"...And to Knowledge, Self-Control..."

This e-Pistle article is a continuation of a study of 2 Peter 1:5 – 8 begun in the previous six entries. We have been examining the progression of qualities listed by Peter as that which “will keep you from becoming ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter encourages the possession of these qualities “in increasing measure.” He is essentially exhorting his readers (and us) in spiritual growth. Our study has led us now to the third area in which Peter urges us to exert our efforts.
 
Self-control is difficult for all of us. It is especially challenging for children who, with less life experience and less maturity, have not developed the motivation or ability to overcome their impulses by the force of their will. But, although we can develop a greater capacity for reining in our emotions and reactions, self-control remains a universal difficulty because we are all born with a sinful nature. Even as Christians, though set free from the law of sin and death spiritually, we are subject to the effects of the law of sin and death in our flesh: we are tempted, we experience sorrow, we suffer illness and ultimately, death. We have a new nature in Christ, but we continue to struggle with the old nature (Romans 7:14 – 25). If we have the Spirit of God living in us, we are controlled by the Spirit, not by the sinful nature (Romans 8:9). But, while the sinful nature has lost the war, it will continue to put up a fight until it is ultimately “put to death” (Romans 8:13; Colossians 3:5). So, until then, the Spirit’s control is challenged by the old, sinful nature, and the “fruit of the Spirit” of self-control (Galatians 6:23) remains a strategic quality in the spiritual warfare we face in the Christian life.
 
The term, self-control, comes from a Greek root word meaning strength and is used several times in the New Testament. The old translation of this word is “temperance”, but this term has come to refer to only one area of self-control today. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words points out that “the various powers bestowed by God upon man are capable of abuse”, but “the right use demands the controlling power of the will under the operation of the Spirit of God.” So, self-control is really Spirit-control released in the life of a believer in conjunction with his willful obedience to God.
 
Two Lessons from Context
 
The way that the word, self-control, is used in Scripture provides us with some insight about this quality. In Acts 24, we have the account of Paul’s witness before the governor, Felix, whose wife was a Jewess. We are told that Paul spoke to him “about faith in Christ Jesus” (verse 24), and that Paul’s Gospel presentation to Felix included discourse “on righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come” (verse 25). Vine’s Expository Dictionary points out that “self-control” follows “righteousness” in this passage, representing “God’s claims” and that self-control is then to be seen as “man’s response thereto” (that is, man’s response to God’s claims). This is a point well taken. Self-control, as a “fruit”, is the produce of the presence of the Spirit of God in the life of the believer. The Holy Spirit of God is the Source of self-control. This passage also indicates that self-control is a central quality in the life of sanctification. “Righteousness” (the righteousness of God in Christ) is the feature of our salvation; “self-control” is the feature of our spiritual growth; and “the judgment to come” is the feature of our future upon which Paul discoursed to Felix.

Vine’s Expository Dictionary sets forth another important insight about self-control revealed by context clues in 2 Peter 1:6. In this “spiritual growth curriculum” we have been examining in our study, self-control “follows ‘knowledge,’ suggesting that what is learned requires to be put into practice.” (Vine’s, p. 620). Here is the human element. To say, “I know it” is not enough; I must do it! This principle is certainly affirmed in James 1:22 – 25, and life experience affirms it as well. Without the#ffdbad presence of the Spirit of God in my life, there can be no “fruit of the Spirit” of self-control. But the work of the Holy Spirit is not simply enlightening, guiding me into knowledge of the truth; it is empowering, equipping me to obey His promptings and leading to genuine transformation. My part, my response is obedience.

As It Was in the Beginning…
 
To the progression of spiritual growth qualities Peter mentions in our theme passage, we can see a parallel in the Garden of Eden. At first, Adam and Eve were just interacting with the goodness of God. Their lives were centered upon and filled with His goodness. Then, when their knowledge (of good and evil) was broadened, their lives were opened up to greater and greater attacks on their self-control, and so for all of us who are descendents of Adam. It seems to be similar in the Christian life. Early on, we are focused on God’s goodness to us through Jesus Christ. As our knowledge of God and His ways (knowledge of good) grows, our inborn knowledge of the ways of the world (knowledge of evil) presents a contest for mastery of our will. Then, it seems, come the great challenges to self-control from our own old sinful nature (James 1:13 -15) and from “the enemy.”
 
We see something similar operating in the lives of our children, even before they are regenerate, as we seek to bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Early in their lives, they are nurtured by the goodness of God in His blessings to them through our Christian home and through parents who have the Spirit of God at work in them. As they grow older, we seek to promote their knowledge of God and His ways, but their knowledge of the world and of the ways of the sinful nature grows as well. This is the time period in their lives in which temptations become more sophisticated, more insidious. Here is where their wills can become hardened against God-ordained parental authority, and as a result, against God’s authority. This is when they need the transforming power of God’s grace proclaimed in the Gospel. The good news is that God has designed us in such a way that most of us who respond to the claims of Christ make a profession of faith during this time in life. Larry Sharp, author of Children in Crisis, cites statistics that suggest that “eighty-five percent of all people who come to Christ do so between the ages of four and fourteen.” Evidently, God has designed us to respond to Him at just the right time.
 
