Faith For Our Children
By Elmer G. Klassen
One of the main causes of lack of faith for the spiritual welfare of our children is ignorance or the ignoring of the plan God has given the family. Accepting, believing and acting according to it opens our eyes to God’s truth and gives faith for our children’s salvation. The promises of God for the family are many and the plan God has given is easily understood by all who have faith in God and will submit to Him. However, when God’s instructions are not known or are ignored, we cannot expect to have faith for our children nor the courage to carry through with God’s commandments.
It amazes me how some evangelicals will admit the truth of the Scripture yet will overemphasize their own understanding to the point that comes close to nullifying the Word of God. Jesus said that the Jews were nullifying the Word of God by their traditions; we nullify the Word of God at times by overemphasizing some detail to the point that God’s truth is made void. One seemingly insignificant example, yet far reaching, is the way we read the text on the family life in the book of Ephesians. For decades we have read and heard sermons based on separating, sometimes with a subtitle, verse 21 in chapter five apart from that which follows.* Separating the verse, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,” from the text that follows allows evangelists to preach the necessity for husbands to submit to their wives, which this text does not teach. It may be helpful to give this advice in some cases and may be well intentioned at times, but this weakens the message that God is giving in this Scripture and releases the man of some of his responsibilities in the home. God’s plan works well when accepted as it is given, submit to it and accept our responsibility as He has commanded: Man to God, woman to man, child to parents and employee to employer to the glory of God and the blessing of the family and country. Accepting this Ephesian plan for the family puts responsibility in the rightful place and allows no shifting of it to others.
God wants happy homes. So do the father, mother and children. The responsibility for it rests on each member. God has not only done His part and given us a good plan, but also given us the authority and the courage to carry through with our responsibilities. God does His part but when we do not accept our part the disobedient suffers the most.
When there is disobedience in the family the family suffers greatly, but the most harm is to the one who disobeys. When the wife disobeys her husband the children lose their example for obedience in the home and some of God’s blessings for the family are forfeited as the result, but the wife will suffer the most. When the children fail to obey their parents their parents will suffer much, but the children are the biggest losers and will suffer the most by losing God’s blessing for them. It is always the disobedient in the family and the nation whom God will judge as the Scriptures clearly teach.
This truth was already given to Moses when it was anchored in the Ten Commandments where it says: “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long, and that it may go well with you.” This is the first commandment with promise. Each member will be blessed for giving respect where needed and for accepting and obeying God’s plan. The disobedient will hurt the family greatly yet the disobedient will suffer the most.
The Scriptures and Christian literature abound with beautiful illustrations of God’s blessing and joy for those who have accepted God’s plan and have had courage to put faith in it and to carry it through. While reading recently in the autobiography of John Paton, of whom Dr. A. T. Pierson writes, “Even among the riches of missionary biographies few such volumes as this are to be found,” I read of the experience that Paton had with his father which, though rather long, is worth repeating here because of the rich example of the authority and tenderness of a father in a biblical family relationship.
He writes:
“I started out from my quiet country home on the road to Glasgow. Literally on the road, for from Torthorwald to Kilmarnock—about forty miles—had to be done on foot, and thence to Glasgow by rail. Railways in those days were as yet few, and coach traveling was far beyond my purse. A small bundle tied up in my pocket handkerchief, contained my Bible and all my personal belongings. Thus was I launched upon the ocean of life.
“My dear father walked with me the first six miles of the way. His counsels and tears and heavenly conversation on that parting journey are fresh in my heart as if it had been yesterday; and tears are on my cheeks as freely now as then, whenever memory steals me away to the scene. For the last half-mile or so we walked on together in almost unbroken silence,—my father, as was often his custom, carrying hat in hand, while his long, flowing yellow hair (then yellow, but in later years white as snow) streamed like a girl’s down his shoulders. His lips kept moving in silent prayers for me, and his tears fell fast when our eyes met each other in looks for which all speech was vain. We halted on reaching the appointed parting place; he grasped my hand firmly for a minute in silence, and then solemnly and affectionately said, —‘God bless you, my son! Your father’s God prosper you, and keep you from all evil!’
