Pleasing God In The Home

By Samuel Matthews | Oregon, USA

The King James Version of God’s Holy Word, the Bible, says, “Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

Loved ones, there is a challenge that goes back thousands of years; human beings have a desire to please other human beings. This God ordained desire can be seen as good (Romans 15:2; 1 Corinthians 10:32-33; Titus 2:9). Wives want to please their husband, and the husband wants to please his wife (1 Corinthians 7:32-35). Yet, all too often, living to please men can lead to wickedness (Acts 12:1-3; John 12:42-43).

We want people to think well of us, so we paint a pretty picture of words, or we hide behind a beautiful hand-crafted mask. However, when you get behind the pretty words and the image we have erected, there’s one thing that matters most – what’s within the heart (cf. Matthew 23:27-28). Mankind looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart (1 Samuel 16:7).

Men pleasers are not God pleasers (Galatians 1:10). Jesus was not alone, because He lived to please the Father (John 8:29), NOT Himself (Romans 15:3). Many of the Jews during the days of Moses did not please God; they were an EXAMPLE for us – 1 Corinthians 10:5-6, 11). Only the believing obedient person is well pleasing to God (Hebrews 11:6; Colossians 3:20).

By faith Enoch, the seventh from Adam (Luke 3:37-38; Jude 14), was taken up to God and did NOT die, because he lived a relatively short life that pleased God (Hebrews 11:5). When we sacrifice by sharing and doing good we please God (Hebrews 13:16). When you please God even your enemies will be at peace with you (Proverbs 16:7).

The saying has been heard, “As goes the home, so goes the nation.” The truth of this maxim can be recognized by Christians and non-Christians alike. After decades of decline, the home is beginning to receive an immense amount of attention. Working without the objective standard of God’s Word, however, many people have been trying to rebuild the home according to novel and ABNORMAL worldly examples (TV actors, selfish wealthy individuals, etc.). Our prayer is for the day to come when humankind will humbly believe and understand “that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).

We thank our Father in Heaven, because He has not left humanity without direction (cf. Psalm 127:1). From the very beginning, while our first parents were still in the paradise of Eden, God established the home as He wanted it (Genesis 2:21-25). Homes that please God begin with the joining together of one man and one woman (Matthew 19:4; Genesis 2:22). God’s plan excludes polygyny (one man with a plurality of wives), polyandry (one woman with a plurality of husbands). God underscored this fact when He presented the woman to Adam and said: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

Also EXCLUDED in God’s plan for the home is the concept of homosexual marriage. The Creator did not present Adam with a choice between Eve and another male companion—He made only woman. Adam was not incomplete simply because he lacked human companionship; he lacked female human companionship. Further, the Word of God categorically condemns homosexual behavior (Leviticus 18:22; Romans 1:26ff.; 1 Corinthians 6:9, etc.).

Jesus based His teaching about the home upon the original pattern established by God. He said: “…He which made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” (Matthew 19:4-6). Thus, sexual relations are authorized only within marriage (cf. Proverbs 5:15-21).

All deviations from God’s “one flesh” pattern are condemned: “Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers (fornicators) and adulterers God will judge” (Hebrews 13:4).

The home that follows the divine pattern is one that will strive to be in fellowship with God. Genesis 3:8 portrays the Creator as “walking in the garden in the cool of the day.” Precisely what this entailed we can only conjecture (cf. John 1:18), but it seems that Adam was not unaccustomed to this kind of communion (how else can we account for his impulse to hide?).

When Eve was tempted by the serpent, she repeated God’s injunction (along with a few of her own added words) regarding the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3:3). When Cain was born, Eve credited God (Genesis 4:1). When Cain and Abel were of age, they approached God with offerings (Genesis 4:3-4). These facts imply that Adam and Eve had built into their home a reverence for—and fellowship with—God.

The home is humanity’s primary center for religious and moral instruction, hence the inspired dictate: “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). It is a tragedy of mammoth proportions that modern families have abdicated this role to the school and church. Both these institutions have their functions to perform, but God never assigned to them the work of the home (cf. 1 Timothy 5:8).

Moses set forth a wonderful example of the home’s spiritual environment when he said: “And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates” (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). Logically, parents who practice this are more likely to see their children convert to Christ than are those who expect the church to be the sole source of spiritual training.

The state of the nation is a reflection of the state of its homes (cf. Proverbs 14:34). The homes that are built according to the divine pattern will serve as the backbone of our nation. Because of weak and dysfunctional homes, the church is hindered in her task. But, from solidly built Christian homes, the church can draw a mighty army to overcome the forces of darkness and proclaim the Gospel of the triumphant Christ to the world (cf. Psalm 9:17). Therein lies hope for our nation. Loved ones, may your focus this day NOT be on creating an image so that other people are pleased or think well of you, but on cleansing your heart so that God will be pleased and think well of you (cf. Matthew 25:20-23; 1 Thessalonians 4:1; 2 Timothy 2:4). The God of Heaven is so Good. We love you all so much.