Author: jetbrane

Question 108. What does the seventh commandment teach us?

Answer: That all uncleanness is accursed of God: (a) and that therefore we must with all our hearts detest the same, (b) and live chastely and temperately, (c) whether in holy wedlock, or in single life. (d)

I.) God’s Disposition Towards “Uncleanness”

Adultery proper indicates that a man, either married or unmarried, has unlawful relations with a married (or betrothed) woman. He takes into possession what does not belong to him (Deut.22: 24).

Notice that while the commandment forbids “adultery” the Catechism includes in its teaching on the 7th commandment that which is forbidden includes all uncleanness.

Leviticus 18 gives a list of the uncleanness that is accursed by God. In the list includes the prohibition against marriage within family lines, and prohibition against un-natural acts. It is interesting that when one gets to the NT there is reiteration of how God finds several of the un-natural acts listed in Lev. 18 to be accursed.

9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals,[a] nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.

Scripture teaches that God visits the punishment of the uncleanness upon the land in the OT and so the land vomited the purveyors of such unseemliness out of the land.

(a) Lev.18:27 (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 28 That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

The destruction of such civilizations that were practitioners of such uncleanness is not unique to OT times. Theodore Momsmen, in his book, “History of Rome,” writes of the breakdown of Greek and Roman civilizations,

“What ideas as to divorce prevailed in the circles of the aristocracy may be discerned in the conduct of their best and most moral hero, Marcus Cato, who did not hesitate to separate from his wife at the request of a friend desirous to marry her, and as little scrupled on the death of his friend to marry the same wife a second time. Celibacy and childlessness became more and more common, especially among the upper classes … we now encounter in Cato … the maxim which Polybius a century before traced the decay of Hellas, that it is the duty of the citizen to keep great wealth together and therefore not to be beget too many children…. In consequence of such a social condition the Latin stock in Italy underwent an alarming diminution, and its fair provinces were overstepped partly by parasitic immigration, partly by sheer desolation.”

We find here a number of social traits characteristics of civilizations in decline because of the uncleanness that is accursed by God of which the catechism speaks.

Playing off of Momsmen’s analysis Harvard Sociologist Zimmerman could write

What we find in families and civilizations in decline is increasing development of extra-family carnal relations, the decay of mores of the upper class families (which continually then move downward infiltrating the lower classes), the rise of unclean abnormalities, the increasing refusal of women to be sedate in an unsedate world; the decline in the seriousness with which adultery is considered, the purely formal adhesion to the moral code; the increased popularity and frequency of absolute divorce and separation; the rise of celibacy and aggravated birth control; … the replacement of the native populations by immigrants, slaves, and non-natives; and the development of an antagonism to the whole system of values upon which the society formerly operated.

So this uncleanness which was accursed by God in the OT record and which led to a removal of the former people from the land by God is an uncleanness that can be found elsewhere in recorded history and likewise was found to be accursed by God as seen in the eventual destruction of subsequent civilizations.

So we can see in Scripture and in history that all such uncleanness is accursed by God. And we would add that such uncleanness that the Catechism teaches, following Scripture remains accursed of God. Finally, on this point we would offer that if God finds such uncleanness accursed among those who made no claim upon Him as His people how much more accursed is this uncleanness when it is found among those who makes some kind of claim upon God’s name?

II.) Our Disposition Towards Uncleanness

therefore we must with all our hearts detest the same

The catechism instructs us that our disposition towards these sins ought not to be merely casual but that our whole being is to be set in opposition towards this kind of uncleanness.

Webster’s 1828 Dictionary defines

DETEST, v.t. [L., to affirm or bear witness. The primary sense of testor is to set, throw or thrust. To detest is to thrust away.] To abhor; to abominate; to hate extremely; as, to detest crimes or meanness.

The idea here is that because God finds such uncleanness accursed we should, as His people, detest what is accursed by God. In the old legal sense we are to bear witness against such uncleanness.

But of course our detesting of uncleanness are as those who would point to a God who does forgive all such uncleanness. We are reminded in the very NT passage that we cited earlier that speaks of God’s opposition to uncleanness that immediately thereafter the Apostle can say,

I Cor. 6:11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

And so any detesting that we are called to is a detesting done so that people who are involved in various kinds of uncleanness, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, etc. may discover and know the joy of being clean again in Christ Jesus who alone can take our uncleanness away and by His animating Spirit give us a desire to go from cleanness to cleanness as we walk in newness of life.

