Delightful Duties of a Child

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. "Honor your father and mother" (this is the first commandment with a promise), "that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land." Ephesians 6:1-3

A meditation upon Ephesians 6:1-3

This is the area of my life where I fail Christ and exhibit my flesh so vibrantly. I go against directly what I believe and ever so boldly proclaim in that of being poor in spirit. I seemingly will wrap myself in the theology at a positional level with God and not practice it with those who God used to bring me into this world. I use so many excuses and my mouth profusely speaks lies of rationalization. The same lips that have spoken the gospel, preached the word, and pray to God are the ones that disobey and dishonor my parents. I take my Bible literal in all other areas of my life but yet will gloss over this gross sin in my life. This on my head and I must dethrone myself from the thinking I know all or even more than my parents. How dare I do anything but obey and honor if I call Christ my Lord. They brought life to me and so nurtured me in a way that only exhibits love. They have so faithfully provided above and beyond over the years. They have encouraged Christ to me, which if anything my obedience and honor can be found in is that. Their faults and failures are not something that I can hold on to and give reason for my own sin against them. I must focus on my own sin in my life rather looking to theirs so that I feel like I have the control in this area of my life. My own sin clouded my vision seeing what I perceived faults, which were actually acts of love.

This sin of disobedience and dishonor deteriorates the spiritual wellness of the believers because as much as I think this one sin does not affect how I walk in manner worthy it does. How I live my faith out in the home speaks volumes to where my heart is at because it is so easy to disrespect those that are your biggest fans for succeeding in Christ. This sin is working out of the true character that I have and not just a singularity sin that I have to work on. This sin speaks to the fact of my heart being prideful, unthankful, discontent, deceitful, anger, and petty thinking that everybody is here to serve myself. This sin dethrones Christ and places me on His throne, which makes me sick when I realize what I am doing. My disobedience is not only against my parents but just like David and Ananias it is against God. The dishonoring of my parents is not only against them but against the one who created me for His glory, the one who justified me for His good pleasure, and who is sanctifying me for His good purpose. My sin does not please God and my desire must be to please God because that is my true joy.

Obedience and honor of my parents should be a desire in my heart because of my delight in Christ and enjoyment of Him. Christ gave up His life on the cross yes for our sins, but evermore so because it was pleasing to God the Father. My desire must be to constantly deny myself; crucifying the flesh daily in humility so that I seek to serve my parents out of a heart that is full of the joy of Christ. Christ is the focal point of my life; if I do not desire to obey and honor my parents both in thought and in action then how can I ever exalt Christ in that same way. I must apply this in my life; desiring to submit myself to my parent in all circumstances because I know God is going to use them to shape me into a godly man, but more importantly because I long to love them with the affection of Christ. It will be a great joy to humbly obey and honor my parents in the very earthy things of life. I shall enjoy those acts wholeheartedly knowing that I am doing this for His good pleasure. My delight in Him is the wellspring for any motivation of serving my parents and I must thank Christ daily for enabling me to do so through His Spirit. Obedience and honor of parents is not mere orthodoxy but rather a commissioning by God for delight. Obedience and honor of parents is not rooted in dead theology but rather anchored to the foundation of the living Christ, which is laid in His submission to the Father. Delight in both obedience and honor to your parents because of who you are in Christ.