January 1927
34
T h e
K i n g ’ s
B u s i n e s s
milder method of moral persuasion fails to be sufficient incentive to proper conduct, the sterner method of punishment be comes necessary, the administration of which creates a wholesome respect for authority. A failure to require obedience and respect for authority in the home only prepares the way for disobedience and lawlessness in life; hence, many a child finally goes to the pen or gallows. “In the Lord.” The obedience here is to be “in the Lord,” i.e., the children are to obey parents whenever the obedience required is in accordance with the will of God. Should parents require the children to do things which are contrary to the will of God, they are to obey God rather than parents. “Honor thy father and mother1." The word translated “honor” in Exodus, from which this quotation is taken, means “be heavy, weighted.” To honor father and mother is to consider t h e m and their words as being heavy, weighty, powerful. Their respect for them is to be such that their words are to be- considered as final by the children. To honor father and mother means also to assist them in a material way whenever the parents are in need. This latter meaning of the word was completely ignored by the Pharisees of the days of Christ as is seen in Matt. 15 :4-6. .. “Which is the first commandment with promise." In Exo. 20 and Deut. 5, where the Ten Commandments appear, one will see that no promise is attached to the first four commandments but that the com mandment to honor father and mother, the fifth commandment, is the first one which gives a promise. “That it may be well with thee and thou mdyest live long on the earth.” v. 3. This promise was given primarily to the chil dren of Israel and concerned their living long in the land of Palestine but was given to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their descendants. In this connection, however, a spiritual application is made of this commandment. Children w h o obey and who honor parents in the Lord can be confident of the fact that God will bless and use them. 3. D uty of P arents to C hildren “And ye fathers provoke not your chil dren to wrath but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lgrd." Parents frequently overlook the fact that they have a solemn duty before God to ward their children and seem to have the idea that they are to stand in relation to their children as master to servants. Such conception is foreign to the teaching of God’s word. Parents are not to pro voke (to call forth) their children unto wrath, i.e. they are not to act in such a way as to stir up wrath or ill feelings in the hearts of their children. Their thought should be to. act in such a way as to call forth the very best and to ap peal to the spiritual nature. Further more they are “to nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.” Spiritually speaking, children, though they have reached their maturity, are said to be nourished, parents should constantly nourish or feed their spiritual natures on the spiritual food and should exercise such watch-care o v e r them, reproving them whenever necessary and admonish ing them in the Lord. When husbands and wives realize their relationship, the one to the other, chil-
P a u l introduces a different figure of speech, namely, comparing the church to a garment which has been washed thor oughly and ironed until it is without spot or wrinkle. The Corinthian Church, ac cording to 1 Cor. 6:9-11, was, before ac cepting Christ, as a filthy, polluted gar ment, but, when they accepted Christ, they “were washed, but ye were sancti fied, but ye were justified in the name of 1 the Lord Jesus Christ.’i§y “In the Spirit of our God."' As one wishes his linen, when sent to the laundry to be returned clean, spotless, and well ironed, so C h r i s t having cleansed us wishes us to live pure, holy, clean lives, that we may “behold Him without blem ish.” “Even so ought husbands to love their own wives as their own bodies" (vs. 28- 31). This passage is but an exhortation to husbands to practice the Golden R u l e with reference to their wives. (See Matt. 7 :12.) The man who has any self-respect is going to do only those things which will aid his body and refrain from doing those things which would injure the .same; hence, the man who loves his wife will provide those things which bring joy and comfort to her and never imposes any thing upon her which would be in any wise injurious to her. “He that loveth his \ own wife loveth himself; for no man ever hateth his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; because we are the members of his body.” This quotation just given is based upon the fact that God when He created the woman and presented her to man as a help-meet (Heb. “a helper as over against him,” i.e. a companion who would be suitable for him and who would be able to meet all of his needs) made them one, (Gen. 2:24). The woman is man’s com plement. Their association as man and wife, when really their hearts are united, in love, developes in the character and life of each those characteristics, which e n n o b l e life and make it w o r t h living. As one is instinctively led to provide all necessities for his b 0 d y, so far as he is able, and, if possible, such luxuries and comforts as his time affords, • so the man who realizes that he and his wife are in real and true sense in God’s sight one, will provide everything possible for her comfort, happiness and useful ness in life. In verse 30 Paul rather unexpectedly passes on to the spiritual application of the truths j u s t mentioned, anticipating ' the thought of verse 32. The implied reasoning here is that just as the man and wife form a single unity and are con sidered as one “body” with different mem bers, so we, children of God, are mem bers of the body of Christ as: one uses the different members of his body for the assistance of the rest of the members, n a me l y , the ey e s - to see, e a r s to hear, the feet to walk, etc., thus Christ uses each Christian, - a member of His body,' .in different ways to bring the message of salvation and eternal joy to the lost world. Someone has very tersely said that Christ has no eyes to see, hence He needs our eyes; He has no feet with which to walk, hence, He needs our feet; He has no tongue with which to speak the gospel to lost sinners, hence, He needs our tongues. This statement is but a graphic way of expressing the thought that God has “committed unto
Christians the word of reconciliation” (2 Cor. 5:19). “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh."— v. 31. By giving this command the Lord did not mean that man should utterly abandon parents regardless of their condition, for he tells us that chil dren are to honor father and mother. Normally, parents are supposed to be in a position to take care of themselves, but a wife and the children are completely dependent upon the husband; hence the injunction. Since two individuals, the man and the woman,, are bound together into a per manent union by the marriage relations- ship—the closest tie that binds people upon earth—God uses'this relationship to express the union between Christ and his people. This mystery is great but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church." v. 32. The word “mystery” does: not mean something that is unexplainable of cannot be understood, but simply conveys the idea expressed by the word “secret.” A truth or fact is a mystery so long as it is not known, but when it is revealed it ceases to be a mystery and becomes a revelation. The marriage relationship^ according to this verse, is a great union symbolizing the unity existing between Chist and His church. Every marriage that has been consummated is but a faint, blurred, and limited, foreshadowing of the great “marriage of the Lamb” of which we read in Rev. 19. “Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife, even as himself; and let the wife see that she fear her hus band." v 33. T h e word “nevertheless” shows the close connection between veses 32 qnd 33 which seems to be that, though at present husbands and wives may not understand the mystery concerning Christ and His relationship to the church, they, on account of this lack of understanding are not to hesitate for a moment but are to press forward in the path of love to ward each other: the husband is to love his wife as himself and the wife is to respect and to have consideration for her husband, since he is her head (1 Cor. 11: .3.) As they move forward trusting God, the duty of each will become plain to them. 2. D uty of C hildren to P arents Eph. 6:1-3 Children obey your parents in the Lord for this is right.” This injunction seems to have been forgotten by many children even though they, have accepted Jesus Chirst as their Lord and Master. In this day children seem to have the idea that the parents know very little and that they are quite capable of making all decisions as to what is proper, and right; hence, they do not realize the obligation of obey ing their parents. This lowering of re spect for parents on the part of the chil dren is largely due to the present ideas concerning discipline in general which seems to ignore the necessity of admin istering punishment altogether. It is good to govern by love, the motto being, “no rule but r i g h t , no law but love.” When appealing to the higher nature does not avail, then it ■becomes necessary to administer punishment commensurate with the offense. The wise man has said ‘‘Spare the rod and spoil the child.” The administration of punishment when the
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