Commentary - Proverbs 22:6

Bird's-eye view

Proverbs 22:6 is one of the most well known, and frequently misunderstood, verses in all the Bible concerning the task of child-rearing. It is often treated as a sentimental platitude or a general rule of thumb that, God willing, things will probably turn out alright if you try hard enough. But this is the Word of God, and it is far more potent than that. This verse is a robust, covenantal promise given to believing parents. It establishes the foundational principle of formative education: that the instruction and discipline given to a child in his youth sets a trajectory for his entire life. This is not a guarantee of automatic, mechanistic results, irrespective of the parents' faith and faithfulness. Rather, it is a promise that God honors the means He has appointed. When parents, by faith, embrace their covenantal duties to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, God promises to make that training stick. The early bending of the sapling determines the shape of the oak.

The central issue is whether we take God at His word. Is this a firm promise to be believed and acted upon, or is it a helpful hint to be considered? The entire biblical framework of child-rearing hangs on the answer. If it is a promise, then our task is to raise our children in faith, expecting God to be faithful to His word. If it is a mere proverb of observation, then we are left with anxious striving and uncertainty. This verse, understood in its covenantal context, is a rock for parents to stand on, a charter for Christian education, and a profound encouragement to fathers and mothers who are engaged in the long, arduous, and glorious task of raising children for the glory of God.

Outline

Context In Proverbs

This verse sits within a broader collection of Solomon's proverbs that emphasize the critical importance of wisdom, discipline, and the fear of the Lord as the basis for a well-ordered life. The surrounding verses deal with wealth and poverty, the consequences of slothfulness, and the necessity of removing the scorner from a community. Proverbs consistently links cause and effect; foolishness leads to ruin, and wisdom leads to life. Proverbs 22:6 applies this principle directly to the family and the task of education. It is not an isolated proof-text but part of a coherent worldview that sees the family as the central institution for transmitting wisdom from one generation to the next. The book of Proverbs is, in large part, a father's instruction to his son. This verse therefore functions as a foundational premise for the entire project: this instruction, when received and applied in youth, has permanent, lasting effects.

Key Issues

A Promise to Be Believed

We must begin by settling the question of what kind of statement this is. Many evangelicals, wanting to safeguard the sovereignty of God in salvation, reduce this verse to a "proverb of general guidance." They treat it as a sociological observation that, all things being equal, a good upbringing tends to produce a good outcome. But this strips the verse of its covenantal teeth. God is not giving us helpful hints for successful parenting; He is giving us a promise to be believed. The promises of God concerning our children are no less sure than His promises to answer our prayers (John 14:14). We do not see every prayer answered, because of our lack of faith. And we do not see every covenant child walk in the faith because of our unbelief.

This is a promise, and God summons us to believe it. Our faith in what He has declared is the very instrument He uses to bring the promise to fruition. This is not a works-based formula. Godly children are not the result of our flawless parenting techniques. They are God's reward, God's covenant blessing, given through the channel of our faith. We take hold of the promise by faith, and that faith then works itself out in faithful, diligent, gospel-centered child-rearing. To treat this as anything less than a promise is to call God's integrity into question and to rob Christian parents of the very assurance God intends for them to have.

Verse by Verse Commentary

6 Train up a child according to his way...

The Hebrew word for "train up" (chanak) has the sense of dedicating or initiating. It's the word used for the dedication of the temple. This is not about mere behavior modification or simply imparting information. This is a consecration. We are setting our children apart for the Lord from their earliest moments. The training is comprehensive, shaping the entire person. It is formative, not just corrective. The image is that of bending a sapling when it is young and pliable. What you do with a child in his first few years sets a course that is exceedingly difficult to alter later on. The grain of the wood is being established.

The phrase "according to his way" is the source of much confusion. Modern therapeutic approaches might twist this to mean "according to his unique personality" or "his natural bent." This is nonsense. The Bible's view of a child's natural bent is that it is bent toward folly and sin (Prov 22:15). The "way" here is the way he should go, the path of wisdom and righteousness defined by the law of God. It is the objective, righteous path that God has laid out for him. We are to train him in God's way, for his way. This is about setting the trajectory of his life onto the path of life, the way of wisdom.

...Even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Here is the promise. The training received in youth has lasting, permanent effects. The patterns, habits, worldview, and affections shaped in the crucible of a Christian home will remain. This does not mean a covenant child will never sin or go through a period of rebellion. The Bible is full of examples of believers who sin grievously. David was a man after God's own heart, and he was also an adulterer and a murderer. The promise is that the foundational training will not be ultimately overthrown. The roots put down in the soil of a godly upbringing will hold fast. The prodigal may wander into the far country, but the "training" he received at home is precisely what enables him to "come to himself" and remember the way back to his father's house.

This is a profound encouragement to parents. The daily grind of instruction, discipline, catechism, and prayer is not in vain. It is not a lottery. It is the construction of a deeply embedded spiritual and moral grammar that will inform the child's entire life. We are not promised a life without struggles for our children, but we are promised that the foundational direction we set, by faith, will hold. The consecration will stick.

Application

The application of this verse must begin with repentance. Many Christian parents operate out of fear and unbelief rather than faith in God's promises. We have adopted the world's low expectations for our children, and we are often shocked when a child raised in a Christian home continues in the faith, as if it were a happy accident. We must repent of this faithlessness and take God at His word. We must believe that God is a covenant-keeping God who has promised to be a God to us and to our children after us.

This belief must then animate our actions. If we believe this promise, we will take the task of training with the utmost seriousness. We will see that the family is a culture, a little church, and a little school. The father, as the head of the home, must ensure that this culture is intentionally and biblically Christian. This means diligent instruction in the Scriptures. It means consistent, loving, biblical discipline that deals with the heart of sin, not just the outward behavior. It means modeling a vibrant faith that loves the standard of God, so that our children learn to love it too, not just conform to it grudgingly.

Finally, this promise liberates us from two opposite errors. It saves us from a deterministic despair that sees our children's future as a terrifying lottery outside our influence. And it saves us from a prideful, works-righteous anxiety that believes their salvation depends entirely on our perfect performance. We are called to be faithful, not flawless. We plant and water, by faith, and we trust the promise of God to give the growth. Train your children in the way of the Lord, believe that God will honor His promise to you, and when they are old, they will not depart from it.