Charles Ellicott Commentary Ephesians 6:1

"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." — Ephesians 6:1 (ASV)

In Ephesians 6:1-4, St. Paul transitions from the detailed exposition of the true relation of husbands and wives to address the relation of parents and children. He does so far more briefly and simply, but under the light of the same idea. It is to be understood as existing in the Lord, i.e., within the unity binding all to Christ, through which both parental authority and the rightful freedom of the child are hallowed.

In the Lord.—The phrase itself, though familiar in St. Paul’s writings generally, is especially frequent in the Epistles of the Captivity, where it occurs in various connections at least twenty-one times (see, for example, Ephesians 2:21; Ephesians 3:11; Ephesians 4:1; Ephesians 4:17; Ephesians 5:8; Ephesians 6:10; Ephesians 6:21). It is, in fact, a brief indication of their great subject—unity with and in Christ. Here, to obey in the Lord is to obey under the light and grace of that unity, which already belongs to both parents and children, and transfigures all natural relations to a more divine glory.

This is right.—Right, i.e., by fundamental laws of humanity, recognized in all races and all ages, declared and sanctioned in God’s commandments (Ephesians 6:2–3), which are at once both old and new in the Lord.