As to family governance, Christians have abdicated true family governance for a psychologized, democratized family that pretends to perform its duty of nurturance without governance. Headship is abandoned for cooperative negotiation. Children are distracted from sin but not punished for it. We have believed the “research” purports to show that corporal punishment is counter-productive. Christians now commonly buy the “positive self-concept” theory of rearing children.
Churches have lost much of their moral governance. Does your church discipline? Thank God if it does. We have let the world tell us, misusing Scripture horribly, “Judge not, lest ye be judged.” (This is itself a judgment. The point is that we should use the proper standard when making judgments – God’s Word.)
Further, though less often now, Christians have confused patriotism, which is love of nation, with unquestioning obedience to the governance over that nation.
Some means to the ends of understanding proper sphere sovereignty:
- Personal study. Don’t seek to achieve a certain feeling at the end of a time of devotion. Our families will not be better governed than we are ourselves.
- Read old material. Some of our fathers in the faith understood these particular matters better than we do.
- Family worship and study. Discipline in the home. Our nation will not be better governed until our homes are.
- Support the Church. Don’t let para-church activities supplant the church. Be careful for most end up hurting the church’s authority. Seek accountability within the Church, not some other structure.
- As you have opportunity, tell others the reason of the hope that is in you. Reason. We have a reasonable faith.
- Study the practical relationship of your actions to your vocation. At one time I was irritated at the preoccupation of Christians with their own spiritual life, and our ignorance and disregard of public ethics. Both are needful. We cannot have one without the other.
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