Daily Bible Reading 1st August 2025 // Colossians 3:18-21
18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.
The same is true in relation between parents and children (vv 20-21). In the divine order there is a place for unqualified obedience on the child's part (obey in everything) and there is a place for firm compassion and gentle guidance on the part of the parent (Ephesians 6:4). Once again these attitudes are not a matter of feelings. The child's obedience is the outworking of his submission to Christ, 'for this is pleasing in the Lord'. Parents are enjoined not to irritate or provoke their children to prevent them losing heart and becoming timid. How different is the picture today. When the divine order is ignored and sin and self are given free reign, not only is there a breakdown in the relationship between husband and wife, there is a corresponding breakdown in the family, between parent and child. The child revolts against authority. It is the work of sin and the flesh to assert self, to refuse discipline and throw off restraint and authority. This is why parental discipline is of such importance. It restrains the self-seeking of the flesh. In our modern world, sadly but often, in the name of kindness and progress, or just for a quiet life, many parents abrogate their divine responsibility and allow their children to express themselves and do their own thing. We should not be surprised then, when the child does exactly that: expresses self. The old man in all of its fallen selfishness is given its head and the fruit is all too apparent. In many ways, however, the child's refusal of authority is simply a reflection of man's refusal of God's authority. Adults have thrown off and ignored the divine order, giving the children an invidious example to follow. What is true in that general sense is manifest in all of its awful sinfulness in the abuse of children themselves, whether physically, mentally or sexually. This is what happens when the divine order is ignored and the yoke of God's authority and discipline is thrown off. Against the darkness of this backdrop the apostolic injunctions shine in all of their divine beauty, highlighting the order and the harmony of God's way. This is how it can be, how it must be, in the family of the new, redeeming humanity.