Colossians 3:20

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:18-25 The epistles most taken up in displaying the glory of the Divine grace, and magnifying the Lord Jesus, are the most particular in pressing the duties of the Christian life. We must never separate the privileges and duties of the gospel. Submission is the duty of wives. But it is submission, not to a severe lord or stern tyrant, but to her own husband, who is engaged to affectionate duty. And husbands must love their wives with tender and faithful affection. Dutiful children are the most likely to prosper. And parents must be tender, as well as children obedient. Servants are to do their duty, and obey their masters' commands, in all things consistent with duty to God their heavenly Master. They must be both just and diligent; without selfish designs, or hypocrisy and disguise. Those who fear God, will be just and faithful when from under their master's eye, because they know they are under the eye of God. And do all with diligence, not idly and slothfully; cheerfully, not discontented at the providence of God which put them in that relation. And for servants' encouragement, let them know, that in serving their masters according to the command of Christ, they serve Christ, and he will give them a glorious reward at last. But, on the other hand, he who doeth wrong, shall receive for the wrong which he hath done. God will punish the unjust, as well as reward the faithful servant; and the same if masters wrong their servants. For the righteous Judge of the earth will deal justly between master and servant. Both will stand upon a level at his tribunal. How happy would true religion make the world, if it every where prevailed, influenced every state of things, and every relation of life! But the profession of those persons who are regardless of duties, and give just cause for complaint to those they are connected with, deceives themselves, as well as brings reproach on the gospel.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Children, obey your parents ... - Notes, Ephesians 6:1-4.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

20. (Eph 6:1.)

unto the Lord—The oldest manuscripts read, "IN the Lord," that is, this is acceptable to God when it is done in the Lord, namely, from the principle of faith,and as disciples in union with the Lord.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

By children he understands both males and females.

Obey your parents; he requires them to yield humble subjection to those that brought them forth, or have just authority over them; see Exodus 20:12 Ephesians 6:1; paying reverence to them, Leviticus 19:3 Hebrews 12:9; observing their holy and prudent prescriptions, Luke 2:51; showing piety and kindness to them in all grateful offices, 1 Timothy 5:4, and submitting to their parental discipline, Jeremiah 35:6 Hebrews 12:9.

In all things; in whatsoever is agreeable to the mind of the supreme Governor, who is absolute Sovereign, Acts 4:19 5:29.

For this is well pleasing unto the Lord; and this upon the most cogent reason imaginable, because it is not barely pleasing, but

well pleasing, or very acceptable, to the Lord, who arms parents with authority over their children, Ephesians 6:1-3.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Children, obey your parents,.... Both father and mother; See Gill on Ephesians 6:1.

in all things; not in things sinful, which are contrary to the law of God, and Gospel of Christ; in things repugnant to the duties of religion, the ordinances of the Gospel, and the doctrines of Christ, parents are to be neglected and disobeyed. God is to be regarded, and not men; but in all things good and lawful, and in all things that are of an indifferent nature, which may, or may not be done, in these things the will of earthly parents is to be attended to; of which there is a considerable instance in the Rechabites, see Jeremiah 35:6 and even they are to be obeyed in things that are hard and difficult to be complied with, and which are disagreeable to flesh and blood, as the cases of Isaac and Jephthah's daughter show.

For this is well pleasing unto the Lord; and is a reason sufficient to engage to the performance of the duty; for whatever is grateful and well pleasing to God ought to be done with pleasure by us, from a principle of love to him, by faith in him, and with a view to his glory; and then such an action is acceptable in his sight through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Alexandrian copy reads, "in the Lord"; and so the Vulgate Latin version.

Geneva Study Bible

{12} Children, obey your parents in {o} all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord.

(12) He requires of children, that according to God's commandment they are obedient to their parents.

(o) In the Lord; and so it is expounded in Eph 6:1.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

Colossians 3:20 f. Comp. Ephesians 6:1-4, where likewise is given a characteristic development in fuller detail of what is here only succinctly stated.

κατὰ πάντα] not to be restricted; for Paul is quoting the rule, that which holds good principaliter in the relation of children, while possible exceptional cases obviously come under the principle of obeying God rather than man (Oecumenius: δίχα τῶν εἰς ἀσέβειαν φερόντων). Comp. Ephesians 5:24.

