day no. 13,174: an under-utilized text on parent-child relationships

2 Corinthians 12:14b

…For children are not obligated to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.

Parents are obligated to save up for their children. 

If you are a parent, you are under the obligation to save up for your children, not spend your resources on yourself.

If you wanted to spend everything on yourself, you should not have sought to have children.

2 Corinthians 12:20

For I fear that perhaps when I come I will not find you to be what I want, and I may not be found by you to be what you want; there may be quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, slander, gossip, arrogance, and disorder.

This builds on the former point of proper behavior between parents and children in both directions.

Children are disciplined by parents that love them.

Only parents who HATE their children refuse to discipline them (Proverbs 13:24).

The reality for those parents is that they love themselves too much to endure the difficulty of disciplining their children.

They don’t want to spend their energy and tears to do what God has commanded them.

Children ought to respond to their parents’ commands with obedience and discipline with corrected attitude and actions.

The end point is this:

Selfish parents spend everything on themselves and refuse to pay the cost of loving their children.

Selfish children refuse to pay the cost of obeying their authorities and spend their time in rebellion.