A Strong Family
- Strength For Life
- 4 days ago
- 6 min read
Yesterday, the first day of June, kicked off one of our culture’s new and blasphemous holidays. June is pride month, so says the godless corporate world. One day before that, on the last day of May, NorthStone Baptist Church hosted gubernatorial candidate Paul Renner for a question-and-answer. Mr. Renner answered my questions, questions from the NorthStone faith family, and questions from the community on a variety of moral issues facing Florida. One point he and I agreed on was that, to combat evil, it is necessary not only to expose the evil, but also to promote the truth that beats back the evil. Part of spiritual warfare is advancing God’s truth in a world of lies. So, this June Christians can and should promote the truth while the world glorifies depravity. The opposite of the Pride Month nonsense is a strong nuclear family built on biblical convictions.
Many of you have heard my testimony. I grew up not in a strong family, but in a broken home. My family was fractured. As a teenager, I dreamt of one day having a strong family. Not only did I dream about it, but I also prayed for it and sought to understand it. When Britan and I married, I applied what I understood about the family biblically. Over the last 25 years, I have fought to protect it.
What does it mean to have a strong family? God’s Word provides us with three things that we can do to help cultivate a strong family. However, I must begin by alerting you that our carnal culture is attacking the nuclear family. It has been attacking it in an intentional fashion over the last 50 or 60 years, and even more aggressively within the last 10 years. The consequence of these carnal attacks is, if you want a strong family in the 21st century, you must fight for it. You must fight not only your own carnal propensities and unhealthy potential towards self-destruction, but also egalitarianism, feminism, wokeism, and other worldly ideologies. You must be ready to fight these spiritual battles to pursue and protect a biblically defined strong family.
Order
A strong family is a properly ordered family. If you want a strong family, your family must be led by a strong man. It is dangerous, disappointing, and frankly insane that our society has made “patriarchy” a cuss word. Regardless, biblically speaking the man is to be the protector and provider for the family, and the head of the home. Since the culture and all the hordes of hell are attacking the family, it makes sense that the main protector of the family the husband will be the one they attack most. The enemies of strong families know that, if they can destroy the father, they will very likely destroy the entire family. When the husband and father is is not leading, that family immediately becomes weak and vulnerable. Of course, the wife and mother plays a major role in the success of a strong family. Her role, however, is to compliment her husband, not compete for the leadership of the home. A strong family honors, appreciates, and adores its matriarch, while simultaneously being led by a man.
Any family led by a female is a weak family. Of course, some families have been injured. Maybe the man has sinned or is selfish. Perhaps there was even tragic loss, and the woman is doing her very best to keep everything together. I have sympathy and respect for females in such disadvantaged situations. None of those scenarios are God's ideal family structure. Again, the proper order is the man as the head of the home, the wife complementing her husband, and together they raise their children as unto the Lord.
Priority
A strong family has the proper priority. As the leader, the man should have the clearest vision in this area. Specifically, he should understand that the top priority of the family is not the family itself. As noble as it sounds to prioritize the family above everything, the idea is not biblical. Remember the words of Jesus, who said, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk. 14:26). Jesus does not mean you should hate your family by disliking or distaining them. Instead, he is saying that the Christian’s love for his family is a lesser than his love for Him. Jesus is calling the reader to a superior love, and a higher priority. The Lord is the top priority.
Families fracture when the members make the family itself the top priority. Remember this: it isn't my children's world; this is God the Father's World. If you let your children become your world, eventually they will take you for granted and become spoiled, entitled brats. It will be your fault for making them too high a priority.
Another mistake of priority is to promote pleasure. Prioritizing pleasure is how a man or woman justifies leaving their spouse for an adulterous affair. A husband or wife who behaves this way is wounding and potentially destroying their own family.
Intead, a strong family has leaders that prioritize the worship and adoration of Almighty God. He is our top priority. Husbands, your wife. and kids will quickly figure out if you're genuine in your relationship with God and parents if you're authentic Christians your children are way more likely to be authentic Christians as well. Be real before the Lord. I mean, your living for God as your top priority definitely that will help cultivate health and strength and vitality in your family.
Unity
A strong family understands the importance of unity. We often hear that diversity is America’s strength. Hopefully, you recognize that phrase is nothing but political claptrap. If any group of people is going to be strong, unity will be its strength. However, unity does not necessarily mean uniformity. My wife is different from me: she has different ideas and gifts than I do. My sons are different from me in many ways, and they are different one from another in numerous ways.
A strong family is not necessarily uniform, but it must be united. 2 Peter 1 explains that there are things each believer should add to his faith. In any organization, everybody should be pulling in the same direction and pursuing the same things. 2 Peter 1 would say they are “giving all diligence” to the holy affections listed in the chapter.
Again, though the family is not perfect, they are unified in their pursuits. A husband is leading; his wife is helping. Together with their children they are adding to their faith things like virtue, or good moral standards. That is, they are honest with one another. Do not lie to the people that love you the most, for the sake of preserving yourself. Have some virtue.
2 Peter 1 also speaks of knowledge. The world is attempting to “spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ” (Col. 2:8). To that, the family adds temperance, or self-control. Again, homes are weakened and even destroyed because the husband or the wife is out of control in the area of anger or lust. Unrighteous anger, sexual affairs, carnal appetites of various types—they all weaken a family.
2 Peter 1 goes on to mention patience. You need patience with your spouse and your children. To patience we add godliness, and to godliness we add brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness we add charity. Verse 8 says that “if” a family does these things (on the condition they are united in pursuing these holy affections), that family is going to abound. It will be strong. It will bring forth good fruit in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Again, no family is perfect. However, to the degree it has the right order, the right priority, and the right unified focus modeled from the father through the mother, is the degree to which the family will be strong. Though these things are contrary to the world around us, so may God help us all to live them out first individually and then corporately as families, exclusively for God's glory.
The above article was written by Pastor James C. Johnson. He is the pastor of NorthStone Baptist Church in Pensacola, Fl. To offer him your feedback, comment below or email us at strengthforlife461@gmail.com.
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