Before There Was Evangelism...

Gò0dNews for Family

Before There Was Evangelism…

by David Beckmann

…there was the family. When God made provision for His will to be done on earth, He created a man and a woman, with the idea that they would start a family. When He decided it was time to start that project over, He saved a family from the Flood—Noah’s family. When it was time to begin and establish “His own” people who were to do His will in the Promised Land, He started with the family of Abraham. When God gave the law for His people at Mt. Sinai, right in the middle of it is the family: “Honor

your father and your mother…” Ultimately, when God sent His Son to save us from our sin and to establish His kingdom, He had him raised in a family.

I say all that to get to this: when the apostle Paul writes about living out the Christian life, we should expect him to put a lot of emphasis on how we live in our families—or I should say households, because he includes the servants—which he did. Why? Because the family has always been the primary building block for His kingdom and the doing of His will on earth— “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

That is why marriage and the raising of children in a godly family are so important for us as Christians. It is also why the devil, and the world under his influence, hates the family so much. That is why the devil and his servants have always done what they could to destroy the “traditional” or “natural” family, which God established at the creation. And boy, have they been busy over the last century or so! Our enemies know how important the family is. Do we?

I write to believing, evangelical married couples. As we seek to fulfill the Great Commission and to live out the Christian life—to be salt and light in this world— how do we order our personal priorities? How are we to follow Paul’s instruction to be wise and understanding what the will of the Lord is for us (Ephesians 5:15-17)? Well, after he says to do that, he tells us to live in the Spirit, be thankful, have a submissive attitude toward one another, and then he orders our family life (Ephesians 5:18f).

Evangelism is important, but God created families to do His will on earth before they fell and needed evangelism. How can we invite people to God’s love in Christ if we cannot love our relatives (1 John 4:20)?

Furthermore, if we are to disciple the nations, shouldn’t that discipling begin with our own children? Has God not given them to us for that purpose? Shouldn’t we want to have children (or adopt them) so we can nurture them to know the Lord and thus build the family of God, the Church?

If we want to win the world for Christ, whatever we do, let’s still focus on the family.

About The Author The Rev. David Beckmann is an Anglican priest and Moderator of the C.S. Lewis Society of Chattanooga. Recently, he was director of the C. S. Lewis Study Centre at The Kilns, Oxford, UK. He blogs at revbeckmann.com.