Family

The family is a small kingdom. It more closely resembles God's kingdom than, say, political kingdoms, because the family allows for intimacy, friendship, wise and kind flexibility when governing the family. It is one reason bad parenting is so deadly; it attacks that fundamental understanding of God, who used to walk in the Garden with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day. Here was the King of the universe, conversing, communing with his creation. It was what has been restored through Christ's intervention in history to cover the sin, sheathe the sword of justice that guarded the entrance to Eden, show us what it's like to walk with the King of Kings. He was someone little children loved to be with and who said, "Come to me, all you who are weary, and I will give you rest, for I am meek and lowly of heart." This is how families should be.

What a family cannot do is exact penal justice, like capital punishment. That is for the state alone. The rod is the only physical discipline allowed. No one could harm Cain after he killed his brother. One reason may have been the fact that there was nothing but family living on the earth at that time to exact the just punishment, but God did not want to establish that precedent.