Another thing we should say about this detesting is that this disposition towards these sins is not done in these sense that we are made of better dirt than others. We are sinners who ourselves have been and are continually forgiven of our sins and so there is to be no self-righteousness about our detesting of these sins that we are called to.

Jude teaches what our manner here should be,

Jude 1:23 And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

The whole purpose of our detesting is one of compassion. Those caught in adultery, or other uncleanness are caught in a lifestyle that is destructive to them. And so we oppose their uncleanness precisely because of compassion and sympathy for them.

Now let’s spend a moment speaking about the psychological end of this.

If one was to live in a culture that was characterized by this uncleanness and if one was to have the disposition that the Catechism calls for one could expect that the response might be that we will be detested by those who are involved in uncleanness. For example in 2008,

A Christian photographer in New Mexico was found guilty in 2008 of breaking state law for refusing to take pictures of a lesbian ceremony. Recently that decision was upheld by an appellate court. The appeals process continues.

Elaine Huguenin of Elane Photography was contacted in 2006 by a same-sex couple wanting pictures taken of their “commitment ceremony.”

After Huguenin told them she only photographed traditional marriages, the couple filed a complaint for discrimination against their sexual orientation.

The case was taken before the New Mexico Human Rights Commission, which heard the case in January.

On Wednesday, the state commission ruled that Huguenin violated the state’s Human Rights Act. An order was issued for the photographer to pay close to $7,000 for the couple’s attorney’s fees.

And so these Christian Photographers found out the price for detesting uncleanness and we may as well in the way of being unpopular, or losing friends, or even having other Christians break fellowship with us, or in other ways. We need to keep in mind here the words of Jesus here in John 15:18,

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”

III.) God’s Answer For Us To Uncleanness

live chastely and temperately

The word “chaste” has a similar meaning to the word “pure.” The word “temperate” means to exercise self control.

1 Thess.4:3 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: 1 Thess.4:4 That every one of you should know how to possess his own body in sanctification and honour; 1 Thess.4:5 Not in the lustful passion, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

In times where the world is spinning increasingly out of control when it comes to the issue of uncleanness an effective witness to the glory of Jesus Christ in his ability to freely save is to live in self control. Though it must be said even here that living in this way quite without saying a word can also earn the enmity of those who are convicted. I know of a person for example, many years ago who was relieved from her job simply because she would not join in the gutter talk at the work place with the other co-workers.

And here we can turn to speak to the Father’s for just a moment on this Father’s day. Fathers the ability of your family to live chastely and temperately will be largely reflective of your living chastely and temperately. You have the opportunity to set the standard, in the home, for the chaste and temperate lifestyle that the catechism calls for here.

Recently, I was encouraged in a conversation I had with one of the Dads here in his attempt to maintain a standard for the chaste and the temperate in an activity in which his children were involved. He had a sense of the chaste and the temperate and he desired that standard to be enforced. This is becoming a Christian father.

Fathers when you love your respective wives you are folding into your children, by way of living example, future families where adultery will most often be a stranger. Fathers your influence upon your children and their future families will either be an influence towards cleanness or uncleanness. There are plenty of influences in the broader culture upon them for uncleanness and so let your influence be towards cleanness.

IV.) This Lifestyle Is To Be Characteristic Of Us Regardless Of Our Marriage Status

The catechism speaks of the single life and we would admit how difficult it must be to live in this culture as a single person temperately and chastely. But we recall that the purpose of this section of the Catechism is to instruct us how we can live to the glory of God, and so, if single, by the Spirit’s aid, chaste and temperate lives are sought out.

One thing to keep in mind that might help to this end is all that uncleanness promises in way of allurement it can never deliver. Sin has its passing pleasure but it can never satisfy. This is perhaps nowhere more true than in relation to this issue.

Whether single or married we must keep in mind,

3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let them not once be named among you, as becometh saints;
4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not befitting, but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this ye know: that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.