“Unable to say more, his lips kept moving in silent prayer; in tears we embraced, and parted. I ran off as fast as I could, and, when about to turn a corner in the road where he would lose sight of me, I looked back and saw him still standing with head uncovered where I had left him. Waving my hat in adieu, I was round the corner and out of sight in an instant. But my heart was too full and sore to carry me further, so I darted into the side of the road and wept for a time. Then, rising up cautiously, I climbed the dyke to see if he yet stood where I had left him, and just at that moment I caught a glimpse of him climbing the dyke and looking out for me! He did not see me and after he had gazed eagerly in my direction for a while, he got down, turned his face towards home, and began to return—his head still uncovered, and his heart, I felt sure, still rising in prayers for me. I watched through blinding tears, till his form faded from my gaze; and then, hastening on my way, vowed deeply and oft, by the help of God, to live and act so as never to grieve or dishonor such a father and mother as He had given me.
“The appearance of my father, when we parted—his advice, prayers and tears,—the road, the dyke, the climbing up on it and then walking away, head uncovered, have often, often, all through life, risen vividly before my mind—and do so now while I am writing, as if it had been but an hour ago. In my earlier years particularly, when exposed to many temptations, his parting form rose before me as that of a guardian angel. It is no pharisaism, but deep gratitude, which makes me here testify that the memory of that scene not only helped, by God’s grace, to keep me pure from the prevailing sins, but also stimulated me in all my studies, that I might not fall short of his hopes, and in all my Christian duties, that I might faithfully follow his shining example.”
Here is a father taking his responsibility. If each member of the family takes their responsibility, the home is a bit of heaven on earth. But if not, only one member of the family taking his or her responsibility, will change the family nevertheless. “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Matthew 13:33). The unbelieving husband is sanctified through this wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified through her believing husband. The children are sanctified if only one partner is a believer (1 Cor. 7:14). If only one member of the family is a believer God has entered that family. This family becomes a home where God dwells. Give God a chance and He will so influence that home that it will become a place of peace and contentment because someone has begun to obey His plan for the home.
We hope to be able to offer a copy of John Paton’s helpful autobiography free of charge to Herald readers in a few months. What we can offer this month, however, is Andrew Murray’s book, “How To Bring Your Children To Christ.” This book is free of modern psychology helps and brings our attention to God’s promises and God’s help for the family. Andrew Murray already a hundred years ago saw the danger of parents not having faith for their children and the danger of allowing others to take their responsibility for them. He writes that the education of the young has been left to the government, to the secular school, and to the spirit of the age. The result is that the youthful heart has lost the simplicity and tenderness of which the Master spoke when He said, “Of such is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 19:14).
The education that Moses’s mother gave her son during the years of his childhood was so successful that all the years of his training at Pharaoh’s palace could not erase it. His mother’s faith bore fruit in his faith, when later he, at every cost, chose suffering with the people of God. Moses was not afraid of the wrath of the king, because he saw Him who is invisible.
It was the families that God was saving when He ordered blood to be on the door post of houses of God’s people in Egypt. They were to take a lamb according to the families (Exodus 12:21). It is God’s plan to save units, family units. Is this what we want?
Order Andrew Murray’s book, “How To Bring Your Children To Christ” from us this month.
The response from Herald of His Coming has been very encouraging. Letters come daily, from people who have found a copy of the Herald some place and are anxious to continue to read this publication. There are many Christians in your church and community who would greatly benefit if you would introduce them to the Herald. If you would just mail us their address we can give them some copies to read. It is important for us not to be interested only in that which the world has to offer through their news reports and other entertainments. Let’s fill our minds with that which concerns God and which will give in eternal values, for us and our families.
There are many foreign readers who are asking to be put on our mailing list. We can reach these friends of ours very simply if some readers would want to do something extra. An extra 5,000 dollars a month would make the future different for many people, not by erecting memorials or buildings that will some day crumble, but by putting the message, which is the power of God for the salvation for those who will believe it, in receptive hearts forever. For one dollar the message will go to three homes; for 50 dollars 150 homes will receive these messages you are now reading. We would rejoice greatly if some readers would be able to give substantial gifts so that we could plan some large mailings in the months ahead.
*The reason for isolating the 20th verse of Ephesians chapter five, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,” from what follows may be the usage of the second edition of Nestle Greek New Testament which puts a comma after verse 20 and a period after verse 21, whereas the 26th edition of the improved Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament text puts a period after verse 20 and a comma after verse 21, making this verse an introduction to what is to follow.
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