The concept of family – both traditional and biblical – is under serious threat in our modern society. The changing worldly ideologies are also redefining Christians’ mindset about family. Can the church, “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Tim 3:15), be silent while the world misleads its members? Can the church be silent when God’s design for the family is under attack? Will Christian men, the heads of families, resist the pressure of the world to keep their families’ conformity to the biblical portrayal of a godly family? Will Christian parents protect their children from the world’s attack at any cost?
Many Christians lack a commitment to God’s design for the family. They have abandoned the biblical pattern of family life to pursue greater wealth, luxury, selfglory, worldly pleasures, etc. Their hearts, filled with worry and aspiration for exceptional gain, neglect the unchanging truths of God’s design for family life. Sad as it is, they would sooner adopt attitudes and pursuits that are detrimental to the building of godly families.
To make matters worse, the church at large has refused to address the real problems affecting the family life of Christians. A major reason for the church’s silence is that many of today’s pastors, preachers and leaders are themselves greedy of filthy lucre, and lovers of luxury and pleasure. Their quiet acceptance of worldliness in their households obliges them to tolerate their congregations’ conformity to the world. This refusal to confront the incursions of worldly ideologies and trends among the congregants has opened the floodgates to satanic deceptions in the world catching the Christian families off guard! This dangerous, irresponsible conduct of the under-shepherds of the churches today is akin to deceivers “who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake”, as the apostle Paul warns in Titus 1:11.
In such a perilous time as this, for the spiritual protection and blessings of families, Christians should obey Scripture’s counsel that “If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words,… perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself” (1 Tim 6:3-5). In other words, Christians should separate themselves and their families from pastors and church leaders who are hesitant to rebuke worldliness, lest their families become lulled into accepting the destructive secularism of our time.
Shockingly, Christians have become intolerant of preachers – and their churches – who rebuke conformity to the world. Such recklessness and resistance have been forewarned in the Scriptures – “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Tim. 4:3). Compromising Christians, who have chosen to live in conformity with the world, will not bear with sharp admonitions against their compromises. To them, such preachers are unreasonable, unloving and legalistic.
At this juncture, I would urge all Gethsemaneans to take heed of this loving pastoral exhortation not to reject God’s design for the household. It is time to acknowledge and safeguard the biblical injunction that God wants us to build our homes according to His truths and holiness. He commands us to know and fulfil His counsels regarding our roles and conduct in the family. He has not left us without principles and guidelines. We are also given great and precious promises concerning our households if we abide by His wise counsels. When our most loving God has furnished us with His unfailing blessed truths for family living, why do we unwisely ignore them and choose to follow the pernicious ways of this world? Why do we make wealth and pleasures of this world our idols, forsaking the glory of the biblical truths? What gross sin and foolish, self-destructive attitude it is to take our families away from the way that God has shown in His Word!
God promises to build godly and blessed homes with His wisdom in Proverbs 9:1-6: “Wisdom hath builded her house, she hath hewn out her seven pillars: she hath killed her beasts; she hath mingled her wine; she hath also furnished her table. She hath sent forth her maidens: she crieth upon the highest places of the city, whoso is simple, let him turn in hither: as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled. Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.” (Consider also Psalm 128.)
Let us not be victims of the secularisation of Christian families. Do not surrender our homes, but resist the vicious invasion of secularism and its corruption. If Christians do not stop their compromises with the worldly way of living, soon their homes will have nothing in the way of godliness. Do not desert God and His truths, which He has lovingly revealed in His Word.
1 Blessed is every one that feareth the LORD;
that walketh in his ways.
2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands:
happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house:
thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.
5 The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion:
and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel.