Bringing Up Children in ... "the Training and admonition of the Lord"

by Steve Klein

 In Ephesians 6:4, Fathers are commanded to bring up their children "in the training and admonition of the Lord". "Training" a child in this way demands more than just occasional church attendance or learning a few facts about the Bible. It involves immersing a child in the Lord's ways from the cradle to the time the child leaves the nest.

The Jews of old may have had a better grasp of what is involved in training a child religiously than many of us do today. For one thing, the Lord gave them a detailed description of what was to be involved in the training of a child. God's commandments were to become a part of every day family life!  He told the Israelites, "You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up" (Deuteronomy 6:7).

An historical look at the way the Jews trained their children in the time of Christ reveals that Jewish parents took the responsibility given them in Deuteronomy 6:7 very seriously. Beginning with the rite of circumcision for male children and continuing on through the formative years, every Jewish child was raised to be an adherent to the Jewish faith.

The early childhood experiences of Jesus in the temple illustrate how that Jewish children were included in plans to attend the worship assemblies and religious feasts, such as the Passover (Luke 2:21-50). Traditionally, each year at the Passover, it was the youngest person at the table who was to stand and ask, "What is the meaning of this feast? And, "How is it different from others?" "To which the father was to reply by relating in language suited to the child's capacity, the whole national history of Israel, from the calling of Abraham down to the deliverance from Egypt and the giving of the Law." The more detailed the story was, the better it was considered to be. (Alfred Edersheim, Sketches in Jewish Social Life,  p. 110).

One ancient historian said that the Jews "were from their swaddling clothes, even before being taught either the sacred laws or the unwritten customs, trained by their parents, teachers and instructors to recognize God as Father and as the Maker of the world" and that "having been taught the knowledge from earliest youth, they bore in their souls the image of the commandments" (Philo, Legat. Ad Cajum, sec.16 & 32).

The first century Jewish historian Josephus says that the Jews learned all the laws of Moses, "beginning from their earliest infancy."  This training was so thorough that, if anyone would ask a Jew about the laws, "he will more readily tell them all than he will tell his own name, and this in consequence of our having learned them immediately as soon as ever we became sensible of anything, and of our having them, as it were engraven on our souls." (Josephus in Against Apion, ii. 18 & 19).

The Jews believed that they were God's specially chosen people. They believed God's law was perfect and that their relationship to His law made them unique. And although they were eventually scattered far across the earth, and found themselves in many different cultural and social settings, they kept their determination to raise their children as Jews. No self-respecting Jew would allow their child to be raised as a Gentile!

Friends, we as Christians can learn something here. We are God's chosen people today! (1 Peter 2:9). We have a unique relationship with him through His word! (1 Peter 1:23). Should we allow our children to be trained by our secular society? Should our children's values, morality and priorities be learned from solely from TV and the public schools? Or, should we ourselves take the responsibility to train them in the Lord's ways, immersing them in the culture of Christianity, and teaching them at every turn in life the meaning of Christ-likeness? The choice is plain. May God grant every parent reading these words the determination to bring up their children in "the training and admonition of the Lord."

 

Other Articles by Steve Klein
Are You Stubborn?
Is Love to Blame?
Can You be Trusted?
Where Do You Get Your Religion?