Those that are married are likewise called to this chaste and temperate life. The State of marriage is honorable

Heb.13:4 Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

Now what might we say to those who have slipped and fallen in the mire of uncleanness that is so prevalent in our culture. We would say that there is forgiveness in Christ Jesus. Following Scripture we would remind the believer that if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. We would remind that all of us in Christ stand received by God only upon the basis of Christ’s cleanness put to our account.

To those outside of Christ who might be weary and heavy laden with assorted uncleanness you can be assured that if you will come to Christ in faith He will wash your sins clean in Baptism and will pour out His Spirit so that you can say no to the lifestyle that promised so much but delivered so little. There is no need to amend your life before you turn to Christ for forgiveness and healing. Regardless of your present uncleanness, Christ will not turn you away.

Subject — Envy
Theme — Collective Envy

Proposition — An examination of institutionalized envy in a culture will help us to understand why Proverbs 27:4 suggests that envy is something that is nigh unto impossible to stand up against.

Purpose — Therefore having looked at collective envy let us seek, by God’s grace, to not be swept up and be participants in this collective envy.

Introduction

We moved to this question of envy because of how it is connected to the sin of murder as mentioned by the Heidelberg catechism.

Question 106. But this commandment seems only to speak of murder?

Answer: In forbidding murder, God teaches us, that he abhors the causes thereof, such as envy, (a) hatred, (b) anger, (c) and desire of revenge; and that he accounts all these as murder. (d)

We pretty much understand hatred, anger, and the desire for revenge but it is my conviction that we don’t really understand envy, and that because it is in the air we breath, culturally speaking.

Last week we set the table for our discussion on envy. We considered some significant Scriptures that teach on envy. We briefly traced out how envy has been spoken about by some of the Early Church Fathers. And we spoke about envy on a personal and individual basis. And then concluded by looking at some solutions to envy.

As we continue now this week we return to the definition that we gave for envy.

Definition of Envy — Envy is the sin of jealousy over the blessings, prosperity, character, and achievements of others, but more than jealousy it is the positive anguish over the good of others and joy at the anguish and misery of others even if that anguish and misery does the envious no discernible positive good. While being indignant might find its roots in the injustice of the well being of evil persons, envy finds its roots in the happiness of good people. In brief envy is pain at the good in others, and it is most commonly found in those whom wish to lower others, even if that lowering of others does not mean that they will rise.

Well we can understand why God says in Proverbs that it is a rottenness to the bones.

Envy is wounded by our neighbors prosperity. Envy finds pleasure in the ruin or harm of those of whom we are envious. Envy is sickened at hearing praises of those of whom are envied and recoils at the virtues of those upon whom our envy is pointed. And the irony, which we will explore more next week, is that envy only grows more intense the more it is assuaged by those who are being envied. That is to say, that should the envied seek to practice charity towards the envious, with thoughts of reducing their reasons to be envious, the envious envy them all the more because of the their own sense that as being inferiors they had to be assisted by those they believe to be their superiors. The envious hate those who help them because it confirms, in their minds, their lower position. If the envious receive favor from the fortunate the envious suffers even more and the envy grows because the one in the favored position has the power to dispense favor while the envied does not. Envy is not concerned so much with reaching the happiness of others as it is in making everyone as miserable as the envious. Envy is complicated by the fact that it is slow to be self-diagnosed or confessed because of the shame involved in this vice.

Schadenfreude — taking joy or delight in another person’s misfortune.

What we want to ask this morning is what does envy look like when it becomes the norm among a people group and becomes institutionalized among a people and their culture.

Proverbs 27:4 asks rhetorically, “Who is able to stand before envy?”

This morning we want to see why the writer of proverbs views envy as being such a fearsome enemy.

And indeed Envy is a fearsome enemy. In Scripture we find envy stirred up against godliness in others

Daniel 6:3-5 Then this Daniel distinguished himself above the governors and satraps, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king gave thought to setting him over the whole realm. 4 So the governors and satraps sought to find some charge against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find no charge or fault, because he was faithful; nor was there any error or fault found in him. 5 Then these men said, “We shall not find any charge against this Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God.”

Envy stirred up against prosperity of others

Ps. 73:3 For I was envious of the boastful,
When I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Envy stirred up against who are favored / successful

I Samuel 18:6 Now it had happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. 7 So the women sang as they danced, and said:

“Saul has slain his thousands,
And David his ten thousands.”

