It can be difficult to know what we can learn from Ephesians 6:4. ‘Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord’ (NLT). For those of us who aren’t parents, we might think it’s a verse we can skip over because it doesn’t apply to us. But when we look deeper, it can actually teach us a lot about God’s character. On the surface it’s giving advice to fathers. And our best example and best role model for a father is God. In Greek, the word translated as ‘discipline’ is paideia. Other ways to translate it are training, instruction, correction and nurture. It encompasses just about everything needed to bring up a child, and everything we’ll experience from God when we choose to let Him be part of our lives. He nurtures us, gently guiding, loving, encouraging and protecting us. He instructs us on His plan for our lives and trains us to fulfil that plan. And He disciplines and corrects us when we need to be guided back onto His path. We can often think that discipline is a negative thing. But the Bible reminds us that ‘God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it’ (Hebrews 12:10-11 NIV). God disciplines us from a place of love, and of wanting us to be the best we can be, not from a place of revenge for disobeying His instructions. Ephesians 6:4 is a picture of a perfect father. And that’s what God is to us.
