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Much of the Bible contains thou shalts and thou shalt nots, but it is nice to come across some with definite promises attached. It should be understood, however, that doing right is always met in the Bible with blessings from God while doing wrong results in a curse. These “curses,” in context, refer to a loss of the blessings which would have been gained by obedience. The false impression that some have is that God is waiting with a baseball bat ready to pound anyone that does wrong. This is not true, and it is a false concept of God. It does not negate the ultimate end of a man that rejects Christ in the lake of fire, but it does do away with God as One ever looking for opportunities to arbitrarily punish unbelievers.

The promise in the verse before us today is that if parents do the right thing while their children are young and raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; that when those children grow to be adults, they will not forsake those precepts.

Our society has become corrupted to the extent that today parents believe that “religion” is something that they do not want to push upon their children until they are old enough to “decide for themselves,” but they send them to public schools where they are exposed to socialist and communist teachers that are busy indoctrinating them to the point where they are now choosing to reject the gender they were born with and taking on the perverted view that they something other than their chromosomes and plumbing dictate.

Timothy had been taught the Scriptures from a child: “And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works” (II Timothy 3:15-17 KJV).

As a result, the saving faith that had dwelt in his mother and grandmother was in him also: “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also” (II Timothy 1:5 KJV).

His early training and consistent practices in the home led to him becoming a strong force for God as an adult: “Then came he to Derbe and Lystra: and, behold, a certain disciple was there, named Timotheus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed; but his father was a Greek: Which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium” (Acts 16:1-2 KJV).

In order to raise a man for God, He instructs us to lovingly use the tools that He has provided.

“Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him” (Proverbs 22:15 KJV).

“Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell” (Proverbs 23:13-14 KJV).

“Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul” (Proverbs 29:17 KJV).