Title: The Christological Identity of the Family
tribute
The Old Testament is not only a series of reports about God's act of creation, the event that saved the nation of Israel from Egypt, the conquest of Canaan, and other events that God saved the nation of Israel, but it is also a story about the daily lives of the people of Israel. do. These are guidelines on what to do when a cattle of a certain family enters another person's field and causes damage, or when a poor man's clothes are taken as collateral, or rules about what can be eaten and what cannot be eaten. The reason the Old Testament defines and explains people's lives in this way is because their faith in Yahweh is embodied in their actual lives. The same is true of the New Testament. The New Testament is primarily an account of the gospel of Jesus Christ, but it also contains specific guidelines for the Christian life. This is because Christians in New Testament times, like other ordinary people, had to live their daily lives, such as eating, getting married, and raising children. The guidance on the family centered on parents and children that this text deals with is one of them.
child's obedience
Today's text, which speaks of parents and children, like the other two lessons, teaches first of all to the child of a lower rank. “Those who are children, obey their parents. This is what we ought to do as believers in the Lord.” Then he quotes the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament, “Honor your father and mother.” According to the Ten Commandments, honoring one's parents is the way to happiness and a long life. Early Christians accepted the Old Testament almost exactly as the Jews thought it was the holy word. Accordingly, the writer of Ephesus quoted the fifth commandment of the Ten Commandments, which can be said to be a summary of the Law.
No religion, social ethic, or tradition in this world neglects the relationship between parents and children. The Korean tradition also made ‘loyalty’ as the most important ideology. It means that they considered loyalty to the country and filial piety to one's parents as absolute values. One of them is the Ten Commandments of Judaism, and according to the Ephesian writer, honoring one's parents is the first commandment with a promise. This means that respect for parents is just as important.
What is the meaning of honoring parents in the Ten Commandments? Because we overgeneralize these teachings, we often miss the fundamental meaning. In the Jewish tradition, respect for the nanny is very specific. According to their literature: “What is the duty of a child to his father? Giving father food and drink, giving clothes and covering, raising and raising the father, and washing the father's face, hands, and feet. It must be like a son or a daughter.” (Tos, Qid 1:11) This is what parents gave their children when they were young. This means that respect for parents is responsible for each other's survival. Feeding, dressing, and raising newly born children or feeding, dressing, and moving the exhausted parents are the minimum conditions for a family or society to survive.
In the ancient days of Korea, it seems that there was a custom of burying the elderly who have not yet died in their graves. It is said that even today, some nomads in Mongolia have such a tradition. It is said that they leave the elderly who have a hard time living together as a nomadic person in a certain place and come back a few months later to bury them if they die, and give them food again if they live. It may seem strange to our eyes, but they just kept that tradition because they couldn't survive without it that way.
Nowadays, even in Korea, it seems that many nursing homes and nursing home facilities are being built for the elderly who cannot survive on their own. The elderly who are financially able to afford it themselves are responsible for it, and the elderly who are incapable are borne by their children. For those who cannot do this or that, the state should be held responsible, but the economic situation of our country does not seem to reach that level. If the old people saw sending the elderly to a nursing home like this, they would probably think it was the last days. It is not possible to definitively answer whether the nursing home system is right from the child's point of view or whether it is right for them to live together and take care of the rest. Even now, humanity is only looking for alternatives that will most effectively enrich the lives of all. This means that the answer to the question of how to practice respect for parents in detail must be found in the place in our lives today.
The writer of Ephesus accepts the Jewish tradition of honoring parents as it is, but does not stop at it and gives a Christian interpretation. He teaches parents to “obey” their parents “in the Lord” (en quirio). According to the Ephesian writer, Jewish parental honor is now transformed into the characteristics of ‘in the Lord’ and ‘obedience’. I don't think we should take it too seriously about the difference between respect and obedience. Because the concept of ‘obedience’ as used by the Ephesian writer is not just a parent-child relationship, but is the most basic of the other two relationships: between husband and wife and between master and slave. A wife must obey her husband, and servants must obey their master. He would see that obedience is the cornerstone of all human relationships that make up the family.
