Request your free, three-month trial to Tabletalk magazine. You’ll receive the print issue monthly and gain immediate digital access to decades of archives. This trial is risk-free. No credit card required.
Try Tabletalk NowAlready receive Tabletalk magazine every month?
Verify your email address to gain unlimited access.
The household is under attack. What we once knew as the bedrock and nucleus of society is being assaulted on every side. The world is attempting to deconstruct and redefine the household. The evil one is attempting to destroy the household, as he has from the beginning, by his deceiving, scheming, and dividing. And even on some fronts, the church has become silent about God’s design for the household and is refusing to take a stand on the unchanging truth of God’s Word. We are not surprised by the attempts of the world; nor are we in any way caught off guard by the attempts of our enemy. But we ought to be saddened and troubled when the church refuses to speak the truth in love and fails to care for, love, and discipline those in the church who have rejected God’s design for the household—while we ought to restore those in love who have repented and returned.
The household is a biblical concept, and even the world enjoys the benefits of the household. But as it does with every institution that God has created, the world borrows whatever it likes, rejects whatever it dislikes, and redefines concepts—including the family, marriage, and gender roles—as it sees fit. Those who go along with this program will find only loneliness, isolation, and despair. Even now, such people boisterously attempt to pretend to be happy while they live lives of quiet desperation. And while that should make us truly sad, it must not make us silent in defending and proclaiming the unchanging truth of God.
As Christians, we must stand firm and not waver from what is true, good, and beautiful in the eyes of God. Those professing Christians who give only lip service to the Word of God and who do not actually follow its teaching are not only giving in to the ever-evolving demands of the world; they are in fact destroying the household by succumbing to the pressures of society. The world will call us old-fashioned, unenlightened, and stodgy, but we must remain steadfast, not for the sake of being traditional but for the sake of maintaining the tradition of the household that God has established in His Word. Nevertheless, as we uphold God’s glorious design for the household, we must be careful not to make an idol of the household and worship the family instead of our God who designed the household. So, by God’s grace, let us appreciate and uphold the household while ever being careful not to take the good things God has made and make them ultimate things, lest we begin worshiping the good things rather than the Creator of all good things.