Dads: Day Twenty Seven
I don’t really like to talk about sex.
I have always tended to be a little shy about the subject. In some ways, I suppose that’s not really a bad thing. After all, it is something special, something personal, something intimate.
But, the thing is, I have nine children.
And while it is tempting for me to ignore this subject and just kind of hope for the best, obviously, if I am going to be a godly parent, I can’t.
And neither can you.
If God’s given us children, He’s given us a responsibility to disciple them. This means He expects we will take the initiative to teach our children. And one of the things we need to teach them is what He has to say about sex.
Take Solomon as an example.
I think he is worth learning from. After all, he was the wisest man who ever lived. And he wrote a book. We call it Proverbs. And in the book of Proverbs, we get the opportunity to listen in as Solomon tries to teach his children wisdom.
And what does he talk about?
We saw in the previous post one of the things we hear him repeatedly teaching his children about, is this whole issue of, sexual purity.
It is not just Solomon either.
It's hard to think of many books of the Bible that don't have something to say about this issue.
Take the apostle Paul.
He had a lot to say about sexual purity, and I thought we could look one passage in particular, Ephesians 5:3-14, and ask, what can we learn as fathers about teaching our children God’s design for sexual holiness?
And, we’ll start with the first most obvious principle today.
Paul talks about sexual purity.
Now, I don’t want to belabor the obvious but as you can see Paul feels this is a subject he needs to speak about. For example, in Ephesians 5:3 we see he says, “But sexual immorality and all impurity… must not even be named among you.” This church needs instruction, and it’s not just this church that needs instruction. Paul speaks about this subject in almost every one of his other letters as well.
And it’s not just Paul either.
I think if you work your way through pretty much every book of the Bible, you’ll find almost every one has something to say in terms of principles at least about sex and sexual purity. And while I tend to be a shy person to talk about issues like this, and there are others who almost think it is unspiritual ever to talk about it, obviously we need to talk about it.
Because, Satan’s got a great strategy going on, when it comes to sexual sin, in that, sexual sin is an especially deceptive sin, and so, obviously, people need truth, which, is why it is so crazy, that usually the people children talk the least about these kinds of things with, are those who have the most wisdom about it.
Obviously, ultimately, God is the one who brought our children into the world, but as parents, we are the means he used. Which means, there’s this eternal soul that is in the world now, and it’s because of you and as you are the one God used to bring this soul into the world, He’s given you a special responsibility to care for it and instruct it.
I mean, we all feel that responsibility when it comes to physical things.
We can’t just send our children out into the world without at least food and clothes. But, obviously, spiritually, that’s true as well.
We have a responsibility for their spiritual protection, and this is only more urgent than even caring for their physical needs, in that, there is an actual enemy who hates them and wants to destroy their soul, and one of the primary means he uses to accomplish that, without a doubt, is sexual temptation.
Which is why, we need to talk to our children about what God has to say about sexual intimacy.
In appropriate ways of course.
While they are young we don’t want to give too much specific information, as we want to help them enjoy their childhood, but at the same time, we don’t want to be naïve either, and allow them to just to be trained how to think about all of this from the world, without us, helping them develop a biblical worldview.