Summary
Children Set Apart by God
Proverbs 22:6 is among the most quoted verses about parenting: "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it." Read as a guarantee of outcomes, the verse troubles many faithful parents whose grown children have walked away from the faith. Did the promise fail? Did they fail? A closer look at the Hebrew opens a different—and far more comforting—reading.
The verb our English Bibles render "train" appears only five times in the Old Testament, and this is the only place it is translated that way. Elsewhere it means to consecrate or dedicate—and notably, it is used of buildings being set apart as God's dwelling, like the temple in Jerusalem. A more literal translation reads: "Set apart a child according to his way, and when he is old he will not stray." The verse is not first about parental technique producing a guaranteed product. It is about a child being claimed, inhabited, and dedicated to the Lord. (See Children: "Set Apart for the Way" 8-24-25.)
How is a child set apart? The Gospels answer plainly. In Luke 18:15-17, people brought even infants to Jesus—the Greek word covers children from conception through nursing age—and Jesus rebuked the disciples who tried to stop them, declaring that the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. How does one enter that kingdom? Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3:5 that one must be born of water and the Spirit. And in Matthew 28:19-20 He commands that disciples be made by baptizing and teaching. Baptism is how Jesus brings the little ones to Himself.
This is why the Church has baptized infants in an unbroken line from Pentecost forward. Whole households were baptized in Acts; circumcision, given to Hebrew boys on the eighth day, was fulfilled and replaced by baptism as the sign of the covenant. The rare voices that opposed infant baptism in history were roundly rejected by the Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed traditions alike. Children belong at the font.
What happens when a child is baptized? The Scriptures stack promise upon promise. Sins are washed away Acts 2:38. The child is born again and given faith John 3:5. They are clothed with the righteousness of Christ Galatians 3:27, given the Holy Spirit Titus 3:5, saved 1 Peter 3:21, made a new creation Romans 6:4, made holy Ephesians 4, and joined to the body of Christ as a new brother or sister 1 Corinthians 12. The child is consecrated—claimed for God's use, inhabited by His Spirit, set apart in His way.
This reframes Proverbs 22:6 entirely. As Lutheran theologian Chad Bird puts it, the verse "is not so much about what we as parents do, but about what the Father does when He claims our children as His own." Parents still teach, pray, bring their children to worship, and model the faith—rightly so. But the foundation is not parental performance. It is the relentless pursuit of God, who does not unclaim those He has claimed. Parents whose grown children seem to have wandered are invited to trust in the One whose grip on His baptized children does not loosen, and to keep praying in light of that promise.
Video citations
- Children: "Set Apart for the Way” 8-24-25 — Would you open up your Bibles, please, with me to Proverbs 22nd chapter. If you're using a Pew edition of Holy Scripture, you're going to find Proverbs 22 on page 567 in the Old Testament. Proverbs…