Living in the Image of God M05S14
To conclude the bible study series on individual responsibilities in household interactions and relationships, we discuss interactions regarding child and househelp; to understand the responsibilities of parent to child, child to parent, househelp to master, and master to househelp; anchored on Paul’s letter to Ephesians. The key responsibilities of parent to child are to provide for the child’s basic needs and train the child to perform his or her responsibilities to others. A child’s responsibilities to parent are anchored on positive fear, which motivates the child to perform other responsibilities. We define househelp to represent a household member that is neither parent nor child and master as the head of household. The responsibilities of househelp to master and master to househelp are guided by the reciprocity of Living in the image of God.
This study concludes a series on individual responsibilities in household interactions and relationships. The series started with a discussion of the responsibilities of the head of household for spiritual commitments and prayer on behalf of the household; and continued with husband-wife interactions, based on understanding that household interactions and relationships constitute the core of the human interactions network that God establishes around every person. The series concludes with the current study, where we discuss household interactions and relationships regarding child and househelp.
The discussion is anchored on Paul’s letter to Ephesians, where he describes specific responsibilities of parent to child, child to parent, househelp to master, and master to househelp. In the study, we define househelp (referred to as slave in Paul’s letter) to represent a household member that is neither parent nor child; whereas master represents the head of household, usually the husband but at times delegated to his wife.
The responsibilities of parent to child consist of providing basic needs (food and drink, clothing, shelter, protection, and community values training) to bring up the child physically and training the child to perform his or her responsibilities to others. The responsibilities of a child in parent-child interactions are anchored on positive fear of parent, which motivates in the child respect, appreciation, obedience, love, and wholehearted service.
The responsibilities of househelp to master and master to househelp are guided by the individual responsibilities in positive human interactions (i.e., Living in the image of God). Similar to the principle for child, househelp responsibilities to master are anchored on positive fear, which motivates respect, appreciation, obedience, love, and wholehearted service. The responsibilities of master to househelp are based on caring for the househelp as God expects a person to care for another: that is, in the Image of God.
Continue reading “Household Interactions and Relationships—Child and Househelp”