RELATIVE DUTIES OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN AND OF MASTERS AND SERVANTS, VS. 1-9.—EXHORTATIONS AND DIRECTIONS AS TO THE SPIRITUAL CONFLICT, vs. 10-20.—CONCLUSION, VS. 21-24.
SECTION I.—Vs. 1-9
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Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
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Honour thy father and mother, (which is the first commandment with promise,)
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that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
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And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
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Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ;
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not with eye-service, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart;
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with good will doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men:
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knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free.
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And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.
ANALYSIS.
Children should obey their parents. This obedience should be in the Lord, determined and regulated by a regard to Christ, v. 1. The ground of the obligation is—1. It is itself right. 2. It is enforced by an express command in the decalogue, to which a special promise is annexed, vs. 1-3.
Parents should do nothing to cherish evil feelings in the minds of their children, but bring them up in the discipline of Christianity, vs. 4, 5.
Servants should be obedient to their masters. This obedience should be rendered—1. With solicitude. 2. with singleness of mind. 3. As part of their obedience to Christ, v. 5. Therefore, not only when observed by men or from the desire to please men, but as serving Christ and desiring to please him; rendering their services with readiness as to the Lord and not to men; because they know that at his bar all men, whether bond or free, shall be treated according to their works, vs. 6-8.
Masters are to act on the same principles of regard to the authority of Christ, and of their responsibility to him in their conduct towards their slaves, avoiding all harshness, because master and slave have a common Master in heaven; with whom there is no respect of persons, v. 8.
COMMENTARY.
V. 1. Children, obey your parents. The nature or character of this obedience, is expressed by the words,
in the Lord. It should be religious; arising out of the conviction that such obedience is the will of the Lord. This makes it a higher service than if rendered from fear or from mere natural affection. It secures its being prompt, cordial and universal. That Κύριος here refers to Christ is plain from the whole context. In the preceding chapter, v. 21, we have the general exhortation under which this special direction to children is included, and the obedience there required is to be rendered in the fear of Christ. In the following verses also Κύριος constantly has this reference, and therefore must have it here. The ground of the obligation to filial obedience is expressed in the words, for this is right. It is not because of the personal character of the parent, nor because of his kindness, nor on the ground of expediency, but because it is right; an obligation arising out of the nature of the relation between parents and children, and which must exist wherever the relation itself exists.
V. 2. This consideration is enforced by a reference to the express command of God. The duty is so important as to be included in that brief summary of the moral law given by God on Mount Sinai. It was engraven by the finger of God on the tables of stone, Honour thy father and thy mother. Any flagrant breach of this command was, according to the Mosaic law, punished with death. To honour is to reverence; and, therefore, the command has reference to the inward feeling as well as to the outward conduct. This precept is said to be πρώτη, ἐν ἐπαγγελίᾳ. This may mean,
it is the first commandment in the decalogue which has a specific promise attached; for the promise connected with the second commandment does not relate to the observance of that particular precept, but to keeping God’s covenant. Or it may mean that it is the first commandment of the second table of the law, and has a promise annexed; or, πρώτη may be taken here as in Mark 12, 28. 30, in the sense of chief, i. e. the first in importance. The sense would then be, ‘Honour thy father and mother; this is the prime commandment, the first in importance among those relating to our social duties; and it has the specific promise annexed. It shall be well with thee on the earth.’ This view of the passage is on the whole to be preferred. It is not likely that Paul would call this “the first commandment with promise,” when it is in fact the only command in the decalogue which has any specific promise annexed to it. And to say that it is the first in order of arrangement in the second table of the law, not only adds nothing to its importance, but supposes the apostle to refer to a distinction between the two tables of the decalogue, not elsewhere recognized in Scripture.