One of my adult children recently told me that the traditional family was over. I understand what you meant. The ordinary Christian family is almost extinct. Contemporary culture redefines the family: same-sex marriage, a number of creative lifestyles, and pressure to accept polygamy are assaults on the Christian family. The idea that parents, whose love produces children, must live. together in marriage, working together to provide a pious home and stability to their children has virtually disappeared as a cultural ideal.
The common Christian family is simply the common Christian people, who live in common living conditions, through the extraordinary grace of the Gospel. And it’s not just for families with a father and a mother. There are dozens of single fathers and mothers who honor God in their lives. homes and many grandparents who bravely raise their grandchildren. I have a daughter-in-law who was lucky enough to have a single mother who raised three children who are now adult Christians raising their own children. She constantly reminded her children of the biblical standards for the family: “If you had a father, he would have it, but since you don’t have it, I do it myself. In the absence of a husband, she taught her children to understand the role of a husband and father in the family.
Family dynamics
Ephesians 5 describes the common Christian family. Husbands are called to exercise loving leadership. In 1 Thessaloniki 2, Paul uses fatherhood as a metaphor for pastoral ministry. It reminds them of their hard work and suffering, how he preached during the day and worked at night to keep it from being so. a burden to them This is a wonderful vision of divine leadership. Paul gave his life as a living sacrifice. Divine authority is not seen in making others your servants; divine authority is seen serving, giving life as a living sacrifice.
Ephesians 5 has an equally attractive image of women. Just as the church submits to Christ, a woman lives under the direction of her husband. This helps you be a thriving head of family. It is not easy to subordinate your life to the leadership of another, but Ephesians 5 represents it as a common call to a woman. Finally, a woman surrenders to God, hoping that God will bless her by living under the authority of her husband.
Similarly, God promises in Ephesians 6 that all is well for the son who honors and obeys his parents; wise parents present the need for obedience in a captivating way; encourage their children, saying that the reason to obey is that God gave authority to Parents. Obedience is not due to the demands of parents, but to God’s will for children. In the context of obedience, things go well with children. God blesses his obedience.
It is beautiful when children and young people embrace the truth that God’s ways are good. I have had the joy of seeing ordinary grandchildren and grandchildren, children and adolescents, who love their parents and accept the authorities who love them enough to impose limits on them wisely. Them.
I smiled recently as I watched an interaction at our table
Teen: “Dad, can I have a coffee?”
Dad:? Of course. ?
Ty teen: “Can I have one?
Father: No, my son. I don’t think so.
Preteen:? That’s not fair. Can you have a cup of coffee?
Father: Son, I don’t need to be fair, I have to be wise
It was a nice dialogue, which happened fast. I smiled because the youngest accepted his father’s judgment without complaining. He learned to joyfully accept his father’s authority. Someday he will also be a kind and wise authority.
Because the dynamics of relationships are in the right biblical order, there are three attractions for the family: the family is a school of theology, a school of social relations, and a school for understanding the gospel.
School of theology
God’s call to life in common can be summed up in the two tables of the law: “You will therefore love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your intelligence, and with all your might. The second is: Will you love your neighbor as yourself?(Mark 12. 30-31). Loving God and loving one’s neighbour is a good description of the common Christian family.
Family as a school of theology is the first table of the law. Family is the ideal place to marvel at the beauty of who God is and instill in children a deep sense of God’s glory. The Psalmist put it this way: “Will a generation rent your works for another generation?(Psalm 145. 4). What do you say as a generation that praises God for the next generation?Psalm 145 tells us. It means meditating on the glorious splendor of God Majesty; speaks of God’s majestic works; declare your greatness; spreads the reputation of his great goodness; sing your righteousness; speaks of the glory of his kingdom; speak of your goodness, speak of thy praise (145:4-20). God swells when we meditate on His glory and goodness. Children cannot be led to rejoice in God in a conceptual vacuum. And if parents want to show their children the glory of God, they must also marvel at God. Family is a escuela. de theology.
School of Social Relations
Loving one’s neighbor is the second table of the law, it’s also a family business. Family life offers wonderful opportunities to show Christ’s love to others. Why? Because family life offers the greatest opportunities for conflict in relationships. James 4 addresses social conflict with perceptual questions: “Where do wars and conflicts occur between you?Where, if not the pleasures that militate in your flesh?(James 4. 1). we look out at out of us the reason for the conflicts: “It drives me crazy”, “He laughed at my mistakes. “Tiago turns the game against us, says that relationship conflicts arise from the passions that make war in our hearts.
Our passions and desires produce conflict. The family is the ideal place to understand the desires that fight in us and cause conflicts with others, this is the place to identify the ugliness of narcissism. Family life offers the opportunity to learn the excellence of love sacrificed by others. It’s a great place to learn to really defend the interests of others.
Family conflicts are not undesirable interruptions in the affairs of life, they are fundamental to learning to live in love. Family is a place to love others.
Gospel School
Finally, ordinary Christian family life is a gospel school, a place to experience the grace of the gospel. The conflicts that arise when we strive to live together in love show our deep need for this grace. We cannot love God and our neighbor without grace. Christ lived in the human flesh without sin to provide us with justice that we could not otherwise have. He died to pay the guilt of our sin, fully satisfying the requirements of God’s law. Even now, he intercedes for us, so we can experience his grace and live as people who have known forgiveness and can extend to each other.
The ordinary Christian family is not a place of perfection; we sin and suffer with the sins of others; our children sin and suffer sins; we are tempted to resolve conflicts through human wisdom, but we lose the benefit they bring if we try to resolve them. them without reference to the gospel. The inevitable conflicts of family life offer excellent opportunities for us to be kind, compassionate, and forgive one another, just as God in Christ forgave you (Ephesians 4. 32).
Parents who understand that they are also sinners driven by passions and desires can sympathize with their sinful children; the parent who understands both the problem of sin and the grace and power of the gospel is able to truly understand and help children who sin. The experience of being a sinner who has found grace enables parents to bring the power and grace of the gospel to their children.
Christians love the idea of families in which people love and honor God and live together, growing in grace; but Christian families, who love God and others, do not exist as abstraction, are not an ideal in the world of ideas, ordinary Christian families only exist when real people in the flesh abandon life as living sacrifices, these families are powerful arguments for the truth and beauty of the Christian faith.
This book is a call to experience the joy of ordinary Christian life. Michael Horton shows that the attempt to seek great experiences in spiritual life has left many Christians disappointed and disappointed and invites us to regain a sense of satisfaction in these simple and common things of Christian life.
This article is part of the August 2014 issue of Tabletalk magazine
Translation: Joel Paulo Aragono da Guia Oliveira. Critic: Yago Martins. © 2016 Faithful Ministérium. All rights reserved. Website: MinistryFiel. com. br. Original: The common Christian family lives with extraordinary grace
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