In a play, all the actors and actresses have a role to play. The role could be leading or supporting and guides you in your direction, expectation, and responsibility in certain situations. If you are the “knight in shining armor”, you would be given direction to be bold, the expectation would be to do good, and the responsibility would be to “save the day”! If you were the “trusty guide”, you would be brave and do good as well but not “steal the show”. God has given us all direction, expectation, and responsibility in our roles as well.
For the Christian teen who is still in his or her parent’s house, the direction, expectations, and responsibilities come from verses like Ephesians 6:1-3: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land’ (ESV).
In regard to children (and wives), the father in the house is to have the role of leader but has expectations and responsibilities from God. In relation to the children, the father is commanded to behave in a certain way as in Ephesians 6:4: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (ESV). In relation to his wife, husbands are to love their wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for the church (Ephesians 5:25).
God gives us all roles whether we are a child, a teen in the parents house, a teen leaving the control of the parents, a worker for an employer, and employer, a newlywed wife or husband, or a new mother or father. We should respect such roles as God knows what is best for us.
Know this however: All are equal at the “foot of the cross”! Galatians 3:28 states this for the obedient Christian: ”There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (ESV). Christian roles are not to be demeaning or even elevating but the expectation of obedience toward God!
