May 11 - Devotion on Ephesians

 May 11 - Devotion on Ephesians

 

Eph 6:1.  Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 

 

     Vs 1,  Paul is giving a proper Christian view of relationships to a church of new believers.  Paul was teaching Biblical concepts to people who did not grow up in that kind of culture.  Life in a Greek family was not easy.   When a child was born if the father did not deem the child fit it would be abandoned left out of the city to die.  After the child was born it was wrapped in tight wraps for 2 months and fed through a clay jar with a spout they were never changed.  Hygiene in the ancient world was not good.  If they survived the first ten days they were given a name.  Mortality was 50% among Greek children.  Greek fathers were rarely home because of business, military duties, or in Ephesus cavorting at the various temples.  Female children were usually illiterate and only taught household duties.  Boys were either workers or depending on the income of the family went to school or learned a trade.  Each city had its own standing army where every boy was taught military training and life.  They were taught to fear the gods, immorality, and idolatry were normal.   They grew up in a hard patriarchal system and that women were property and treated as such.  In the bible, we learn that if children obey the Lord it is the right thing to do.  Parents are the first authority figures in their lives.  If they learn to obey and work with parents it will prepare them adequately for the adult world.  Good parents set up boundaries to protect their children.  This keeps them from doing harm to themselves and others.  Children do not have the maturity, skills, and wisdom to know how yet to navigate the world.