With the indwelling Spirit of God comes the production of the “fruit of the Spirit”, including self-control. But in the passage we have been studying (2 Peter 1:5 – 8), Peter urges his readers to “make every effort” to develop self-control as the next step in a spiritual growth progression. He is encouraging what we have pointed out earlier: that obedience is required in this growth process. This suggests a logical insight about helping to train our children in this area of self-control. The obedience training that is a central focus of the parent/child relationship is fundamental to the child’s development of self-control. As a child learns to yield his will to his earthly father (and mother), he is developing the ability to overcome his impulses by the submission of his will. If the child is regenerate, he is training in the key qualities of a disciple of Jesus Christ and the fundamental nature of the “fruit” of self-control: deny self, take up the cross daily, and follow Jesus.

A Lesson From Nature

Self-control is a “fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 6:22, 23). In nature, a fruit serves a dual purpose. First, a fruit either is or contains the seed of a plant for the propagation or multiplication of its kind. Second, a fruit provides nourishment for other creatures, again with the ultimate end of perpetuating the species of the original plant through means of the creatures that feed upon it. Thus, the fruit of the plant serves the plant itself, its species, and other creatures. In his Expository Dictionary of Bible Words, Lawrence Richards seems to be asserting the same thing about the fruit of the Spirit. He says, “the fruit of the Spirit is both inner (in the quality of our personal experience) and external (in the quality of our relationships); because ‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’.”
 
This presents a powerful motivational strategy for encouraging our children’s (and our own) development of the “fruit” of self-control. It is a blessing to us because the development of this “fruit” of the Spirit propagates the future growth of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. One part of the fruit of the Spirit is vital to the growth of the other parts. But the blessing is not for us alone. Just as a fruit provides nourishment for other creatures, so the “fruit of the Spirit” nourishes those around us – each of the “fruit of the Spirit” is really others-directed. And not only does this fruit nourish others, it perpetuates itself through the lives of those who “feed” upon it in our lives. In other words, the Spirit of God makes use of us as vessels to plant His Spirit in others.
 
If we want to see the fruit of the Spirit of self-control produced in the lives of our children, then we must desire and pursue the development of the fruit of the Spirit in our own lives. In addition, we want to encourage our children that the discipline of self-control is not only for their own spiritual benefit. It is a “fruit” that the Spirit of God will use through them for His own purposes in the lives of others.
 
Our study of 1 Peter 2:5 – 8 will continue in the next e-Pistle entry with “…And to Self-Control, Perseverance…”

"...And to Goodness, Knowledge...": Part Five

This e-Pistle article is a continuation of a study of 2 Peter 1:5 – 8 begun in the previous five entries. It is also the fifth article considering Peter’s admonition to add “knowledge” upon “faith” and “goodness” (2 Peter 1:5).

The knowledge that we, as believers, are to seek to develop is the pursuit of a lifetime. We will certainly continue to grow in our knowledge of God and His ways into eternity. But for the purposes of this particular study, we have turned to the Epistle to the Ephesians to examine three areas of knowledge for which the Apostle Paul prayed for his brethren in Christ at Ephesus. In previous articles, we have examined “the hope to which He has called (us)” and “the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints.” The last article explored how important it is for believers to know the third area Paul mentioned in his prayer, and we now continue the study of that phrase.

“His Incomparably Great Power for Us Who Believe”

Notice what is underlined in the quotation above. Paul does not pray merely that his readers would know God’s incomparably great power. He identifies that power as “for us who believe.” It was Paul’s fervent prayer that the Ephesian Christians would have an intellectual and experiential knowledge of God’s great power as it related to them, and as it was available to them. How important it is for Christians to know this about the power of God and to experience God’s power in their lives! Although it is incomparably great, the efficacy of God’s power is not reserved by Him for Himself alone. God has assigned the effects of His power for the benefit of His creatures and given us access to this incomparably great power as we live out our Christian lives.

“That power is like the working of His mighty strength…” 

Immediately following, at the end of verse 19 and continuing on through the end of the chapter, Paul describes God’s exertion of His power in the resurrection of Christ from the dead and in the “seating” of Christ at His right hand in the heavenly realms. He identifies Christ’s exaltation as “far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come.” Finally, Paul asserts the supremacy and headship of Christ over all things “for the Church.” This is reminiscent of the great passage in Paul’s letter to the Colossians, where Paul focuses on the pre-eminence of Christ in what scholars speculate may have been one of the earliest hymns of the early Church (Colossians 1:15 – 20). And yet, though the supremacy of Christ is the foundational truth in both of these passages, in Ephesians, Paul is seeking to make a point which he feels is vital for the believer to know and understand. This point is that the same power, which raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at God’s right hand above all authority and power, also “raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:6).

