Children have it pretty easy in terms of their biblical responsibilities. Their roles are few: God expects kids to obey and honor their parents and to learn. That’s about it.

It’s unfortunate that in our world, children often do none of these, or at least they do none of them well. They don’t obey and honor their parents, and they often are reluctant to learn. Sometimes the parents don’t require that their kids obey them. Sometimes the schools don’t do a very good job of teaching or insisting that children learn. Many children in our world today are failing to fulfill God’s basic expectations for them—obey and honor their parents and learn.

Sometimes children grow up in an environment where parents are dishonorable people. I am familiar with situations and I’ve heard stories about parents who live dishonorably, and the children merely reflect what they see at home. Children are unruly, disrespectful, and uneducated because that’s what they learn at home. Their parents are dishonorable people, and the children reflect that.

Obviously, Christian homes should be different. We might expect that sort of thing from the unsaved world, but we don’t expect it from children being brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. We should have higher expectations for those brought up in a Christian home. No child is going to be perfect, and no family is perfect, that’s for sure. But we should expect children raised in Christian homes to fulfill their basic roles. Parents should insist that children fulfill these roles.

Let’s look at these three responsibilities a bit more closely.