Will a Child Never Depart?

“Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Prov. 22:6). The Pastor of a church I used to attend held a very strong conviction about this verse. He believed that following it ensured one hundred percent results every time. According to him, if parents train up a child in the correct Biblical way they are guaranteed that the child will never depart from it. On the other hand it also meant that if a child reached adulthood and did depart from the way he was trained then the parents failed in their duty of training him. As you can imagine this Pastor was not popular among parents whose grown children were not serving the Lord. In fact, it was well known that several people had left the church because of this extreme teaching.

But what we need to understand is that the Proverbs are generally true statements. If parents train up a child in the way he should go then it is very likely that he will not depart from it when he gets older. This is not, however, a one hundred percent guarantee of success. We probably all know some who were raised in godly Christian homes but are not following Christ today. This is not necessarily a reproach upon their parents. Likewise there are also those who were not raised in Christian homes, such as both my wife and me, who are serving Christ today.


If all of the Proverbs are absolute laws that never fail then what about this one: “The eye that mocks his father, and scorns obedience to his mother, the ravens of the valley will pick it out, and the young eagles will eat it” (Prov. 30:17)? Will every disobedient child have his eye plucked out and eaten by birds? This Proverb, obviously, very rarely comes to pass literally. It uses colorful imagery to depict utter disdain upon a child who would dare despise his own parents.

All people have free wills and must choose for themselves if they will follow Christ once they are no longer in their parents’ homes. Though a child who has been taught about Christ all his life will tend to continue following Him, he is not guaranteed to. We are all individually held accountable before God once we reach the age of accountability.