Bringing Up Children

Welcome to the Days of Praise podcast, a daily devotional by the Institute for Creation Research. Bringing up children, and ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians six four. This verse, together with the parallel passage in Colossians three twenty one, is probably the key New Testament instruction specifically dealing with the training of children. Nurture is from the same Greek word that is translated chastening in Hebrews twelve five and seven, and instruction in Second Timothy three sixteen.

It has particular reference to carrying out child training with both firmness and gentleness. As needed and appropriate in each particular case, the term admonition is from a Greek word meaning putting in mind. Thus, the admonition of the Lord implies teaching the ways of the Lord by using the word of the Lord. There is no substitute for implanting a knowledge of God's Word in the minds of our children. Even if they should drift away for a while in later life, the Lord can use His Word in their hearts to bring them back.

Both types of training, through action and through verbal teaching, are said in this passage to be primarily the responsibility of the father. The first reference in the Bible to training children deals with Abraham's responsibility to bring up his children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Mothers, of course, also have much responsibility and ability in this ministry. Fathers too sometimes delegate certain teaching responsibilities to tutors, but the overall responsibilities are theirs, and all of this training should be done in love. Fathers provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

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