Last month, our church welcomed in a group of new members, including a few families. As a part of their induction ceremony, we recited our church covenant. There we confess, “We who are heads of families shall maintain the worship of God in our homes and shall endeavor to lead our children and others committed to our charge to faith in Christ and growth in the Christian life.” Such worship of God “in our homes” is distinguished from attending weekly worship services, which is emphasized in the next line of the covenant.
Where does this idea come from? Worship in the home? With the kids? Isn’t that sort of…Puritan?
Perhaps. But it’s older than Puritan. It’s Old Testament old. Parent-led worship in the home was God’s idea, not the Reformers.
Last time, I began exploring the practical steps Moses calls God’s people to in their family life in response to our glorious God’s reality. The first two steps were personal: love the LORD your God and treasure God’s word. Utilizing the metaphor of fire, I suggested that these two were the heat and fuel of family discipleship. The last step is interpersonal: instruct the next generation in God’s word. Instruction is the final component to the fire of family discipleship, namely, oxygen.
Consider once again Moses’ words from Deuteronomy 6:
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. (6:4-9)
The instruction that God (through Moses) has in mind for family discipleship is a whenever and wherever kind of instruction that starts in the home and radiates into all of life. You can hear that in Moses’ enumeration of times and places: when you sit at home, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise, on your hand and between your eyes, on your doorposts and on your gates. As Peter Craigie observes, “The commandments were to permeate every sphere of the life of man.”
This is why instruction is the oxygen of family discipleship. It’s part of the atmosphere of the Christian family, with us whenever and wherever we are.
Now, within this whenever and wherever instruction, I see three dynamics at play. Each requires our attention as we consider how to instruct the next generation.
Speech
The first dynamic is speech. Moses’ writes, “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them…” Do you see the verbs Moses chose? Teach and talk. Clearly, Moses envisioned parents verbally communicating (i.e. speaking) the truths of God’s word to their children.
In fact, as Craigie notes, the verb teach has the sense of “repeat”. Thus, the adverb “diligently” is added in English to help bring out the sense of the Hebrew. However, it is not the intensity of our teaching but the frequency that Moses emphasizes. The kind of speaking that Moses imagines for family discipleship is hardly a “one and done” conversation. How could it be, if we are to talk when we sit and when we walk and when we lie down and when we rise? As a parent, you will teach and talk again and again…and again with your children about God’s word.
I don’t know if this possibility makes you excited or anxious. Are you afraid or motivated to speak with your children about God’s word? I pray that this possibility increasingly excites you, that talking with your children (starting when they’re young and adapting as they age) would become a passion of yours.
But if this possibility makes you nervous, ask yourself: why? Are you fearful to teach because you must first be taught? Of course, in order to talk with our children, we ourselves must know God’s word. Not all of us grew up in the church, some may be new to faith, others of us may have been in the church a long time yet our Christian education hasn’t reached far beyond Sunday sermons. Wherever you are in your faith journey, can I encourage you with this: you don’t need a seminary degree to teach children. Being only one day ahead of them will often suffice.
You don’t need a seminary degree to teach children.
Nevertheless, perhaps talking with your children is God’s appointed means to get you engaging in God’s word at a deeper level. I encourage you to dig!
Meditation
The second dynamic is meditation. In verses 8-9, Moses uses other verbs: bind and write. These commands are taken literally by observant Jews around the globe and throughout history. Scriptures are bound on the hand and forehead and on the doorposts to (quite literally) keep God’s word before their eyes.
Now, I’ll leave up to your judgment whether or not Moses intended such a literal obedience or if such is necessary under the New Covenant in Jesus. What I want to point out, however, is the function that such commands serve in a family, that is, they help us meditate on God’s word. They act as visual cues to direct our minds to remember the truth as it is in Jesus. They serve us as nudges, much like the notifications on your phone or sticky notes on your desk, to pay attention to God’s reality and God’s word in this time and this place.
And so, the question is what in your home and family life does that for you? What visual cues in your house direct your attention to God’s word? What activities in your family life cause you to remember God’s presence, power, and precepts? This may take various forms: from putting up Scripture verses around the house, to keeping a Bible handy at the kitchen table, to reciting a prayer together before going to bed…or some other creative idea you come up with!
The point is to be intentional about meditating on God’s word, to keep it before you and your children. Why? Because the LORD our God, the LORD is one. There is no part of life that is outside of God’s rule. There is no corner of your house or hour of your family time that is outside of Jesus’ dominion. His authoritative word reaches into all aspects of life and demands our attention, trust, and obedience.
Community
The third dynamic is community. Hillary Clinton is famous for saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.” And she’s right. But this observation wasn’t original to her. Jews and Christians have known this for millennia, because it’s God’s way.
In identifying the door and gate (v9) as part of God’s plan for instructing children in God’s word, Moses indicates the community’s involvement. Think about it: doors and gates are in some sense “public”, or at least they mediate between the public and private. And when you think about “public” you’re thinking about community. In commenting on the “signs” described in verses 8-9, Craigie concludes:
Whether taken literally or metaphorically, the signs described in vv.8-9 indicate that the individual (v. 8), his home, and his community (v. 9) were to be distinguished in their character by obedience to the commandments as a response of love for God.
Imagine if God’s word was posted on your door and your gate and everyone else’s door and gate, as you “walked by the way” (v7) with your children you would come across God’s word all over town! This is community involvement in the instruction of your children.
Now, most of us today don’t live in monolithic communities where everyone believes the same thing as we do. Therefore, seeing this vision become reality may not be realistic. Nevertheless, we can surely press into it within our faith community. If nothing less, we as a faith community ought to participate together in offering a distinct witness to our culture through the faith formation (i.e. instruction) of our children.
Don’t forget that these commands were for all Israel to follow together, not just one family or another. Whether we’re talking about Israel or the church, every member of the faith community (not just parents) is involved in this task. The faith community bears responsibility to hold one another accountable and to help each other in the faith formation of the next generation.
Reflect on these questions. What role is your faith community playing in the instruction of your children? What role are you playing in the instruction of other families’ children within your faith community? How are you, together with your faith community, offering a distinct witness to our world as you raise and instruct your children?
The faith community bears responsibility to hold one another accountable and to help each other in the faith formation of the next generation.
Speech, memory, and community are three dynamics within the whenever and wherever instruction of the next generation. In our highly-secular, technologically-decadent, modern world such instruction is needed more than ever because the attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviors of this world are more invasive and pervasive than ever. The digital age brings all these into our homes, bedrooms, and pockets like never before. They must, therefore, be countered by a similarly invasive and pervasive instruction, whenever and wherever.
Instruction is part of the atmosphere of the Christian home.
As I’ve suggested, instruction of the next generation in God’s word is the oxygen of family discipleship. It’s part of the atmosphere of the Christian home. Together with the heat of love for God and fuel of treasuring his word, these three work together in the fire of family discipleship.
So, ask yourself: is this fire burning in your home?