Ephesians 6:4: Parental Discipline

The main parental responsibilities of instruction, love and discipline can be assigned to the ways in which we mediate Christ’s mediatorship as prophet, priest and king. We have looked at our parental responsibilities as prophets and priests, but now we need to turn to the matter of authority and discipline. In saying the word discipline we all have certain pictures in our mind, most people think about spanking or corporal punishment. That certainly is a part of it but not the whole. As we consider our role as God’s representatives in the home and ensuring that His rule is the rule of our homes we must remember that God disciplines us in two ways. We will call these proactive discipline and reactive discipline, one is positive and preventative; the other is negative and restorative. We derive these two categories of discipline by meditating on what the author of Hebrews says about enduring the trial of persecution in Heb. 12:5-11, ‘And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.” It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good,...

Read More

Source