Lange Commentary - Colossians 3:20 - 3:21

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Lange Commentary - Colossians 3:20 - 3:21


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

b) To children and parents

(Col_3:20-21)

20Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto [in] the Lord. 21Fathers, provoke not your children to anger [omit to anger], lest they be discouraged [disheartened].

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Col_3:20. Children, obey your parents in all things.—See Eph_6:1. “In all things,” êáôὰ ðÜíôá , here definitely expresses what is indicated in the parallel passage by the phrase, “in the Lord:” it is not to be limited (Oeoumenius). It sets forth the principle, the rule, exceptions being left out of view (Meyer). [Eadie suggests, that as the reference is to Christian parents, who were to govern in a Christian spirit, the Apostle takes heed of an exception. On the exceptions see Bish. Taylor, Duct. Dub. III. 5. Ellicott remarks that ὑðáêïýåéí includes not merely submission to authority, but obedience to a command. Titt. Syn. I. p. 193.—R.]

For this is well-pleasing in the Lord.—(Eph_6:1, “right”.) Hence the reference here is to judgment and complacency, there to precept and authority. “In the Lord,” before Him, as He looks at the matter. We need not supply ôῷ èåῷ (Rom_12:2) in thought (De Wette), nor take ἐí êõñßῳ as the Christian qualification (Meyer) [Alford]; the former is not warranted by the context, the latter is contrary to usage and indistinct in itself. [Ellicott is more exact: the preposition defines the sphere in which the ôὸ åὐÜñåóôïí was especially felt and evinced to be so.—R.]

Col_3:21. Fathers, provoke not your children.—(See Eph_6:4 : ðáñïñãßæåôå ). The verb is used, 2Co_9:2, in a good sense, here in a bad sense; what is forbidden occurs’ through severe, unjust, capricious treatment. [We might render: “do not irritate your children.”—R.] The motive for the warning is found in the result, which is marked as fixed and certain: lest they be disheartened.—Bengel: “A broken spirit, the bane of youth." There is a lack of affection and confidence, pleasure and power for good and against evil.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

Comp. on Eph_4:1-4.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Starke: Disobedient children offend not only their parents, but God Himself; therefore they have no prosperity.—Children are not given for the service of parents, but parents are ordained for the benefit of children.—Actual chastisement should never be resorted to, until the child has been convinced of its guilt and well merited punishment, and God been earnestly implored to bless the infliction. The additional advantage thus gained is that meanwhile one’s rising passion can be allayed and the punishment inflicted with proper moderation. The child, too, is thereby shown that the chastisement springs from love, and is more of an advantage than a punishment.—In the discipline of children, ignorance, weakness, hastiness, thoughtlessness and childish character must be distinguished from wanton wickedness.

Rieger :—Our heavenly Father, the Father of our spirits, Himself carefully guards against our becoming disheartened under His chastisement, and nothing rejoices Him more than that we “cast not away our confidence;” and so also in the relations of parents and children, much depends upon our not being rendered morose by the faults, but taking courage in final triumph.

Passavant :—In this obedience of children from the very cradle lies the foundation and beginning of all good discipline, of all welfare and blessing, external and internal, in the heart, in the family, in the state, in all phases and circles of social life.—Has many a yoke of early years been borne in the patience of faith, with what a peaceful gaze does one look back! Those who have grown old should again take it upon them, and as children kneel before their parents.

Heubner :—Christian nurture dare not intimidate, but should promote a noble frankness and openness.

[Burkitt:—God takes a mighty pleasure in the performance of relative duties; they are not only pleasing, but well-pleasing to Him; we are no more really than what we are relatively in the account of God; that which we call the power of godliness, consists in a conscientious performance of relative duties.—R.]

[Henry:

Col_3:21. Let not your authority over them be exercised with rigor and severity, but with kindness and gentleness; lest you raise their passions and discourage them in their duty, and by holding the reins too strait, make them fly out with the greater fierceness. It is by the tenderness of parents, and dutifulness of children, that God ordinarily furnishes His Church with a seed to serve Him, and propagates religion from age to age.—R.]

[Eadie :—The child should feel that the punishment is not the result of fretful anger.—Children teased and irritated lose heart, renounce every endeavor to please, or render at best but a soulless obedience.—The twig is to be bent with caution, not broken in the efforts of a rude and hasty zeal.—Schenkel:—The evil effects of too severe a training of children. 1) In what they consist. 2) Whence they arise.—R.]

Footnotes:

Col_3:20.—[“The reading of Rec., ôῷ Êõñßῳ , has not the support of any uncial MS., and is rejected by all modern editors” (Ellicott). Tischendorf (eds. 2 and 7) reads ἐóôéí åὐÜñåóôïí , but the order of à . A. B. C. D. E. is åὐÜñåóôüíÝóôéí , followed by Lachmann, Meyer, Alford, Ellicott.—R.]

Col_3:21.—Instead of ἐñåèßæåôå (B. and others,) à . A. and others have ðáñïñãßæåôå , undoubtedly taken from Eph_6:4. [Lachmann and Scholz adopt the latter reading. The E. V. inserts “to anger”—now unnecessary, since “provoke” implies this in modern usage.—R.]

Col_3:21.—[ Ἀèõìῶóéí , “disheartened,” Eadie, Alford, Ellicott. Older versions render: “made feeble-hearted,” “of a desperate mind.”—R.]