When we contemplate the resurrection of Christ from the dead, we wonder at the power of God. We are in awe when we consider that “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given” to Him (Matthew 28:18). But here we are told that God utilized that same incomparably great power to effect our spiritual resurrection from being dead in transgressions and sins (Ephesians 2:1 – 5), and to exalt us with Christ and in Christ, who in turn gives His disciples “authority… to overcome all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:18).

We and our children need to know that the power at work in our salvation is no lesser a power because it applies to lesser creatures. It is in fact the incomparably great power of Almighty God. There is tremendous comfort and confidence in knowing this truth. If we have indeed passed from death unto life, we must certainly have experienced this power as well. And the experience of the incomparably great power of God is vital to knowing that power.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power” 

Interestingly, Paul exhorts his readers to the experience of God’s power in his final thoughts in the letter to the Ephesians. The Greek phrase Paul uses at the end of 1:19 (“the might of His strength”) is the same phrase he uses in 6:10. Here, he instructs his readers to make use of the power of God (“the might of His strength”) in taking their stand against the devil’s schemes. 

When we read that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12), it is easy to be prone to fear and to the feeling that the struggle is too great for us, especially for Christian children and young people. But we must know that the power available to us in this struggle is none other than the power which raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms, above all these rulers, authorities, powers, and spiritual forces of evil mentioned in 6:12. It is the same power by which we have been raised with Christ and seated with Him in the heavenly realms (2:6). And by the power of His own word, we have been given authority to overcome all the power of the enemy!

According to Jesus’ instruction, we are not to rejoice that “the spirits submit” to us, but that by God’s incomparably great power, our “names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20). And while we rejoice in the efficacy of God’s power for our salvation, we are to daily prepare ourselves for the struggle for which He has equipped us with “His incomparably great power for us who believe.”

As we parents seek to pass on the knowledge of God’s power to our children and young people, it seems that our study of Ephesians would point us to emphasize two significant truths: 1) God has used the greatest of power to accomplish His salvation for us who believe; and 2) though our spiritual struggle is against power that is greater than our own, God has armed us with His incomparably great power, and we are instructed that it is His power we use to “be strong” and “stand firm.” Regularly affirming the supremacy of God’s power in the life of the believer can provide encouragement to children as they face hardship and temptation. It can also help to hold us accountable to make use of the powerful means of escape God has faithfully provided with every temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).

This study of 2 Peter 1:5 - 8 will continue in the next e-Pistle article, "...And to Knowledge, Self-Control..." 

"...And to Goodness, Knowledge...": Part Four

This e-Pistle article is a continuation of a study of 2 Peter 1:5 – 8 begun in the previous four posts. It is also the fourth article considering Peter’s admonition to add “knowledge” upon “faith” and “goodness” (2 Peter 1:5).
 
In exploring the knowledge that is the third virtue mentioned in Peter’s “curriculum” for spiritual growth, we have turned to some thoughts from the Apostle Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church in Ephesians 1:18. Paul mentions three things specifically that he desires for the Ephesians to “know.” In the previous two articles, we discussed the first two: “the hope to which He has called (us)” and “the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints.” We evaluated the importance of understanding these and teaching them to our children. We will now examine the third area of knowledge for which Paul prays for his readers.
 
“His Incomparably Great Power for Us Who Believe”
 
The contemplation of the power of God evokes numerous, meaningful associations for the believer. God’s power displayed in His creation of all things, the Biblical accounts of powerful miracles, the Gospel as the power of God for salvation, and the empowering work of the Holy Spirit for our spiritual growth all spark our imaginations and encourage our spirits and prompt us to wonder and gratitude to the mighty God we serve. It would probably take a lifetime of articles to examine the teachings from Scripture about the power of God and to reflect on how important it is for us and for our children to know this power and this powerful God. We will limit our observations in this article to references made by Paul in Ephesians.
 
“His Incomparably Great Power”
 
An awe of the “incomparably great” power of God, as Paul expresses in this passage, is certainly a part of the “fear of the Lord” that Proverbs identifies as “the beginning of wisdom.” The Hebrew and Greek words translated “wisdom” convey the meaning of insightful understanding and deep knowledge of the true nature of things. Paul prayed that the Ephesians might have the eyes of their heart enlightened in order that they might know God’s incomparably great power. We need to acknowledge the sovereign power of God. We need to recognize that no demonic force, no corruption coming from our own sinful nature, no circumstance resulting from living in a world that operates under the law of sin and death can compromise or lessen or overcome God’s incomparably great power.
 
