Theological term
Admonition
3 sermons · All terms
Ask FGBC #64: Who Should Catechize Your Children?
Deuteronomy 6 and Ephesians 6:4 establish the family — and the father in particular — as the primary locus of catechetical responsibility for children, not the church, the school, or civil government. The church's role is complementary: it equips parents, and through preaching, catechism classes, and Sunday school it instructs children alongside the home. Rote memorization of a catechism plants doctrinal truth that takes deep root at conversion, making faithful repetition a discipline as foundational as teaching a child to read or to do arithmetic.
The Christian Father
Colossians 3:21 delivers a single, pointed command to fathers: do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. This sermon exposits that verse within the broader household code of Colossians 3:18–4:1, arguing that redemption in Christ does not dissolve familial distinctions but rather furnishes the spiritual capacity to fulfill them rightly. Drawing on positive examples from Abraham and Joshua and the negative example of Eli, the sermon identifies specific forms of provocation — unrighteous anger, unbiblical discipline, favoritism, inconsistency, and gospel-less child-rearing — before turning to the positive exhortation of Ephesians 6:4. The sermon closes with five concrete duties of the Christian father: presence, provision, protection, prayer, and preaching sound doctrine in the home.
A Word for Fathers
Ephesians 6:1–4 addresses fathers and the entire domestic order within which fatherhood functions — husbands as servant-leaders of their wives, wives submitting and rendering respect, and children obeying and honoring their parents. The sermon argues that God invests fathers with real, God-given authority, and that this authority carries commensurate responsibility: to lead sacrificially, to disciple, to nourish, and to discipline without provoking to wrath. Throughout, the gospel grounds the whole: no husband, wife, or child meets these standards perfectly, and the righteousness required is found only in Christ's active and passive obedience imputed to the believer by faith.