Hi! Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for the Daily Challenge. Today’s Tuesday; it’s the day we explore in the Bible the topic that we introduced yesterday. We’re in a series called, “Reset” right now, looking at how deciding to follow Jesus resets some really important areas of our lives. We’ve looked at several and this week we’re looking at how it resets our view of family.
So what is family for, if following Jesus comes first in someone’s life?
Does this mean not loving family at all? No way. Here’s how Pastor Tim Keller put it: “If we have made idols of work and family, we do not want to stop loving our work and family. Rather, we want to love Christ so much more that we are not enslaved by our attachments.”
One Christian author, Stanley Hauwerwas said: For Christians do not place their hope in their children, but rather their children are a sign of their hope . . . that God has not abandoned this world.”
We can see this in how the Bible set out the requirements for an overseer – a pastor or bishop. They were written by a church leader named Paul, addressed to his protégé, Timothy.
The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church? (1 Timothy 3:1-5 ESV)
You can see where leadership is supposed to be practiced: at home first, then in the Christian community. This isn’t saying every leader needs to be married – Paul himself was not. But if a leader is, they need to be leading at a Christian home already. The most important line is, “if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?”
A family is a miniature church of sorts. Martin Luther said centuries ago ago: “A house is actually a school and a church, and the head of the household is a pastor in his house.”
Family is a place to learn essential skills for Christian living, learn to follow Jesus. This is one reason among many churches baptize children. We are celebrating that they are starting school, not graduating. A Christian family commits to teaching the basics of following Jesus when their child is baptized.
Family becomes a training ground for the kingdom of God. How does that look in pracitce? Look at one example from ancient Israel that surely informed early Christians as well:
Deuteronomy 6: 4-9: “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.”
Their faith was meant to be everywhere in family life, so children encountered it daily.
Question: How do this? What skills do you think are essential for Christians, and learned in the family?
Read the Bible in Sync Today
Loading Content...
Share a Link to this Message
The link has been copied to your clipboard; paste it anywhere you would like to share it.
Another extreme approach, in addition to those we saw yesterday, is to see work as something to avoid at all costs. It’s not a new sentiment – many have seen work as a necessary evil in history. The Greek Philosopher Aristotle saw the ability to live without having to work as a primary qualification for a worthwhile life.
Some try to work themselves as hard as possible to get to retirement, financial independence, partner, or some other goal as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, life is seldom forgiving of such imbalance. I once met a recently retired school bus driver. He’d worked hard at a number of difficult jobs in his life, and had just retired to live the good life. Unfortunately he discovered at the same time that his health was failing, and he was going blind and deaf in the process.
He’d worked himself so hard, thinking the promised land was coming, ignoring his children and grandchildren by his own admission. All that time, he didn’t notice he was supposed to live life and rest along the way, not just at the end. No one ever promised or owed him a certain kind of retirement – yet he’d gambled his health and youth on just such a fantasy.
Work isn’t fulfilling, without work in balance. Rest isn’t fulfilling, except in balance with work.
That isn’t to say there won’t be seasons of busy, hard work when rest is hard to find. Starting a busyiness, residency, apprenticeship, times you need extra cash, all need hard work. But we need to balance those times with seasons of rest, as well. Don’t expect it will always come later.
For example, at one time a goal for early, luxurious retirement was a million in assets – but inflation means that a million isn’t worth what it used to be. Look at Toronto real estate. If that had been your goal, it quickly inflated out of reach.
Another example is retirement age – many people thought they just had to make it to age 65. Now suddenly the normal retirement age is two years later, at age 67. By the time I retire, who knows where it will be! If that age was my goal, it only took an act of parliament to snatch it away. Such numerical goals keep changing, and can’t be our true purpose in life.
Question: When will you know it’s time to retire? How much will you need to save, what will you need to accomplish? Will you ever retire?
