3 Winsome Ways to Equip Children with Truth – Part 2
Please refer to part one for the previous section.
Point To God’s Purpose:
Once He laid the foundation in Scripture, Jesus then brings out God’s purpose. God designed marriage to be a union where two become one. To apply this to the sacredness of human life, we know from Scripture God designed man in His image, and that is what makes human life sacred. Again, going back to Scripture, we know that death is the result of sin, thus God did not use evolution. The same applies with any issue our children will ask about. We point to God’s purpose, and immediately anything that would sabotage that purpose is seen as the evil it is.
Point To The Goodness:
Notice Jesus never even mentions the word divorce until the Pharisees ask their follow-up question later in the passage. The closest He comes is saying, “What God has joined together, let no man put asunder.” God is the one Who joins together; therefore, it is to man’s good that he doesn’t undo the work of God. Why is any sin, be it divorce, sodomy, abortion, atheism, prejudice against other ethnic group, and the like evil? One reason is they distort, twist, and pervert the good work of God. It is sin against God that makes sin so sinful. But we only know this if the goodness has been showcased. How can we see how dark darkness is until we have seen the light?
While I have stayed with Jesus’ topic and used marriage to illustrate, these three ways apply to all issues in our culture today, from biblical marriage, to sacredness of life, to prejudice among ethnic groups, to biblical creation and much more.
Why Not The Direct Attack?
Why don’t we just leave it to saying, “Divorce is wrong (which it is) and sodomy is wrong (which it is),”? The human default is to attack and point out all the evil and stupidity of an opposing position. But look at what the above sentence is missing. When I simply say, “Divorce is wrong and sodomy is wrong,” where is any mention of God? If I tack a, “because God said so,” on the end, it still doesn’t tell me why it is wrong, or why what God has instead for us is much better, wholesome, and lovely. Only pointing to God’s perfect design and perfect goodness does this. The same with ethic prejudice. I can say it is wrong, but no one knows why, and no one knows who says so. An authority higher than my opinion that tells how we all are one blood descend from Adam, and thus all created in God’s image, must be deferred to before anyone will see the beauty and wisdom of seeing my fellowman—regardless of his skin shade or physical traits—as my brother. Also, I can derail the atheist, but what testimony is that to the love of the God I represent? There is a place for pointing out the wickedness. Scripture again gives us examples of how it is to be done. But let us race back to the lovely as soon as possible. Our good and holy God commands we love the good and holy. When you taste goodness, the swine’s slop is seen as the filth it is. We expose darkness not by cursing the darkness but by being light.
Kenzi Knapp is a follower of Christ, homeschool graduate and student of history. A fourth generation Missourian she enjoys writing about daily life enrolled in Gods great course of faith and His story throughout the ages at her blog, Honey Rock Hills.
