Ephesians 6:4

Ephesians 6:4. And ye fathers. ‘And' suggests that there are duties on the side of the superiors also. ‘Fathers,' because in the household these represent the ultimate authority (chap. Ephesians 5:22; Ephesians 5:24; Ephesians 5:33); Ephesians 6:1-2 show that no depreciation of the mother is involved.

Provoke, or, ‘fret,' not your children to wrath, ‘It is the hasty, rough, moody treatment of children, so that, without childish confidence, without joyful obedience, they are repelled and enticed to opposition, defiance, and bitterness. Righteous, wholesome parental anger is not excluded, but painful, arbitrary, grumbling treatment, as well as rough, unjust treatment, without sparing the childish nature' (Braune).

But bring them up, or, ‘nourish them;' the same Greek word as in chap. Ephesians 5:29.

In the discipline and admonition of the Lord. This is the element or sphere in which the children should be brought up. ‘Discipline' includes training as well as punishment; ‘admonition,' warning and kind exhortation; the former is in deed, the latter in word. ‘Of the Lord' is not = about the Lord, nor, for the Lord, but prescribed by the Lord, belonging to Him, and administered on His behalf by the father who represents Him. Evidently the Apostle's language enjoins educational, rather than spasmodic, methods of bringing children to an acceptance of Christ. The responsibility of such training rests primarily on the parents, though they often seek to shift it to pastors and teachers. Many a son is kept from utter ruin by remembering a pious mother's love, but he is most blessed who has a father that, by proper discipline tempered with affection, has kept the hearts of his children in intimate and trustful allegiance, and by his very demeanor taught the best lessons concerning God and Christ. Such a father remains the strongest ‘evidence of Christianity.'