Last time we concluded our article by challenging parents, whose children grew up in their Christian home but have not followed the Lord, to consider how they handled the authority God gave them over their children. We ask again, was there anger, temper, inconsistency, or harshness? Maybe we should add, was there favoritism? Were children caught in the middle of parental conflicts?

How we handle the authority God has given us as parents is critical to the process of training. Most of us are familiar with the cautions expressed in Ephesians 6:4. Paul writes, “And ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Why he says that is quite obvious. The parent can undermine the very task of training he is assigned to do. Kenneth Wuest addresses this text in his “Word Studies of the Greek New Testament.” Consider carefully Paul’s warnings to parents. Wuest defines “Provoke” as meaning “to rouse to wrath, to provoke, exasperate, anger” He then quotes from Expositors which says, “The parental duty is given first negatively, as avoidance of all calculated to irritate or exasperate the children – injustice, severity and the like, so as to make them indisposed to filial obedience and honor.”

Wuest points out, by defining words in the rest of the text, that provoking our children, greatly hinders the training process. Giving his own commentary as well as quoting others, his note coveys the following. “Bring up”, means to nourish to maturity, not just physically but “rearing in the various departments of its life”. “Nurture”, refers to the whole training and education of children – including cultivation of mind and morals, using commands, admonitions, reproof and punishment. “Admonition” is exhortation – training by word – set over against training by act and discipline, as seen in “Nuture”.

The point being made by the Apostle, as Wuest suggests is this: poorly exercised authority can build frustration and anger in a child. Such attitudes may be revealed more as the child matures. More on this next time.

- Dr. E. Allen Griffith