Kingdom Relationships (Part 3)

"Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath."


We live in a society where we believe that certain principles within the Word of God are archaic, and therefore we can justify ignoring them. Beneath the surface of Paul's admonition to take special care in family relationships, we'll see a deeper application and consequence. Let me explain.

First of all, there are four (4) stages of anger: anger, wrath, rage and murder. In the Greek language, the phrase "Provoke not your children to wrath", it is explained in the following way: When we push and push and push - to the point of provoking our children, thus cause them to become full of wrath - that level of deep, hurtful emotion causes our children to desire our authority. Why? They think we have the authority to verbally, physically, mentally and abuse them. Our children just don't know that we've actually stepped over the line and violated God's purpose for authority. They want our authority so we'll stop hurting them.

This wrath opens the door for violence, rebellion and the like, because we have overstepped our authority. Rebellion is a sinful, but natural, fight every children will have to conquer. There is certainly no need for us to further complicate matters, by abusing authority. Remember... all authority is delegated. If we violate parameters of authority given to us by the Lord, then we will have to answer to Him for it.

I trust we will reconsider our roles as parents, and find ourselves remaining in the place of correction vs. punishment. If the Lord treated us like some treat their children, none of us would serve Him. The same is true for parenting: our children will not want to follow us if we have presented the wrong picture. Selah!