While a good healthy family can yield great joy and happiness, it is not the purpose of marriage or even family. Marriage was created by God to reflect his image. Genesis says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” And God’s immediate instruction was for them to be fruitful and multiply. Marriage and family is God’s idea. Initially, it is God’s means of filling and subduing his creation. After Adam and Eve’s fall, he attached the promise of redemption to this family. “I will put enmity between your offspring and the woman’s offspring” he said to the serpent. “You will strike his heal, but he will strike your head.” This promise took shape more specifically to the Biblical figure, Abraham. God said, “I will make you into a great nation to be a blessing to the nations. You and your children and your children’s children will be my people and I will be your God.” It was the promise that God worked to fulfill as he rescued his family from famine by bringing them to Egypt during the time of Joseph and later rescued them from slavery in Egypt by bringing them out in spectacular fashion with the crossing of the Red Sea. After God rescued them and brought them to himself on Mount Sinai, He gave them the 10 commandments – the instruction for how to live as His people. His promise is the reason they receive His commandments. And it is through the design of the family that this kingdom would grow. This promise serves as the background to the one that comes in the 5th commandment, “honor your father and mother so that you might live long in the promised land.” While the children are in line to inherit this land, it is their training and equipping that God works through to accomplish it.

This background is important as it sets the stage for us to understand why Paul would include parents in his command to submit to children. Remember, the overarching command for all of these relationships is verse 21, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Parents are to submit to their children as they bear the responsibility to shape them for their spiritual inheritance.

Parents must submit themselves to their children’s preparation for living in God’s Kingdom.

Submission Through Discipleship – Study Guide

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