Such confidence in God’s power and sovereignty, such “fear of the Lord,” is where the believer begins to know “the true nature of things.” Notice the language that Paul uses in Romans 8:28 and 29: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him”…that they might “be conformed to the likeness of His Son.” Paul’s phraseology is congruent with James’ when he encourages his readers to have a joyful perspective on “trials of many kinds.” He gives the reason for such a supernatural perspective, saying “because you know” that it is being used of God to prove the genuineness of faith leading to perseverance and maturity.
 
The Bible is full of insight into this truth. The stories of Job and Joseph and Daniel particularly come to mind. While we encounter the activity of the enemy, the enticements of our own sinful natures, and the calamities of a fallen creation, we are encouraged to a deeper knowledge about what is going on in all of that. God is at work. Nothing has come to us that is beyond His control or that is not being used by Him for His sovereign purposes in the lives of His people. The clear implication of Paul’s and James’ teaching is that God’s people know this.
 
The book of Job teaches this truth in the first two chapters, and Job himself acknowledged God’s sovereignty as he responded to the beginnings of his trial. Later, the deeper truth that Job needed to learn was that, when he did not understand all the reasons for his sufferings, it was enough that the omnipotent, omniscient God did. And when Job came to that knowledge (Job 42:1-6), he stopped asking for reasons.
 
The story of Joseph provides us with the example of a young man who spent his life focused on the sovereignty of God. Through all that he endured, Joseph clung to the promise of God’s superintending work in his life which had been revealed to him in his youthful dreams. He remained so positively focused on what God was doing sovereignly that he had little reason left to be negatively focused on what people were doing sinfully. So we see Joseph responding with great character when enslaved and imprisoned. Later, when encountering his brothers, he tells them not to be angry with selling him as a slave because it was really God who was sending him to Egypt. At the end of his story, when Joseph’s brothers have proven that his true forgiveness is incomprehensible to them, Joseph tells them the real reason why he was able to forgive: “You intended to harm me,” he says, “but God intended it for good…”
 
A careful examination of the Book of Daniel will reveal another young man who consistently credits God as the source of his strength and abilities, the reason for his devotion, and the authority over his life or his death. Daniel did not yield to fear of the king’s rules, or fear of the great king Nebuchadnezzar, or of his enemies or of lions, because Daniel feared the Lord. He did not claim the ability to tell the meaning of dreams even when he was sought out with great flattery by the greatest of earthly rulers, because Daniel knew that the ability to tell the meaning of dreams belonged to God, and it was God’s to give to whomever He chose to use for His own purposes.
 
Recently, I have become aware of increasing numbers of young people I have taught and with whom I have worked whose lives are riddled with doubt and anger and even rejection of the truth. It is more and more common for these young people to refer to themselves as agnostic and reject the authority of the Word of God. Many will accept some of the teachings of Scripture – presumably those that they like or those that make sense to them – but wholly ignore or openly repudiate other passages and doctrines. They seem to have embraced a new sort of Gnosticism. Believing that God and the things of God are unknowable, they preach the gospel of “I don’t know.” But the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel that involves knowing, not just knowing a Person, but knowing truth: “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31b, 32)
 
I feel, as these young people do, that there is so much that I don’t know either and never will. One of the most important lessons that the Book of Job teaches is that we don’t know, many things we cannot know. But the other important truth that Job teaches is that God DOES know. The lesson is that we are to know that. Like Paul and James declared, we KNOW that God is at work in all things for our good (Romans 8:28), and we KNOW that the testing of our faith leads to maturity (James 1:3,4), not instability which results from doubting (James 1:5-8).
 
In recent years, Josh McDowell has said that, in mainline evangelical denominations in the U.S., over 90% of our young people are leaving the Church after they turn 18. Perhaps they might be among those Paul describes to Timothy when he says, “…the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Timothy 4:3,4) I am not sure where or if some of my former students and colleagues fit in these categories, but it appears that they have experienced a compromise of their knowledge of God and of their confidence in His revealed Word.
 
I guess we need to realize that Bible classes are not enough to instill this knowledge and confidence. “Having a form of godliness but denying its power” (2 Timothy 3:5a), “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth” (2 Timothy 3:7), and “evil men and impostors (who) go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived” are descriptions of people within the visible Church. In contrast, notice what Paul says to encourage Timothy:
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have nown the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching,rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
 
The most important thing that we as parents can do in this area is to pray for our children. We need to pray, like Paul prayed for the Ephesians, that God would open the eyes of their hearts so that they might know the incomparably great power of God leading them to godly fear of the Lord and His sovereign authority over their lives. It also seems vital that we seek to develop strategies for inculcating this knowledge at an intellectual and an experiential level.
 