εὐάρεστόν ἐστιν ἐν κυρίῳ] In connection with this reading (see the critical remarks), to supply τῷ Θεῷ to εὐάρ. is arbitrary (in opposition to de Wette and Baumgarten-Crusius), since this is not suggested by the context as in Romans 12:1-2; nor is ἐ̓ν κυρίῳ to be taken as instead of the dative (Flatt, Bähr, Bleek), or in the sense: coram Domino (Böhmer), but rather as in Colossians 3:18. We have to leave εὐάρ. without any other more precise definition than what is contained in ἐν κυρ., so that it is affirmed of childlike obedience, that it is well-pleasing, and that indeed not in a worldly fashion apart from Christ, οὐκ ἀπὸ τῆς φύσεως μόνης (Chrysostom), but in a definite Christian character; consequently the Christian ethical beauty, in which the δίκαιον (Ephesians 6:1) of that virtue manifests itself. Comp. προσφιλῆ in Php 4:8. It would be a perfectly groundless violence to couple, with Hofmann, ἐν κυρίῳ with ὑπακούετε τ. γ. κ. π., notwithstanding the clause which is introduced by γάρ.

Colossians 3:21. οἱ πατέρες] they, and not the mothers, are addressed as holding the government of the household, also in reference to education. Comp. on Ephesians 6:4.

ἐρεθίζετε] irritate, very frequent in the classics and LXX., especially in connection with anger, as here (comp. Ephesians 6:4). This irritation takes place through unjust or over-severe (ἐστὶν ὅπου καὶ συγχωρεῖν ὀφείλετε, Chrysostom) treatment, which the child, provoked thereby to anger, must bear without being able to get satisfaction for its injured sense of justice; whereby it becomes liable to a spiritless and sullen, and therefore immoral, resignation, a despair paralysing all moral power of will; hence ἵνα μὴ ἀθυμῶσιν. This verb is only found here in the N. T., but frequently in LXX., also Jdt 7:22; 1Ma 4:27; and in classic writers from the time of Thucydides (v. 91. 1, vii. 21, al.). Its opposite is θαῤῥεῖν. Bengel aptly says: “fractus animus pestis juventutis.”

Expositor's Greek Testament

Colossians 3:20. κατὰ πάντα is omitted in Ephesians 6:1.

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

20. Children] Cp. Ephesians 6:1-3.

obey] The same word as that below, Colossians 3:22. The wife “submits herself” as to a guiding friend; the child, and the servant, recognize in parent and master a lawful commander.

Disobedience to parents, as a definite act of rebellion against God (Exodus 20:12; Exodus 21:17; Leviticus 19:3; Leviticus 20:9; Deuteronomy 5:16), is always noted in Scripture as a grave crime, and a symptom of general moral mischief. Cp. Deuteronomy 21:18-21; Proverbs 20:20; Proverbs 30:17; Matthew 15:4-6; Romans 1:30; 2 Timothy 3:2.—It is in the school of the well-ordered Christian home that the true idea of the Christian’s position, filial in its freedom, yet (1 Corinthians 9:21) “law-abiding unto Christ,” should be first illustrated as well as taught.

parents] Mothers as well as fathers. Scripture uniformly upholds the authority of the mother. See reff. in last note, and Proverbs 1:8; Proverbs 6:20.

in all things] with the sole limitation of the supreme claims of the Heavenly Father, which may conceivably collide with those of the earthly parents. Cp. Matthew 10:37. But let the child be slow indeed to apply this principle in practice. The case can scarcely arise save where the parent directly and positively requires the child to renounce the Lord.

well pleasing unto the Lord] Jesus Christ. Quesnel beautifully says, “Why does He seem here specially to delight in filial obedience? Because it was His own universal virtue, the soul and law of all His actions.”

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 20. - To children, be obedient to your parents in all things; for this is well pleasing in the Lord (Ephesians 6:1, 2; Exodus 20:12; Deuteronomy 5:16; Leviticus 19:3; Proverbs 23:22; Luke 2:51, 52). In Ephesians 6:1, 2 "in all things" (κατὰ πάντα, "in regard to all things") is wanting; and not the extent, but the intrinsic rightness of the command as it is found in the Decalogue is insisted on. But here, where "Christ is all and in all" (ver. 11), it is "in the Lord" (Revised Text) that the child's obedience is declared to be "well pleasing." There is something especially pleasing in the behaviour of a lovingly obedient child, that wins "favour" both "with God and man" (Luke 2:52). The law of filial obedience has its creative ground "in him" (Colossians 1:16), and is an essential part of the Christian order of life, which is the natural order restored and perfected. "Well pleasing" is a favourite word of St. Paul's (comp. Colossians 1:10; Ephesians 5:10; Philippians 4:8; Romans 14:18; Titus 2:9, etc.; used also in Hebrews). Colossians 3:20

Vincent's Word Studies

This is well pleasing

Expanded in Ephesians 6:2, Ephesians 6:3. Unto the Lord should be in the Lord.