8 Then Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him; and he said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed only thousands. Now what more can he have but the kingdom?” 9 So Saul eyed David from that day forward.

And so Proverbs 27:4 asks “Who can stand before envy,” and in the last few examples of envy we saw how it can work on a basis of a individual against another individual but we want to probe this morning what it looks like as a collective culture operates with envy as a foundational starting point for the culture. Surely, if Proverbs 27:4 is correct that envy is a powerful enemy on a personal basis how much more so if envy becomes part of the bowels of a culture?

Organized cultural envy produces two children that we are going to consider this morning. These two children, if nurtured by the allowance of envy to proliferate and spread end up going a long way towards creating a anti-Christian mindset among all who are members of the culture.

I.) Egalitarianism as one offspring of Envy

Since envy is concerned with bringing the successful, prosperous, and superior person down, the long range effect of envy on a culture as a whole is to produce a culture where all are equal — equal in the sense of nobody being allowed to distinguish themselves by way of ability.

A Envious culture will set cultural wide norms that are not to be exceeded. There will be a kind of cultural coercion toward mediocrity and the mediocre will be increasingly defined downward.

This most often reveals itself via the move to insure that all think alike, that all belong to one class only, and that all share a similar heritage and inheritance.

A.) Think Alike (Intellectual Envy)

1.) For example in our Educational Programs we have largely institutionalized envy so those who have the skills to excel in learning are held back in order to insure that those who are slower and perhaps are not as gifted are not left behind. While well intentioned such a program has the effect of doing what envy always does and that is it works to level achievement to the level of the under-achiever. The one who might academically distinguish themselves, if given the opportunity, is retarded in their advancement out of our desire to make sure that that all advance together.

2.) In our culture with its mass media owned by a comparative number of small outlets, what is moved towards is a mass communication that gives people the same information resulting in a group think. This group think makes for a egalitarianism in opinion and goes a long way towards achieving the goal of envy by insuring that there will be protection against originality in thinking, protection against free and unfettered intellectual exchange of ideas, and
protection against superiority in thinking of individuals.

Remember the goal of culturally institutionalized envy is to pull down the superior so that the result is a grand leveling effect. This results in the creation of Mass Man — the herd — where no one distinguishes themselves and all are the same. All think the same, look the same, act the same, and all have the same.

Illustration — Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeson”

“The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal.”

So begins Vonnegut’s 1961 short story.

Vonnegut goes on to describe the conditions of this equality brought on by the cultural wide presence of envy:

They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th, and 213th Amendments to the Constitution, and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.

This government enforced equality was achieved by imposing prosthetic technologies on those who were above average; these prosthetics, however, were designed not to enhance, but to diminish. So, for example, ballerinas who might otherwise rise above their peers in grace, elegance and beauty, were burdened with sashweights and bags of birdshot, and their faces were masked, so that no one, seeing a free and graceful gesture or a pretty face, would feel like something the cat drug in.

Then there were those of above average intelligence like the title character’s father, George Bergeron.

[He] had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking unfair advantage of their intelligence.

Whenever George began to formulate a complex idea, which often involved questioning the status quo, a sharp, piercing noise would shoot in his ear distracting him and derailing his train of thought. Sometimes the noise was like a siren going off, other times “like somebody hitting a milk bottle with a ball peen hammer.” Regular and incessant, the distraction overwhelmed and undermined natural intelligence.

3.) Political Correctness

Conforming to a belief that language and practices which could offend political sensibilities should be eliminated.

Political correctness has as its goal this leveling conformity where all think alike. Thinking that leads to conclusions that one lifestyle should be preferred above another lifestyle because it is superior is not allowed because those who are living the inferior lifestyle use envy as a tool to make all lifestyles the same.

The envy of the intellectually mediocre establishes a conceptual standardization so that it may denounce and condemn those who don’t conform to the officially approved thinking mode.

B.) All Belong To One Class (Social Envy)

Roosevelt, in the 1936 campaign ran against the “Economic Royalists.” The incipient idea in casting one group of Americans as “Royalists,” over against another group who were not is a classic example of envy being used as a motivating tool. The idea was then to pull the Economic Royalists down so that economic egalitarianism, as fueled by envy, could be established.

