Obey Your Parents in the Lord

The Next Generation

(Ephesians 6:1)

In order for children to grow up as believers, they must first be protected from the corruption of the world. Since the sinful nature we are born with brings about sin whenever the opportunity arises, it is dangerous for parents to neglect their children with the thought, “They’ll believe when they grow up.”

1. A Channel of Blessing
For Christians, having children is fundamentally different from the way unbelievers approach it. In God’s eyes, it is not just the birth of life but the securing of a channel of blessing. Through families where parents receive God’s blessing and pass it on to their children, God is carrying out His plan to overcome what Satan has destroyed and to restore His united kingdom in Christ.

2. A Target of Attack
Satan works systematically through the systems of the world to destroy families. Secular values, human-centered philosophies, and socialist ideologies rooted in atheism—all work to weaken family bonds, dismantle parent-child relationships, and lure children away from God’s influence by offering freedom as bait. Like a frog in a pot gradually cooks as it adapts to the increasingly hot water, today’s families are collapsing little by little—without even realizing it.

3. God’s Plan
God said to Abraham, “Through you and your descendants, all families of the earth shall be blessed.” When Israel was established, He said, “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests. Every household was to take up the role of a priest.” To fulfill this mission from generation to generation, the Israelites diligently taught the Word to their children—whether at home or on the street, when lying down or getting up. This effort must continue even today. The younger the children are, the more quickly they absorb the culture of the world. Let us not surrender them to it. By teaching and training them in the Word from an early age, let God’s plan continue through us.

Overseer Sung-Hyun Kim