Obey Our Father
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘(1) Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. (2) “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— (3) “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”’ (Ephesians 6:1-3)
In the context that Paul wrote this to the folks in Ephesus, this was directly to the children as he was discussing the family structure; first, husbands and wives (Ephesians 5:21-33), then their children (Ephesians 6:1-3), the husbands in role of fathers (Ephesians 6:4), and then the ‘working’ relationship between employees (or slaves) and employers (or masters) (Ephesians 6:5-9). Paul reminds the children of the 5th Commandment (Exodus 20:12, Deuteronomy 5:16) and the fact it comes with a promise of a blessing (a long, pleasant life).
Who are children, though? We were all children at one time (many years ago for me, before computers, smartphones, and a couple of hundred pounds on the scale), and we are also children today – children of our Father God through the Faith and acceptance of Jesus as our Lord. We honored our parents through our obedience of their instructions and respecting their positions in their roles of the household (Dad in heading up the home, Mom in taking care of the home). In turn, we need to honor God through our obedience of His instructions; while our parents were not perfect (sometimes far from it), our Heavenly Father is perfect. We may have had an excuse to ignore our parents when we recognized their ‘advice’ was bad, but there is no excuse to ignore God’s advice (which is not ‘advice’, per se, but instructions to be followed).
Obedience to God’s instructions may go against our ‘common sense’ or ‘feelings’. A young scrawny teen not yet out of middle school is saying ‘God wants me to fight the heavyweight champion’ is not common sense, but David obeyed and defeated Goliath. Obedience to God may mean an end to the status quo in your life, that which is comfortable and predictable may come to an abrupt halt. A good job ending in a sudden firing, a group of friends breaking up instantly, even family members walking away in ‘embarrassment’ – all may happen because of obedience to God. Remember though, the promise of the 5th Commandment – ‘honor (obey) your Father (God) so that it may go well with you’; don’t fear the consequences of man and fall down in terror; fear the consequences of God and stand up in Faith and Joy!
