Concern for the home is mandatory in the severe climate of contemporary society. Nobody lives in a vacuum. We breathe the air of a world that is sensual, secular, and incredibly unscrupulous. We cannot escape its contagion. It rubs off on us and on our children.
God’s orthopedic clinic, Ephesians 4-6, tells Christians to “walk circumspectly” – that is, looking all around. Looking around, what do we see? Seventeen, the girls’ magazine that once was devoted to clothes, cosmetics and calorie counting, has added areas with moral implications. One issue included an advice piece on abortion and another story with this subtitle: “You can’t tell about a man until you’re in troubled water with him.” Every parent should mentally slip into his or her daughter’s shoes and think of reading these from a teen viewpoint.
A morning newspaper ran a series on criminal assaults on women. This statement was included: “The typical rapist is likely to look more like a young bank executive; clean-shaven, well-dressed, and somewhat charming.” What are the implications for our young people? Is the rapist a really nice guy after all?
Time magazine reports weekly on scandals, assassinations, abuses, and all varieties of wrongdoing which seem to be tolerated in our world. Relative to a large corporate takeover, an editor wrote: “The size of the deal and the fortunes to be made appear to exceed any foreseeable benefits to US industry.” Our children live in a world where the “Black Hats” of greed are winning more than the “Good Guys.”
In such an atmosphere, how do we train our children? Do we put our heads piously I the sand, hoping everything bad will go away? What a picture of many Christian homes where parents look the other way, failing to realize the enemy is at hand. Sometimes we think of the “big problems” as outside the church, but unfortunately, most social problems have infected the churches and the lives of church people.
The most vital concern for the home springs from the fact that it is the most dynamic means of perpetuating Christianity. A Christian home stands out in bold relief to a pagan society. Paul wrote to Timothy, “Continue thou in the things thou hast learned” (2 Timothy 3:14). What things? The answer is in 2 Timothy 1:5, “the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother, Lois, and in thy mother, Eunice.” Timothy was a third-generation Christian. He was handpicked by the Apostle Paul to be his associate.
Now and then, someone says, “I’d rather see a person who didn’t come from a Christian home, but from paganism, and then came to know Christ, because of the excitement of his newfound faith.” There is only one problem with that: it is contrary to Scripture.
One of the most exciting things about working and ministering in this generation is to see the steady stream of young men and women who come to trust Christ; whose primary purpose and passion in life is to provide distinctively Christian homes for their children. Down through the years the greatest source of leadership in the evangelical church has been the Christian home. The disappearance of such homes from the scene is a very alarming trend. It ought to shake us awake. It ought to commit us to the proposition that the Lord must build the house. We’ll never pull it off. There is no Plan B. God has committed Himself to this. The question is: have you?
Dear friends, I wrote this article “From the Pulpit” for the Durand Express, September 15, 1999. I believe this to still be true today.
In Christian Love,
Pastor John