers provoke not your children to wrath but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6 v1-4) A fundamental and foundational principle we need to recognize and respect in building strong families is the Fatherhood of God. He is our FATHER and he is by that truth the author of the family. It is God our FATHER who instituted marriage and so gave us the blue print for building families. The nuclear family is thus made up of the father, the mother and children and God in his wisdom has promised to manifest his blessings through the family. It is thus through his Son Jesus Christ that he has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places. A cardinal prerequisite for strong families is therefore the central role of God in the family. God and his Word must occupy first place in any strong family. We must see families as units for the manifestation of the fullness of God. Strong families are therefore characterized by reverence for God, sincere love, true service and also the power of God. Strong families must also manifest divine order and this is not a culturally coloured principle but a divinely ordained precept. Children must obey their parents in the Lord because this is the right thing to do and the just thing to do. The only caveat this verse provides is that such obedience must be in the Lord. It will therefore be out of order for a child to steal or kill on the instruction of the parent! Together with such obedience children must esteem and value their parents remembering that this is the first commandment with a promise. We must constantly be aware of the fact that the New Covenant does not do away with law and order under the guise of grace. When we walk in grace we will walk in divine order! The command to honour our parents is unconditional and this is because ultimately it is God who blesses the one who respects his order and such blessings include long life and good health. Our respect and value and esteem for our parents must therefore not be dependent on what they may have done for us. Such respect and esteem includes providing for them financially, visiting them and providing for their welfare. In the strong family the father has the responsibility of rearing tenderly the children in the training and counsel and admonition of the Lord. This calls for exemplary leadership especially in their devotion to God and in his service. We can all learn from the testimony given about Abraham that he knew how to command his children and household after him to keep the way of the Lord and to do what was right and just and by so doing to position themselves for the fulfillment of God’s purpose for the family (Genesis 18 v19)
Posted on: Sat, 13 Jul 2013 18:10:10 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015