Reading, telling, and teaching the stories of God’s power and faithfulness is a valuable way to encourage a confidence in our children. The Old Testament, the Gospels, and the Book of Acts are full of wonderful stories of supernatural and miraculous displays of God’s power at work for His people. The stories mentioned above, of Job and Joseph and Daniel, are helpful for showing evidence of lives that are grounded on the conviction of the sovereignty of Almighty God. Missionary biographies and books that tell of Christians standing for Christ under difficulty and persecution (like The Scots Worthies by John Howie and Jesus Freaks from The Voice of the Martyrs) are valuable tools that challenge us to live lives of devotion depending on the strength of the Lord.
 
Another important part of training our children in this area has to do with how we face the difficulties and storms of life ourselves. As children see their parents trusting God and relying on Him when nothing appears to make sense, when the pain of their trial seems more than they can bear, children have a living testimony that speaks to them day by day: God is good, God is sovereign. God can be trusted. God is to be worshipped and adored because He is worthy. We need to protect our children from some of the harshness of this life, but more than that, we need to walk before our children and with our children through the storms of life pointing them to our Savior and our loving heavenly Father.
 
I really believe that another strategy is to get involved as a family ministering to those in need, spiritually and physically. Paul called the Gospel, “the power of God for salvation.” Our children need to see the power of God at work in people’s lives. We could strategize with them about how we might communicate the Gospel with a neighbor who doesn’t know Christ. We could volunteer at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. We could get involved in an inner city work project or go as a family on a mission trip. In Matthew 25:31 – 40, Jesus tells us that the King will commend “the righteous” for feeding the hungry, inviting the stranger in, clothing the naked, and visiting the imprisoned because, when the righteous did these things, they were really doing it for Him. Serving those in need, then, is an act of worship and devotion to the living God. One could hardly imagine a more meaningful experience of the power of God, or a better way to know that this power, and this God, is incomparably great.
 
We cannot guarantee that our children will not fall prey to doubt and anger, or be deceived into rejecting the truth. But by God’s grace, with wisdom and love, we can teach them as Paul encouraged Timothy (quoted above), or as an old Scottish seminary professor once told my father: “Young man, believe your beliefs and doubt your doubts. But never doubt your beliefs or believe your doubts.”
 
The next e-Pistle entry will continue this study with another article on “His Incomparably Great Power for Us Who Believe.”

"...And to Goodness, Knowledge...": Part Three

This e-Pistle article is a continuation of a study of 2 Peter 1:5 – 8 begun in the previous three entries. It is also the third article considering Peter’s admonition to add “knowledge” upon “faith” and “goodness” (2 Peter 1:5).

In Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian Christians, he asked God to give them “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation” that they might “know Him better.” In this, he was praying that their relationship with God might grow as Gods’ Spirit revealed Himself more and more to them. In the next verse (18), Paul prayed that they might be “enlightened” to another kind of knowledge. Here he speaks not of a relational knowing but of an intellectual knowledge and understanding. There were three areas of this knowledge which Paul desired for the Ephesians. In last month’s article, we discussed knowing “the hope to which He has called us” and the importance of passing this knowledge on to our children.

“The Riches of His Glorious Inheritance in the Saints”

Not very long ago, I was studying to teach on the conversation that Jesus had with the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16 – 30; Mark 10:17 – 22; Luke 18:18 – 30). The wealthy young man’s question, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” drew my attention. In particular, the word “inherit” stood out to me. As I considered the concept of an inheritance, it greatly added to my understanding of why this rich young ruler so misunderstood the true source of eternal life. It would be helpful also to us as we seek to unpack the meaning of the second area of knowledge for which Paul petitioned the Lord on behalf of the Ephesians.

An inheritance comes to an individual from someone else; it is not something which one goes out and gets for himself. This is an affirmation of the sovereign grace of God in salvation. It is a truth reinforced so frequently in Scripture that it is remarkable there is controversy about it. This is a simple truth; so simple that a child can understand it. In fact, one must receive it “like a little child” or he will never enter the Kingdom of God (Mark 10:15). Though he may like to pretend that he is a grown-up, there are things that every child knows that he cannot do for himself. He may imagine himself driving, but he knows he cannot hold the steering wheel, reach the pedals, and see out of the front windshield all at the same time. If he is going to get anywhere, he knows that someone else is going to have to do the driving for him. A child accepts this as truth like a child, as a child.

