Charles Ellicott Commentary Ephesians 6:4

"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord." — Ephesians 6:4 (ASV)

Provoke not your children to wrath.—The word is the same as in Ephesians 4:26. It denotes the exasperation produced by arbitrary and unsympathetic rule.

Nurture and admonition of the Lord.—In this phrase we have the two elements of education. “Nurture” is a word generally signifying “the treatment due to a child,” but by usage applied to practical training, or teaching by discipline; while “admonition” is the “putting children in mind” through verbal instruction.

It may be noted that, in accordance with the characteristic sternness of ancient education, both words have a tinge of severity in them. The “nurture” of this passage is the same as the “chastening” of the famous passage in Hebrews 12:4-11. (Compare the cognate verb in Luke 23:16; 1 Corinthians 11:32; 2 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:20; Revelation 3:19.) The “admonition” is used in Titus 3:10 for rebuke, and, inasmuch as it implies warning, is distinguished from teaching in Colossians 3:16.

In this, as in other cases, Christianity gradually softened this stern authority of the father—so strikingly exemplified in the old Roman law—by the idea suggested in the addition of the phrase “of the Lord.” The children belong not only to the parent but also to Christ, taken into His arms in baptism, and sealed as His little ones. Hence the “reverence,” which Juvenal advocated in theory as due to children’s natural purity, became realized in Christian practice, and gradually transformed all Christian education to greater gentleness, forbearance, and love.