And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4
Some of the most touching scenes in the Gospels are those of the Lord Jesus with children. On one occasion, He rebuked his disciples for preventing mothers from bringing their little ones to Him, and called them unto Him (Luke 18:16). Mark’s account of that incident records His displeasure with the disciples, and also relates how He took those children up in His arms and blessed them (Mark 10:14-16). Earlier in that same Gospel, we read of Jesus taking a child in His arms to teach His disciples a lesson in humility (Mark 9:36). Is it any wonder that we sing ‘Jesus loves the little children’? Consider how tenderly He held them and addressed them. He sets a high standard for the fathers who are addressed in today’s text.
The expression ‘nurture and admonition of the Lord’ is familiar to us all, but do we know what it means? The Greek word for nurture refers to instruction and teaching, and the word for admonition refers to correction and discipline. And the term ‘of the Lord’ is included to make sure that fathers know that their children are to be instructed and taught, and disciplined, with the same loving tenderness that the Lord Jesus displayed. Am I saying that parents should never spank their children? Of course not, and neither does the Bible. But the Scriptures do make it plain that no child is ever to be struck in anger, and no correction should ever cause physical harm to a child. Otherwise, it is not correction, but criminal assault. And such behaviour will do little more than provoke the children to wrath.
Children who grow up knowing how much the Lord Jesus loves them, as displayed by the loving nurture and admonition of their father, will be just as blessed as those children so long ago that Jesus took up in His arms and blessed. – Jim MacIntosh
Here is the link to the video of this message: https://youtu.be/J_Zzef1B9ck