LET us briefly look at the relations of children and fathers, as well as of servants and masters. Here, obedience is the grand point pressed on the inferior in each case. As all saints are called to submit themselves one to another in the fear of Christ, and wives especially to their own husbands, subject to them in everything, so children are to obey their parents in the Lord (vs. 1). It is not that the Holy Spirit has not a suited and serious word for their fathers; but, in general, how easy is the flow of a Christian household where the young obey—above all, where they “obey in the Lord.” Natural affection is sweet, and the lack of it is a sign of the perilous last days; but it is not enough; nor is conscience, all-important as it is in its place, an adequate guard, nor can it be a spring of power; but the Lord is. And how blessed, where duty is clothed and absorbed in Him; and this, and nothing less than this, is pressed by the Holy Spirit.
It was so with the Lord Himself when He was here, and knew what it was to be in the place of child. “And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon him.” Nor are we left to a vague, general statement; we are shown a living picture of His ways. “And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it. But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?” Thus, He, even as a child of twelve, had the consciousness of His own proper relationship. The humanity He had taken, as born of a woman, in no way weakened the sense He had of His Father's love and business, but rather gave a new occasion in which He had to make it good. At the same time, we see what is so beautiful—how His eye, absolutely single, saw that which became Him on the earthly side, in striking contrast with Joseph and even His mother, who “understood not the saying which he spake unto them.” Hence we read immediately after that “He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them.” Such was Jesus, the Lord of all, during much the larger part of His earthly career.
The same principle is true of the Christian child, save that His relationship to the Father was essential, ours to Him and to His Father is, of course, the pure gift of grace. But still we too are children, conferred on us as the title surely is in and through our Lord Jesus. “Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God Beloved, now are we the sons of God.” And this, by the working of the Holy Spirit, is the secret of happy obedience in the earthly relationship. Conscious of what we are to the Lord, we can obey in Him. “In the Lord,” is the encouragement, the safeguard, and the limit. The parents might be Jew or heathen, or they might hear unworthily the name of Christ; but Christian children, while thoroughly owning their relation to their parents, whatever they might be, have the sweet privilege of obeying “in the Lord.” How it simplifies questions otherwise perplexing! How it determines also where and how far they are to go! For if they are to “obey in the Lord,” such a call cannot rightly be made a reason or excuse for sin.
In the Epistle to the Colossians, where the saints were in danger from a misuse of legal ordinances, the ground urged why children should obey their parents in all things, is “For this is well-pleasing unto the Lord.” Here the faithful were free from that snare, and the Holy Spirit could freely use a principle embodied in the law, and hence adds, “for this is right or just.” Nay, He can follow it up with a quotation, slightly changed from the Decalogue, drawing attention parenthetically to its special place therein. “Honor thy father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise, that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest be long-lived on the earth” (vss. 2-3). If such was God's estimate of filial piety under law, was it less now that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ unfolds His nature and calls unto the relationship of sons unto Himself? If respect to that word of old found its approval and recompense in the righteous government of God, if He then watched over and prospered such as honored their parents did the revelation of Himself in grace relax the obligation for His children or make the love that prompts and sustains such honor less precious in His own eyes now? No intelligent Christian would contend that it is other than a precept from the law, but so applied as to insinuate, if I mistake not, a kind of a fortiori conclusion to the New Testament believer. Certainly to be well and live long on the earth is not the form in which the proper portion of a saint since the cross of Christ is usually set before him.
To the fathers is the admonition (more needed by such than the mothers, perhaps, though in principle no doubt intended for both,) “Provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (vs. 4). What knowledge of the heart of both old and young! What tender consideration, after the pressure of obedience, lest a too stringent and capricious use of the parental authority might exasperate! The bringing them up, or nourishing, is, on the other hand, to be with the Lord's discipline and admonition. As the Christian knows His ways as they are in exercise toward Himself and others, so is he to train up his children for Him, an all-important principle for the parent's own heart and conscience. Do we desire the Lord alone for them, or the world too?
Next, (ver. 5-8) the Christian slaves are exhorted to obey their masters according to the flesh, (such they were, whether converted or not,) to obey them with fear and trembling, in singleness of their heart, as to Christ; not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from the soul, with goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that whatever good thing each doeth, this he shall receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. Is it not worthy of all note the extent and depth of the liberty that is in Christ? There is nothing violent nor revolutionary, and yet the change is complete, absolute, final in its principle and character, though one has to grow in the appreciation and manifestation of it. And this growth is important morally, being part and parcel of Christianity practically viewed, where the very first blessing which God's grace bestows upon us in Christ appears not save to faith, has to be realized all through in the power of the Spirit through self-judgment, and is only ours in actual possession and display when that which is perfect is come in resurrection-glory. Still, how blessed that if in one sense we have nothing, in another and just as real a sense we possess all things. On this truth faith has to lay hold and act; and among the rest, what a boon to the Christian bondman! What a mighty motive for him, who, already consciously free in Christ in a liberty entirely superior to circumstances, has for that very reason such a scope for triumphing over his fetters and serving Christ in obeying the worst of masters if it were the Lord's will so to try him! Doubtless, the master too has his duties; but if he fail, what then? Is the slave absolved from his responsibility? How can this ever be a difficulty, if be obeys in simplicity as unto Christ? Does He fail? What a deliverance from every shade of dishonesty!— “not with eye-service as men-pleasers, but as slaves of Christ, (how honorable the title which one shares with an apostle!) doing the will of God from the soul;” for such is the true word here. More than this: not only is there the call with goodwill to do service as to the Lord and not to men, but they are reminded that the day was coming when each, whether bond or free, should receive of the Lord for whatever good he might do. Ample wages then, be assured; for He at least is not unrighteous.
Then, in turn, (vs. 9) the masters are called to impartial equity, doing as they would be done by, and abstaining from the threats so natural toward a poor slave. They were to know that the Lord of both masters and slaves was in the heavens, and that no respect of persons is with Him, both of them weighty considerations for a master, and with delicate propriety laid before him rather than the slave.