Ephesians 6:1-3

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

(v1, NIV)

This flows naturally from what Paul has been talking about. Husbands and wives will probably had children. The children are to obey their parents in the Lord. What does it mean to obey your parents in the Lord? Does it mean to obey your parents if they are in the Lord? If so, what does "in the Lord" mean? Or maybe it means obey their instructions that are in the Lord? Or maybe it means that in your actions as a child, your obeying must be in the Lord. I think many people will be quick to object to this statement with a number of different exceptions. They may quickly question whether they should obey their parents if their parents are not godly. They may think of some outrageous scenario where their parents instruct them to do something weird like to walk into the middle of traffic. First of all, God must be first in our lives. This means that God trumps our parents. So, if an instruction from our parents calls us to be in opposition to God, we as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ should not follow their instruction. However, this isn't a free ticket to go searching for loopholes in the bible so we can find new ways to disobey our parents; that's not the point.

And he said to them: "You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.' But you say that if a man says to his father or mother: 'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is Corban' (that is, a gift devoted to God), then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that."

(Mark 7:9-13, NIV)

The Pharisees were guilty of this underhanded behavior. They found their own loophole in order to avoid honoring their parents. In addition, this method made them look good, allowing them to boast even more in their works. God sees your heart and he knows your deeds. You may be able to fool men, but you can't fool God. Seek to obey your parents, and seek to find out what it really means to obey your parents in the Lord.

This whole obeying of parents also flows naturally in the passage because of the whole submission thing. Jesus submits to the will of the father and gives himself up for his bride, the church. The church submits Christ, who is the head of the body. In the same way, wives are to submit to their husbands. However, each and every follower of the Lord Jesus Christ submits to the Lord. Children must submit to their parents. If you do not submit to your own authorities, how do you expect others to submit to you? So, if you do not submit to your parents, how do you expect your own children to submit to you?

"Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth."

(v2-3, NIV)

Here in verse 2, Paul references Exodus 2:12. This is part of the 10 commandments given to Moses and the Israelites. Paul points out that this is the first commandment with a promise. The other commandments are simply without any sort of promise attached to them. Maybe this is even more incentive for us to honor our parents. However, I should hope that it is not your sole and main driving force for why you honor your parents.