However, this obedience does not only have a vertical meaning. A wife must obey her husband as she obeys the Lord, and servants must obey their masters as they obey Christ. Therefore, children too must obey their “en curio” parents. The writer of Ephesus presented the attitude that children should have toward their parents, not only in the Greek philosophical dimension of humanism or in the Jewish law, but in a completely new dimension of Christology. Children are to obey their parents in the Lord, or as following the Lord. The specific meaning of this word should be considered in conjunction with the following teachings of the Ephesian writer to parents.
parental responsibility
The Ephesian writer also holds the parents accountable. His teachings are two-fold: passive and active. To be passive is not to “bruise the hearts of the children.” The Bible is translated not to provoke children. The writer of Ephesus knew exactly what mistakes parents are prone to make. Because children are almost defenseless in front of their parents when they are young, they can be influenced by their parents for good, but in some cases they can also be psychologically hurt. Injuries by parents are usually caused by verbal or physical violence, but in some cases they are often caused by excessive parental attachment.
In my personal opinion, it is almost impossible for parents to raise their children without hurting them. Because parents don't know how to raise their children. This means that we lack the ability to judge the best standards for our children when they have a problem. Who can decide with certainty whether to pass by without ignorance, whether to speak well or to sting to tears, or whether to pick up the rod? Of course, some may think that we can make such a judgment if we truly love our children, but we must admit that love itself is subjective and does not manifest itself as a true power of life. As the Ephesians advises today, it seems that we first need a passive attitude not to hurt the hearts of our children.
Just being passive like this does not mean that you have done your job as a parent. The Bible writer now refers to the active part. The Joint Translation translates it as “Educate, admonish, and nurture in the spirit of the Lord.” The King James Version translated “nurture in the teaching and admonition of the Lord alone.” Luther said, “Nurture in the teaching and admonition of the Lord.” .” was translated. The closest translation to the original Greek is the Revised Version. Parents are to raise their children in the Lord's precepts (paideia) and admonitions (nutesia). Paideia means discipline, training, and Nutesia means instruction, warning. is in 'State'. Raise your children with the teachings of the Lord. This is the positive attitude parents should have toward their children.
I believe that the Ephesian writer accurately diagnosed human limitations. What we can do is not to break the hearts of our children. Because, as mentioned earlier, we do not have the capacity to judge what is best for our children. This does not mean, however, that Christian parents remain so passive. Our activeness is possible only in the presence of the Lord. We can actively reach out to our children only on the basis of the Lord's teachings.
Specifically, this means: It is important for us to know what the precepts and admonitions of the Lord are before we even think about teaching our children. Because the Lord's teachings and admonitions are in contact with a much more fundamental world of life that we have not thought of. For example, today's text teaches us to obey our parents by quoting the ten commandments of honoring our parents, but Jesus said that we must abandon our families. The Lord said that enemies are also members of his family. The teachings of Jesus often radically deconstruct our general ethics and norms. This does not mean that Jesus is denying respect for parents. Jesus laid the foundation of human life not on the family hierarchy or friendship, but on the kingdom of God. It means that human beings can only achieve true peace and freedom through this relationship with God.
The identity of the Christian family today is in a very confusing state. Some Christian families have been Christians only for a reason, but in reality they are driven entirely by worldly values. Regardless of their beliefs, their highest goal is to succeed in this world. Others are immersed in some sort of religious zealot. They lose the reality of real life because they tie all the meaning of life to going to church. These two extremes are distinct from each other and sometimes mixed, but both are equally uninterested in the teaching and admonition of Jesus Christ. In today's Christian home, parents and children, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, must center the teachings of Jesus Christ, his events, and his destiny. Only then can the identity of the Christian family be secured.