Righteous servitude: Why parents are bondservants to their children

Many parents in America view parenting as a "God"-like experience. Modern-day parenting vests a lot of power to parents. Most American parents think that their children serve them. The fact of the matter is that righteous servitude is where parents are servants to child. In biblical times, parents were seen as bondservants, toiling and working for their children, awaiting that lump sum which is the independence of their child.

Righteous servitude is the parents' role in the Christian doctrine of mutual submission. See Colossians 3:20-21 KJV:

Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

The Greek root word translated "obey" is υπακουο (Latin: hupakouo) and refers to the secure, vulnerable rest in the love and submission of parents. Children are to rest securely in the sacrifice of parents, just as parent believers rest securely in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul to lift up the customary law that commands a secure attachment between parents and children in the family home. This secure attachment comes from parent submission, where parents are to submit to children as their enemy, from beneath yet from above, expecting absolutely nothing in return.

The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger" is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers to damages or offenses, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by a child, including, but not limited to, the slightest of offensive touch or speech perceived by a child, stemming from entitlement. This commandment was intended by the Apostle Paul, and understood in its original context, as a moral statute prohibiting all forms of punitive parenting, including, but not limited to, any punishments, reprimands, or controlling demeanor towards children. In the Old Testament, punitive parents were put to death, after punishing their children one last time. Parents who punished their child were charged with kidnapping, with "kidnapping" being defined under the Law as the slightest of damages or offenses stemming from hostage-taking - child punishment was seen in biblical times as holding your child hostage merely for things that they did wrong, thereby treating them as a quartered slave. Paul here was lifting up the Law in order to convict a group of Greek Christian parents who brought their pagan custom of spanking and punishing children into the church. Paul, contrary to popular legend, was anti-spanking, and opposed any and all punishment of a child. The Early Christians shunned the Roman form of domestic corporal punishment known as the scourge of cords - the scourge of cords was used by the Greco-Romans, but not by the Christians among them.

Righteous servitude denotes the true place of parents in relation to their children. Parents were seen merely as bondservants, toiling and working for their children's every vulnerable need, hoping for a lump sum, which is when children are as independent as possible. Parents are to submit to their children fearfully and dutifully, putting children first, and themselves last.

Children were seen in biblical times as the salt and light of the world, sitting high atop a mounted hill, casting high judgment upon adult-kind, discerning the sheep and the goats in terms of how charitable parents and other adults were to children, with children bringing out the best and the worst of adults just by being themselves. Parents owe servitude to children, and while the children live in the family home, parents are under the divine authority of children. 

Children issued lawfully binding orders for parents to follow. During the early years of a child's life - before attaining the age of 6 - children's cries were seen as lawfully binding summonses for nourishment and sustenance from mothers. The Early Christians practiced birth nudity, where mother and child are in the nude next to each other in the family home, in skin-on-skin closeness and intimacy. Older children - aged 6 or older - were very willful, but in a way that shook off the constant closeness of mothers. Come nightfall, children co-slept next to mother in skin-on-skin format, with children shaking off even nightly closeness come puberty. 

The depraved and entitled parents who provoke their children to anger through punitive parenting will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them forever be cast into the lake of fire and burning sulfur, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Let them descend into the abyss which is the Hell of fire and torment, suffering God's Wrath forever and ever! Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!