God's Purpose For the FamilySample

We tend to think of obedience largely within the framework of pedagogy. Children need to obey for their own good; the idea being that obedience will make them good employees. But children weren’t raised so they could launch, as they say, as though the real world were out there somewhere beyond the household. Households once were productive, intergenerational enterprises, and in those days empty nesters were pitied, not congratulated.

Very often the family concerns—the vineyard, the smithy, the boats—were passed on to children with the requisite knowledge for plying the trade, or husbanding the flock. Every child hoped to receive a share of an estate. Obviously, that was the premise behind the parable of the prodigal son. So, even though children may have preferred a life of leisure, when they obeyed their parents and worked for them, they were working for themselves in some sense. They had an interest in the property. It is almost impossible for people to think in this way today.

Most people don’t think of themselves as having a real interest in God’s house, and they are not sure what to make of this inheritance that they have been told about. They’re used to thinking of their work as earning a reward—like a paycheck, something that can be carried off and enjoyed privately. But that is the way that employees think, not heirs.

If we really believe that we have been adopted, and that we are joint heirs with Christ, then what belongs to us belongs to God, and what belongs to God belongs to us. Working for Him is the same thing as working for ourselves. Galatians 4:1–7 makes this very point about the children of God in His household. In Paul’s time he had a hard time getting his message across because people could hardly believe the good news that they had been adopted. Today, people don’t know what it really means to be an heir.

-C.R. Wiley