As we consider how we may seek to instill this knowledge of God’s sovereign grace in our children’s minds, we find here an area of knowledge which they are uniquely equipped to comprehend. When they are children is the best time to build a foundational understanding of the inadequacy of human righteousness and the sufficiency of God’s grace. D. L. Moody is quoted as saying, “It is vitally important that our children be led to a personal relationship with Christ and instructed in His Word when they are young… If I could relive my life, I would devote my entire ministry to reaching children for God.” When one considers what a great contribution this man made to the kingdom of God in his ministry to adults, it is very significant how much emphasis he puts on the salvation of children. Another great American evangelist, Dr. R. A. Torrey said:

"No other form of Christian effort brings such immediate, such large, and such lasting results as work for the conversion of children. It has many advantages over other forms of work. First of all, children are more easily led to Christ than adults. In the second place, they are more likely to stay converted than those apparently converted at a later period of life. They also make better Christians, as they do not have as much to unlearn as those who have grown old in sin. They have more years of service before them. A man converted at sixty is a soul saved plus ten years of service; a child saved at ten is a soul saved plus sixty years of service."

Of course, as great as these two famous soul-winners were, the key evangelists in the lives of children are their parents. Author of Children in Crisis, Larry Sharp, writes, “We have every reason to be encouraged; devoting our energies and resources to nearly one-half of the world’s population is of great value. Eighty-five percent of all people who come to Christ do so between the ages of four and fourteen. When Christ changes children, the vital difference made in their lives is our encouragement.” Parents are in the position to provide this encouragement on a daily basis in the primary redemptive community designed by God: the family.
It is interesting that each of the gospel accounts of Jesus’ conversation with the rich young ruler is immediately preceded by the story of Jesus welcoming the children and declaring things like “the Kingdom of heaven/God belongs to such as these” (Matthew 19:14b; Luke 18:16b). One has to wonder if this juxtaposition is intended to point out this very contrast between child-like faith and the works-based theology of the young man who went away sorrowing. He asked about inheriting eternal life and misunderstood the fundamental nature of an inheritance: it is someone’s to give, not someone’s to be acquired. Which brings us to another important truth.

An inheritance is something which one is given by virtue of a relationship, not by effort or merit. A child inherits for the very reason that he is a child: a child of the benefactor, his father. One inherits eternal life because he is a child of God, his heavenly Father. The Scriptural language of being “born again” (John 3) and of adoption (Romans 8 and 9, Galatians 4, Ephesians 1) testifies to the familial nature of this relationship, and nearly all of the Scriptural language that touches on God’s relationship to His people is specifically familial. God designed the family to communicate this relationship. In particular, He designed the relationship of a father to his children as an illustration.

In the preface to his anthology of readings from George MacDonald, C. S. Lewis writes:

"We have learned from Freud and others about those distortions in character and errors in thought which result from a man’s early conflicts with his father. Far the most important thing we can know about George MacDonald is that his whole life illustrates the opposite process. An almost perfect relationship with his father was the earthly root of all his wisdom. From his own father, he said, he first learned that Fatherhood must be at the core of the universe. He was thus prepared in an unusual way to teach that religion in which the relation of Father and Son is of all relations the most central."

Lewis – and MacDonald – were, of course, speaking of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son. But these insights also point to the significance of the father – child relationship in the human family, and this is consistent with an important message of Scripture. The last verses in the Old Testament (Malachi 4:5, 6) and the first communication from God in the New Testament after four hundred years of silence (Luke 1:17) both speak of turning “the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers” as the key to God’s plan for making ready “a people prepared for the Lord.”

Recent statistics reported by the Baptist Press indicate that when a child is the first person in a household to make a decision for Christ, this decision has a limited affect on the family and there is a 3.5 percent probability everyone else in the household will follow. When a mother is the first to become a Christian, it has a slightly greater impact upon the family with a 17 percent chance everyone else in the household will follow. But when a father comes under the Lordship of Christ, the impact is dramatically increased to a 93 percent probability that everyone else in the family will follow and come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. In other words, one key relationship between a father and his children is used mightily of God to lead to the most important of all relationships: “…you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’ The Spirit himself testifies that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…” (Romans 8:15b – 17a). What an inheritance!

An inheritance is something that is to be passed on, so it is not just for one person, or one generation. The first insight about an inheritance that we have discussed concerns a correct knowledge and understanding of salvation. The second added to this and focused on the knowledge of the believer’s intimate relationship to God as it is illustrated through the family. This third insight suggests two more vital aspects of the Christian life which are critical to teach to our children: the believer’s responsibility to the lost and his membership in the Body of Christ.

The last instruction Jesus left to His followers was to “go and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19a). It is important that Christian parents teach their children to be disciple-makers. We can do this in a number of ways. First, we must teach them to do this with their own children by setting the example for them by discipling them ourselves. All too often parents shuffle this responsibility off to the “professional” ministries of the local church or abdicate it altogether. But if our children would learn and embrace their responsibility for the next generation, we must step up to our responsibilities and teach them to pass on their inheritance to their children and their children’s children.

