to the fifth commandment adding as a note of encouragement that it is the first

commandment with promise.

We are not to reason from this that an obedient child of parents who are members of

the Body is assured a long life on the earth, but to gather from the quotation the marked

approval of the Lord upon the obedience of children to parents, even though "the

promise" now may be expressed in some other way than "long life upon the earth". On

the other hand it is morally certain that seeds sown in childhood by disobedience

materially influence their well-being in after years.  As we have already indicated,

children and slaves are addressed differently from wives, and this may be the better seen

by noticing the recurring features:--

Promise and reward figure more prominently here. While "parents" are spoken of in

Eph. 6: 1, and "father and mother" separately mentioned in verse 2, "fathers" are

specially addressed in verse 4.

One of the results of modern civilization has been the transference of this

responsibility from the father to the mother. To thousands of young children the father is

someone who appears on the scene at week-ends, whose name is held up as a kind of

bogey as a last recourse, but who does not come into every-day living contact with the

growing child. The mother's duties connected with the material and physical well-being

of the child often prevent the exercise of those other elements of training that are so

Mother-love is protective.  Father-love is corrective as well.  Mother-love often

shields the child from the due results of its own wrong-doing, whereas father-love looks

ahead and sees the dire results in the future. As neither parent can be a substitute for the

other, the child needs both, but in "discipline and instruction" (en paideia kai nouthesia)

the father is the true agent.  Heb. 12: 5-11 should be read in this connection. The

Apostle explains fairly clearly what he conceives to be the functions of the mother and

the father in I Thess. 2: 7-11:--