Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.
The Greek root word translated "provoke...to anger: is ερεθιζο (Latin: erethizo) and refers here to offenses or damages, namely the slightest of personal offense perceived by a child, stemming from entitlement, with this entitlement including any parent anger directed towards a child. Threatening children with Santa bringing coal hurts a child's feelings, and thus if you have said this to your child, you as a parent should instead say "I talked to Santa, and he doesn't ever bring coal. I was wrong.", lest the upset in a child officially become an offense. This commandment cross-references the Eighth and the Tenth Commandment, with the Apostle Paul here convicting a group of Greek Christian parents who insisted on the pagan custom of parenting, which was punitive in nature. Paul, contrary to popular legend, opposed any and all punitive parenting in his secular writings. Attachment parenting was banned under Roman law, but the Early Christians did it anyway, obeying God over men.
Any time you threaten a child like that, you hurt their feelings, and when you defend these parenting tactics, it officially becomes an offense. It usually causes children to worry if they will get presents. Christmas should be a time of giving, not a time to try and control a child's behaviors with even feigned threats of Santa leaving a bucket of coal.
A gift is something given without strings attached. True love for your child is giving without receiving. You give gifts to your child, and expect absolutely nothing in return. This form of Christian love, spread all around on Christmas day, is denoted by the Greek root word αγαπαο (Latin: agapao) and refers to giving to children without expecting anything in return. That means don't expect children to behave in order to get presents come Christian morning.
Christmas was a solemn holiday in the Early Church. There was no Santa Claus then. Instead, parents gave their children presents at a gift exchange. There is never a recorded case of parents even threatening to not give children presents. Christmas happened only for a day, and did not have the commercialism that exists in American Christmas. Christ was the center of Christmas, not the gifts given to children. The gifts were symbolic of the Christ child receiving gifts from the three kings/
The depraved and entitled parents who threaten children with gifts will not inherit the Kingdom of God! Let them descend into the Hell of fire and torment, which is the second death prepared for Satan and his accomplices! Repent!
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