But this applies to not only the moneyed but to any class of people who have developed some kind of superiority. Envy works to eliminate categories of superior and inferior so that all can be the same. We see this working itself out in children’s contests where it is insisted that everyone get a medal and that all are winners. Again, this is well intentioned but such a mindset reflects the work of envy which insists that all are the same. The refusal to recognize the achievers does not lift up those who tried but failed, but instead pulls down those who tried and succeeded.

C.) All similar patrimony (Familial Envy)

This is envy working to insure that no family rises above another. Estate taxation and death taxes are the way that our collective envy works to make sure that families which are inter-generationally gifted can not rise above other families.

If Abraham were alive in our time he would be severely faulted for sending his servant back to his own people to find a bride for Isaac. Because of familial envy it is thought that all families are equal and so no consideration should be given to a family background that a potential spouse may come from or that a potential adopted child might come from.

The end result of envy then when embraced collectively by a culture is to migrate ever downward to the lowest common denominator. Cultural envy when institutionalize leads to the constant integration into the void. Institutionalized envy leads to the flattening out of all distinctions and cuts at the roots any ability to distinguish oneself from the herd.

Culturally wide accepted envy forces those who are envied for some distinction that yet remains to avoid the eye of envy by insisting that they are not superior in any sense, that all others are equal to them, that they believe the catechism of envy and egalitarianism is true and that they join with the envious in condemning to exile all who not swear allegiance to the code of equality.

Now just a word about where all this culturally institutionalized envy leads eventually,

Envy intervenes with increasing negativity in several capacities. Envy shunts aside the intelligent, the strong, and the virtuous and does not encourage others to pursue and develop these abilities. Scholarly envy towards the best and most studious produces and promotes academic laziness and loss of interest in critical and analytical thinking skills. Social envy creates obstacles to the public recognition of the best.

In short … the more envy there is in a culture, the less the collective capacity to propel forth great men and women.

So, having considered all this we can better understand why the writer to Proverbs could say, “Who is able to stand before envy?”

And the ironic thing is that after all this work to achieve egalitarianism, the envious still do not have their envy lifted from them for envy poisons the sweetness of all the sources and streams of human enjoyment. Indeed, this is a sin that as the proverbs says rottens the bones.

By way of conclusion let us continue to probe some ways that we might cure envy in ourselves.

Emulation

In Hebrews 11 the writer is encouraging those with a less than adequate faith to emulate the heroes of the faith.

Emulation is a cure to envy. Instead of envying those who are gifted or talented in some way we ought to try and emulate them. I will never be the Theologian that G. K. Beale is but I can admire him and seek to emulate him and even if I never become as talented and gifted as he is I can be as talented and gifted as I can be.

Gratitude

We can be thankful for our betters. Instead of trying to pull them down via envy we can thank God that he has raised them up to be a gift to us.

Mind our own business

It is enough for each of us to seek to be the best that we can be for the Glory of God. This means we haven’t enough time to be envious of others because we are so busy honing the gifts that God has given us. There is no need to preoccupy ourselves with what we don’t have if we preoccupy ourselves w/ improving what God has given us.

Remember our guilt is taken away by Christ

Envy is born of feelings of inadequacy and the resultant guilt. It may be the case that in some endeavor one may be inadequate because they simply don’t have the abilities but there is no need to feel guilty and so use envy to pull down the qualified. Instead, because we know our guilt has been taken away we can acknowledge our inadequacy and be happy for those who are gifted and talented.

We Weep w/ those who Weep and Rejoice w/ those who rejoice

The Christian rejoices with his fellow Christian who is talented above him. He glorifies God that God sovereignly distributed His gifts as he deemed best. Are we willing to say with John the Baptist … “He must increase and I must decrease.”

Text – I Tim. 1:2-5, 3:14-15
Subject—Passing on the Faith
Theme – The place of the family in passing on the faith
Proposition – The place of the family in passing on the faith should make us very careful to raise our children with an eye to covenantal faithfulness on our parts

Purpose – Therefore having seen the place of the family in passing on the faith let us praise God that He has given us the privilege of teaching our children Christ.

