Thursday, August 28, 2008
2 Timothy 3:15 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for . . . rebuking.
USE SCRIPTURE TO REBUKE YOUR CHILDREN
We praise the Lord for making our children wise for salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus. We rejoice that through baptism He makes them His own for time and eternity, dressing them in the robe of holiness He purchased for all by His blood. Yet we know our children, dressed as they are in the clothing of saints, are at the same time sinners. They have a sinful flesh to contend with which leads them do un-saintly things. Teenage young people are confronted by a special set of temptations prepared as a snare for their downfall by the devil. For them there is the temptation to cave in to peer pressure, to go along with the crowd and compromise their faith; the temptation to let the world's thinking shape their attitudes instead of following the holy promptings of the Spirit. The faith of young Christians, planted in their hearts by the Spirit in their baptism, is subject to many severe tests, even as the faith of adult Christians is.
But isn't it encouraging to hear what God's inspired apostle Paul writes to Timothy in the verse above? The Scriptures are useful for teaching our children the truths of salvation in Christ AND for rebuking them when they stray from His Word. Christian parents may be encouraged as they keep in mind this beautiful promise of God: "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). When your children allow their flesh to hold sway, the Holy Spirit will use the Word of loving rebuke you lay on their hearts to work in them a godly sorrow and repentance and guide them back onto the pleasant pathways of their Redeemer.
Gracious Savior, gentle Shepherd, Children all are dear to Thee;
Gathered with Thine arms and carried In Thy bosom may they be;
Sweetly, fondly, safely, tended, From all want and danger free.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 627:1)
