As children of God we aren’t just called to obey our Father in Heaven. We are called to obey our earthly parents too. Our parents have been placed as our guides, our teachers, and the people we are to submit to. Parents have the responsibility of raising their children up in the right way – which is the way of the Lord. One way that we express our love of God is in obeying our parents and respecting them.
And we pray:
Dear God, I thank You and give You praise, glory, and honor for the parents and guardians You have given me who are concerned about You and Your will for their lives and my life. Father, may You help me to pay attention to their instructions and their advice. I desire to honor my parents because I know it brings You honor too. In Jesus’ Name, I pray. Amen.
Ephesians 6:1 commands the child to obey. The child might not want to obey, but God calls the child to obey his parents. Some ask, “What if the parent asks the child to do things that are improper like participate in immoral behavior?” Paul adds a qualifier to the child as he did to the wife. To the wife he says submit ‘as to the Lord’ while to the child he says ‘obey your parents in the Lord.’ We are not sure whether there is deliberate word difference. If there is a slight difference, the wives are called to imitate Christ’s subjectiveness (have the same attitude and way of submission as Christ) while the children are told to limit their obedience to those things that would please The Lord.