Paul, contrary to the prevailing culture, calls parent and child into a space of mutuality in the Lord. The parent is not singularly over the child. The child is considered too. Parent and child come together under the one Lord in a mutuality between them that honors their respective roles. This text falls under the opening text of the Household Codes (Eph 5:20–6:9), where Paul says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Eph 5:21 NIV). And so the apostle is describing a revolutionary relationship of presence between adult and child under the Lord’s reign.8