Introduction

Spheres – Family Sphere

The importance of the Family Sphere in the work of the Church

I.) Paul Sees The Instrumentality Of His Lineage In His Faith (1:3, Acts 24:14-15)

Literally the inspired Apostle writes here “whom I from my forefathers serve.” What he is communicating is “whom I serve with a faith derived from my forefathers.” Or, “with a faith which had its roots in their religion, and is therefore similar to theirs.”

It should be said immediately so that no confusion is engendered … Paul is not teaching here, and neither am I teaching that we are saved by our families or by our family heritage and connection. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, but Reformed people, because of their strong covenantal theology, have always believed that by God’s sovereign ordering, grace runs in familial channels so that a connection can legitimately be made between the grace that comes to us as individuals and the reality that God’s grace includes God’s favor in making us descendents of Godly forefathers and, as we shall see – foremothers.

This truth is important to keep repeating in a culture that wars against the Christian faith by constantly seeking to cut each successive generation from the remnants of its Christian past. Each new generation is mired in the attempt by a faith, that is other than Christianity, to be peeled away from their forefathers.

If your refer back to Acts 24:14-15 you see another place where St. Paul makes this familial faith appeal to his Fathers. There in his defense before Felix he can say,

14 But this I confess unto thee, that according to the Way, which they call heresy, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the Law and in the Prophets.

Like here in I Timothy Paul in Acts is providing a significant linkage between His Faith and the Faith of His Fathers. Doubtless, the Fathers he has in mind in both places are the patriarchs. What He believes now is what Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob believed and bequeathed to their seed. He as one of their seed believes the same thing.

Of course we can not miss an important implication here. If Paul is hammering the connection between what he believes and what his forefathers believed there therefore must be significant continuity between what is called the Old and New Testament. In Acts 24 Paul makes the connection between the belief of the Fathers in the resurrection and in his missionary travels the Resurrection becomes, along with the Kingdom of God, a major theme. They looked forward to a coming Messiah, Paul proclaims the same Messiah. They passed the faith along to their children. Lois and Eunice has passed the faith along to their child as well.

Christian Faith expressions that do not think inter-generationally and practice the faith inter-generational will eventually die on the vine.

This way of thinking stands in marked contrast to the last 75 years or more of American Christianity. One of the mottos of evangelical Christianity is that “God has no Grandchildren.” Many of us grew up in Evangelicalism and heard that refrain many, many times. The purpose of that statement was to impress upon young people in particular, but everyone in general, that a person’s religious identity derived from claiming the faith for himself and was not ascribed by birth.

And there is a sense in which that is true BUT there is also a sense in which that is not true. The sense in which it is true is that every individual is called to own the faith for themselves. The sense in which that is not true is that who we are as individuals is connected to the family we were birthed into. It is precisely because we believe that God has Grandchildren that we therefore Baptize our children believing that God will be God to us and to our seed for a thousand generations. To deny that God has Grandchildren in a specific sense is to play havoc with Reformed covenantal theology.

Another thing we want to touch on here is the specific corporeal forefathers that Paul speaks of. When Paul speaks of his forefathers he is not spiritualizing the text. He has in mind the generations before that were blood related to him. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses, Isaiah and the Prophets.

The reason that I bring this up, is because in just a bit Paul invokes the blood relatives of Timothy. Paul could have as easily recalled to Timothy the importance of His Spiritual Forefathers, but instead he invokes for Timothy what he invoked for Himself and that is the faith of his blood relatives.

All of this is to say that who we are, as God has constituted us in our families, is important. No Covenantal Reformed person would ever say otherwise.

II.) Paul Sees The Instrumentality Of Timothy’s Lineage In Timothy’s Faith (1:5, 3:14f)

Paul thanks God for Timothy’s genuine faith. Perhaps Paul lands on the word “genuine” here because he has experienced the spurious faith of other co-workers such as Demas (4:10) and as such the reality of Timothy’s genuine faith gives the Apostle cause to praise God.

Paul then, just as he referenced the importance of his familial legacy references the importance of Timothy’s. He makes mention of his Grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice.

This is the only place in the NT where these two Mothers are named. In Acts 16 we see Eunice but we do not know her by name there.

16:1 — but Then Paul came to Derbe and Lystra. And behold, a certain disciple was there named Timothy, the son of a certain woman who was a Jewess who believed, but whose father was a Greek.