Another way that we can teach our children to be disciple-makers is by strategically involving our families in ministry. We must give our children opportunities to serve the Lord by reaching out to those in need, to meet needs spiritually and physically. Some youth ministers in the American church have rightly recognized that this is an important way for young people to learn how to live out their faith and battle the self-focus that is so prevalent among our youth. But most of the time, the underlying dynamic of these youth ministry outreach efforts is what I call “the tyranny of the peer group,” and such efforts are limited in their ability to picture for young people what it means for the Body of Christ, the Family of God, to work and serve together. Paul David Tripp, author of Age of Opportunity: A Biblical Guide to Parenting Teens, calls the family “God’s primary learning community.” Teaching our children to minister should not be left to the “ministry professionals.” It is our privilege, our responsibility, and we have been provided with the ideal context in which to help them focus on the needs of others rather than reinforcing their own natural self-absorption.

Finally, notice that the phrase is “His glorious inheritance in the saints.” This inheritance, given to the Lord Jesus by His heavenly Father (John 6:37 – 40; John 10:27 – 29; John 17: 1- 10), is the salvation of His people, the eternal life given to “the saints.” Part of the problem of the American church is that Americans are very individualistic. We tend to think in terms of our own “personal relationship with Christ,” our own spiritual growth, our own spiritual needs. But His inheritance, which He has passed on to us, is bigger than each one of us as individuals. It is an inheritance “in the saints” who will one day gather around the throne as one and cry out praise to Him in a loud voice (Revelation 7:16). The knowledge of this inheritance, for which the Apostle Paul fervently prayed concerning the Ephesians, is essential training for every believer and so important for us to teach our children. Later in Ephesians, in another prayer he offers on their behalf, Paul requests that they “may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge…” (Ephesians 3:18, 19b). Every true believer’s heart resonates with the desire to grasp the vast proportions of Christ’s love, but it is so easy to overlook the phrase, “together with all the saints.” It is as if Paul is suggesting that one cannot grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ apart from the fellowship of “all the saints.” In fact, if you consider the theme of Ephesians starting in the middle of chapter two all the way through chapter six, it makes sense to conclude that this is indeed what Paul is saying.

How important it is, then, that our children should be included in the community of the saints as a whole and taught that they have a vital membership in the Body of Christ. And how unwise it is for the ministries of our churches to be structured in such a way as to segregate children and young people into homogenous age-groups disconnected from the larger body of believers. In his book, Family-Based Youth Ministry, Presbyterian youth minister Mark DeVries, writes:

"It might be hoped that churches would stand in the gap and provide an environment in which children and youth could dialogue and collaborate with adults. But sadly enough, for many teenagers, the place they are most segregated from the world of adults is their church. And churches with the more ‘successful’ youth programs seem to particularly exacerbate this problem. Most ‘successful’ youth ministries have their own youth Sunday school, youth missions, youth small groups, youth evangelism teams, youth worship, youth budget, youth interns, youth committees, youth offering, youth Bible studies, youth ‘elders’ (never did understand that one), youth centers, youth choir, youth rooms, youth discipleship programs, youth conferences, youth retreats, youth fundraisers and (my personal favorite) youth ministers. Even when families do worship together, almost inevitably the parents sit together, the children are shuffled off to ‘children’s church,’ and the youth sit in the balcony. The Church is the one place where teenagers could logically be linked to the world of adults, but for the most part, we have missed the opportunity."

But the opportunity is still available. It is available to parents to teach our children and young people what it means to be a part of the family of God. It is our Biblical responsibility, our privilege, and it is practical. As we seek to do this, by God’s grace, our children will learn to pass on “His glorious inheritance in the saints” through fellowship within the Body of Christ to build up the Church and in ministry through the Body of Christ to advance the Kingdom of God.

The next e-Pistle entry will continue this study with “His Incomparably Great Power for Us Who Believe.”

"...And to Goodness, Knowledge...": Part Two

This month’s e-Pistle is a continuation of a study of 2 Peter 1:5 – 8 begun in the previous two posts. Having considered that the contemplation of the goodness of God is a solid basis upon which to build a knowledge of God and God’s ways, it is worthwhile next to discuss this important area of “knowledge” which Peter encourages us to “make every effort to add” upon our faith and upon goodness (2 Peter 1:5).

What Knowledge Do We Need?

