AND, YE FATHERS
Ephesians
6: 4: And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in
the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
This exhortation speaks of how fathers are
to discipline our children. “Fathers,
provoke not your children to wrath” means do not be unreasonably severe. In
Colossians, he adds, "lest they be
discouraged." (Col 3:21). But “bring
them up” means love and cherish the child. “In the nurture of the Lord” means with the same “chastening or
correcting” in which the Lord chastens us. “In
the admonition of the Lord” means “to turn and fix their mind upon the
Lord.” So rather than being
unreasonably severe, we are to love and cherish our children by correcting them
in the same way the Lord chastens us, and that is, by always turning and fix
their minds on Christ as he is revealed in the scriptures. The purpose of our heavenly Father’s
correction is always to turn us to Christ and teach us more concerning his
finished work. We have not corrected our
children as God correct us (as God commands in this verse) until we have done
the same.