Given that the Father was apparently a pagan it is easy to surmise that Lois would have been the Mother of Timothy’s Mother Eunice. Consistent with Paul’s reasoning in I Cor. 7, by virtue of this believing Mother Timothy would have been a covenant child.

14 For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband. Else your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

And so Timothy is a child of the covenant, who by God’s gracious dealings with him, has had the faith handed down to him in the context of two generations of Godly Mothers.

Let us be very clear here … in God’s ordination and by God’s sovereignty Timothy was who he was, in regards to his Christian faith, as his Mother and Grandmother pointed Him to Christ alone.

And on a day that is set aside to recognize Mothers we should note the tremendous impact that Christ centered women can have on their children – even in homes where the Father’s influence is not what it might be.

Look at what Eunice and Lois did in raising Timothy.

II Tim. 3 14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing from whom thou hast learned them,15 and that from childhood thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

As Paul did earlier in his letter to Timothy in chapter 1, so he does again now in Chapter 3. He invokes not only the faith but also from whom the faith came. In doing so God casts linkage between the truth of the Scriptures and the family that taught the Scriptures.

Calvin can speak of this text in a rather arresting way,

“Accordingly he sets before him his Grandmother Lois and his Mother Eunice, by whom he had been educated from his infancy in such a manner that he might have sucked godliness along with milk. By this godly education, therefore, Timothy is admonished not to degenerate from himself and from his ancestors.” “Timothy is admonished not to degenerate from himself and from his godly ancestors.”

1.) Christians who have grown up in a Christ exalting home like Timothy realize that if you ever turn your back on the Christian faith, you at that same moment turn your back on your family so that in the words of Calvin you degenerate from yourself and from your godly ancestors.

2.) Taking a hint from Calvin, we can reverse it to say that Christians who have grown up in Christ exalting homes need to realize that if your ever turn your back on your faithful Godly ancestors, you are at that same moment turning your back on your Christian faith.

There is an inexorable relationship between Christian family and Christian faith. You can distinguish family and faith but you can not separate them. This is part and parcel of covenant theology. If my children abandon my wife and I as we continue in the faith, they abandon the faith. If my children abandon the Christian faith they have, in Calvin’s words, “degenerated from their ancestors.”

From the text in Chapter 3 we must make a few points in the way Eunice and Lois raised Timothy.

1.) Eunice and Lois taught Timothy the Scriptures.

39 “Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life; and it is they which testify of Me.

Of course we need to keep in mind that the Scriptures here referred to are the OT Scriptures which teach Christ, thus again reinforcing the continuity between the covenantal epochs.

2.) In teaching Timothy the Scriptures, Eunice and Lois taught Timothy salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

There was a Christocentric focus. Christ for sinners. Christ as the one in whom, through whom, and by whom is our peace with God.

Of course for both Mothers and Fathers we can not teach what we do not know. And so if we are to teach our Children the Scriptures we must be a student of Scriptures ourselves. I have been encouraged as your Pastor to see many of you do that, through your Bible reading programs and through your resolve to read through Calvin’s Institutes or Matthew Henry, or some other weighty reading, by your attendance on Word & Sacrament.

3.) In teaching Timothy the Scriptures Eunice and Lois were doing Evangelism.

Evangelism begins at home.

There are many joke about how Reformed people only do Evangelism by having children and I suppose we should laugh at ourselves but we need to keep in mind that if we can not keep our children what is our evangelism to those who are not our children? I fear that Reformed people are losing their families at the cost of trying and too often failing to win the world.

They evangelized Timothy From Childhood – The Greek there signifies, a child at birth or of tender years. According to Jewish custom the parent was begin instructing the child in the law when the child reached five years of age.

Note that from this passage and others like it I get the idea that you can not draw out of children what you do not first pour into them. Eunice and Lois trained trained trained Timothy.

The Principle Here Then is,

** Those of you that have been privileged to have been raised yourselves w/ a Christian heritage have a charge to keep from your Forefathers or Foremothers unto the generations that follow you. If the faith dies out in the generations it is not because God has been unfaithful.

Conclusion

Re-cap

Emphasize Christ’s sufficiency again

Encourage those who don’t come from Covenant families that God delights in starting new covenant family heritage.