The word “knowledge” is found four times in our English translations of 2 Peter 1:1 - 8, but in the Greek, two different words are used. In verses 2, 3, and 8, the Greek word Peter uses refers to knowing relationally. We use the verb, to know, in the same way when we speak of developing a relationship with someone as “getting to know” them. The context of these verses focuses on the fundamental Biblical idea of knowing God through Jesus Christ in a genuine relationship as opposed to simply knowing about Him. (See Jeremiah 9:23, 24; Jeremiah 22:15, 16; Jeremiah 24:6, 7; John 17:3; Ephesians 1:17; Philippians 3:7 – 16; Judges 2:7, 10; Matthew 7:21 – 23) But in verses 5 and 6, the word translated “knowledge” is a word that conveys the meaning of knowing in an intellectual way. While the basis of our spiritual life is knowing God through a life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ, Peter admonishes us that there is intellectual knowledge that we are to pursue that is key to our spiritual growth. The Apostle Paul suggests this same idea in Romans 12 when he speaks of being “transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

In Ephesians 1:17 – 19, Paul speaks of two different kinds of knowledge, just as Peter did in the passage we have been studying. Though his word usage is not exactly the same as Peter’s, the idea he conveys is much the same. In verse 17, Paul uses the same word as Peter when he expresses the heartfelt prayer that God might give the Ephesian Christians “the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that (they) may know Him (God) better.” Here, he is speaking of an intimate, relationship knowledge. Next, in verse 18, Paul prays for enlightenment for his readers “in order that (they) may know” three things: “the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.” Here, he is speaking of knowing these things as facts; understanding them intellectually as well as experientially.

We have been considering Peter’s list of qualities that lead to effectiveness and productivity in our relationship with Christ. It seems that these present a logical progression, a curriculum if you will, for spiritual growth. We have explored some ideas of how Christian parents might use this “curriculum” for training their children. As we now reflect on “knowledge” and what kind of knowledge we should seek to convey to our children at this stage of their spiritual growth, it occurs to me that Paul’s prayer in Ephesians presents to us three categories of things which are critical for a believer’s spiritual, intellectual growth.

“The Hope to Which He Has Called (Us)”

We live in a culture and time in which young people are more and more enshrouded with a deepening sense of hopelessness. Some of the extreme responses to – or should I say – attempts to escape from such hopelessness include drug and alcohol abuse, promiscuity, depression, and suicide. Sociological experts tell us that children and young people are confronted in the course of their natural development with such questions as “Who am I?” and “What is the purpose of my life?” The response that they receive from the educational establishment of our culture is: “You are nothing more than a collection of chemicals imbued by accidental circumstances with what we call life. You have evolved from more primitive forms of life through a natural selection process that is governed by fortuitous mutation and a principle where the strong survive and the weak don’t. Your being is fundamentally the same as a single-celled paramecium; your worth is no greater than that of an animal or a plant or a rock. You have no other purpose than to exist for a time and no other future than to cease to exist.” The vast majority of children and young people in our culture are provided with this insight into their life and purpose from the time they are five years old right into their twenties by those who are charged by our society with properly educating them. Then we scratch our heads and wonder why our children and young people engage in dangerous and self-destructive behaviors. We have no answers to the increasing violence of our society. We are appalled and confused by the violence of children against one another, even killing one another at school. We teach them that they have no distinct purpose, no intrinsic value, and then we wonder why they suffer from low self-esteem and reflect hateful, bigoted, intolerant attitudes toward others. The great children’s writer and Christian apologist, C. S. Lewis, in his book, The Abolition of Man, puts it this way: “We castrate and bid the geldings be fruitful.”

Interestingly, the writers of the old catechisms posed the same questions that the sociologists recognize as fundamental in a child’s development when they asked, “What is the chief end of man?” But, unlike the answers of our culture’s educational establishment which lead to the hopelessness that is so prevalent among our young people, these writers provided a response that leads to hope: The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. This truth lies behind man’s creation “in the image of God” prior to the Fall, and it provides the foundation for God’s redemptive work through Jesus and His continuing restorative work that will one day be completed in our glorification. Paul teaches us that it is “in this hope we were saved” (Romans 8:24a). He also traces the route from grace to hope in Romans 5 and provides this encouragement: “And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us” (Romans 5:5).

The Larger and Shorter Catechisms were designed by the Westminster Assembly as tools for heads of households to educate their children in the truths of God’s Word. By beginning with the question and answer about the “chief end of man,” these men of God were declaring their belief that a cornerstone of a Christian education is the knowledge of why God has made us and what His purpose for our lives is. They were convinced that this fundamental truth, and all of the truth of God’s Word, provides a hope that does not disappoint. It is the hope to which He has called us in creating us in His own image. It is the hope to which He has called us in providing us redemption through the blood of Christ. It is the hope to which He has called us in His promise that “when He appears, we shall be like Him” (1 John 3:2b). This is the knowledge about which Paul prays for his Ephesian brethren, and it is the knowledge which Christian parents must prayerfully, intentionally, and faithfully communicate to their children through teaching them God’s Word. All of us need to have this knowledge deep within our souls, but our children and young people particularly need to be equipped with the knowledge of “the hope to which He has called us.” Through it, God’s Holy Spirit will speak the Old Testament truth to the heart of every child of God: “I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

The next e-Pistle entry will continue this study with “The Riches of His Glorious Inheritance in the Saints.”