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Do your children have the same faith?
Do your children have the same faith?
Has your faith been passed to your children?
Do they believe that God created all things?
Do they believe that there is only one God?
Do they know that they are sinners who need forgiveness?
Do they know that Jesus is God?
Do they know what Jesus has done to bring about salvation?
Do they know how to be made right before God?
The best way to find out is to go ask them. Right now! Go see what they say to these questions.
Sadly, many parents are shocked to find out that their children do not share the faith with them.
Sometimes this is because Christian parents just assume that their children are acquiring all of the information they need to have right belief. However, often the parents are not personally involved in the instruction process. Many do not even check to see if their children are acquiring basic doctrines of Christianity.
We must remember that the teachings of Christianity are not learned by osmosis.
Children are born without any knowledge of God’s Word. They must be diligently and consistently taught the Bible, or the will not know it. If they are not taught the right knowledge of God, they will grow up not seeing the Bible as God’s supreme rule of belief and behavior in their lives.
By the time these children get to be teens and young adults, we are finding that their beliefs are totally different from their Christian parents.
How did this happen?
Most likely, the parents assumed that Christianity would just be automatically learned, however, Christianity must be intentionally taught.
Timothy is an excellent example of a young man who believed like his parent, and even his grandparent.
Paul wrote, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (2 Tim. 1:5).
Here we have an example of three generations of right faith.
How did the faith get passed down?
We find the answer in the same letter to Timothy when Paul wrote, “but as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim. 3:15-17).
It appears that Timothy had been taught the Word of God by his mother and grandmother from the time he was a very young child. Now as a young man, Timothy possesses the same beliefs as his mother and grandmother.
What are the benefits of teaching a child the Bible?
According to Paul, the Bible:
- Educates a child about salvation.
- Teaches a child right belief.
- Calls out a child’s wrong belief and wrong behavior.
- Corrects a child’s incorrect belief and behavior.
- Trains a child how to live as God has commanded.
- Equips a child to work for God.
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2 Examples of Family Worship
2 Examples of Family Worship
An Example from Israel
The Biblical command for Christian education in the home was commanded by God.
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deuteronomy 6: 4-9).
This was the generation of Israelites that witnessed amazing signs, miracles, and wonders. Many of the younger Israelites not only witnessed the supernatural signs, but were allowed to enter the Promised Land, as well. However, if we read a little further into the book of Judges, we see that when that generation was gone, so was anything godly.
And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of 110 years. And they buried him within the boundaries of his inheritance in Timnath-heres, in the hill country of Ephraim, north of the mountain of Gaash. And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.
And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress (Judges 2:8-15).
Wow, in just one generation the people had reverted back to paganism! Verse ten says that “they did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.”
Even though the parents had known God and seen Him do miraculous deeds to save them, they failed to pass this information down to their children. They did not “teach them diligently” nor make God a priority in their homes.
God had told them to talk of His commands when they talk, sit, walk, or lie down. God’s word was supposed to be a guide ever before their eyes. Their homes were to be a place that His commands were emphasized and taught, but the parents did not obey.
But that’s ok they had the tabernacle right? This was the role of the priest right? No!
God knew what He was doing when He assigned the spiritual oversight of the children to the parents. It was their duty, and still is a parent’s duty to make God’s Word a priority in our homes.
If we neglect this command of God, it is easy to see what we can expect of our children.
All it takes is just one generation and a whole nation had turned to paganism! Can this happen again? Of course it can. This is why we must reclaim family worship and catechism. The home is where God should be taught daily.
As Ligon Duncan writes, “The family is God’s divinely appointed ‘small-group’ discipleship program. The family is the first place that God appointed for teaching and learning about God and godliness. Children are to be instructed, guided in the way of life, and disciplined both directively and correctively.”1
He later writes:
“Children growing up with the daily experience of seeing their parents humbled in worship, focusing on spiritual things, submitting to the authority of the word, catechizing and otherwise instructing their children will not easily turn from Christ. Our children should grow up with the voices of their fathers pleading for their souls in prayer ringing in their ears, leading to their salvation, or else haunting them for the rest of their lives.”2
A Good New Testament Example
Hopefully, we will be like the mother and grandmother of Timothy.
Paul told him “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well” (2 Timothy 1:5).
Timothy had a mother and a grandmother who took his training seriously, and the result was an outstanding young man who served the Lord.
If our desire is to raise boys and girls into men and women of God we must realize that the training ground is in the home. May we not neglect God’s word and His command to teach it to our families.
References
Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship: Celebrating the Legacy of James Montgomery Boice (Phillipsburg, NJ: P & R Pub., 2003), 320.
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