Sunday Reading: Ephesians 6:1-4
Key Verse: Ephesians 6:1
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
Devotion:
How often do you remember that we are all God’s children? This verse may well be challenging all people who are children (fostered, adopted, all included) to remember that they should obey their parents but it is the second part of this verse which is most important... “obey your parents in the Lord...”. It is one thing to know exactly where you came from, being able to trace your heritage or ancestry back in time but God is not a respecter of flesh and so we are not seen as exact descendants of our parents, grandparents etc but as people who are being brought up in God’s church. As such we have ‘parents’ who teach us the gospel and they should also be respected.
We can go right back to the commandments given to Moses and see that this is something that God has encouraged us to do right from the beginning; honouring our parents should be part of our lives and not an afterthought once a year when Mother’s day or Father’s day comes about. The more that we can live closer to our parents, the more we can help to support each other and encourage each other rather than just relying on them to keep us alive! The words used here are open so that we will apply them to more people and not just our immediate family.
And yes it is a two way thing; we cannot hope to achieve a special relationship with anyone who is not willing to enter into a special relationship with us... Our parents have already started this by doing all they have to bring us up so far; we can return that favour by honouring them too. It may well sound like a duty or rule but this is something that we ought to do as a promise to and for each other rather than because it is written in stone. Doing things because they are righteous goes much further that doing things because someone told you to!
Points to Ponder:
How often do you honour others?
Do you honour God too?
