Peter Barnes | Ephesians 6:4
SERMON NOTES
THE ROLE OF FATHERS
(Ephesians 6:4)
– in ancient Roman society, fathers had the power of life and death.
1. Discipline is necessary because of sin.
– Prov.22:15; Ps.51:5; Jer.17:9; Rom.3:23; Prov.29:15; Prov.13:24; Eccles.8:11; 1 Kings 1:5-6
– A. A. Neill and the Summerhill school utterly opposed this.
2. Fathers must not provoke their children with the wrong kind of discipline.
– e.g. discipline that is inconsistent, that smothers the child, is hypocritical, based on favouritism, abdicates, or which is humiliating
– Heb.12:5-11 – love and discipline; Luther: ‘Beside the rod, keep an apple.’
3. Fathers are responsible to train and instruct their children in the Lord.
– Richard Baxter: ‘Good laws will not reform us, if reformation begin not at home.’
– Prov.15:16-17