Why Require Unregenerate Children to Act Like They’re Good?
via Why Require Unregenerate Children to Act Like They’re Good? :: By John Piper. © Desiring God
If mere external conformity to God’s commands (like don’t lie, don’t steal, don’t kill) is hypocritical and spiritually defective, then why should parents require obedience from their unregenerate children?
Won’t this simply confirm them in unspiritual religious conformity, hypocritical patterns of life, and legalistic moralism?
Here are at least three reasons why Christian parents should require their small children (regenerate or unregenerate) to behave in ways that conform externally to God’s revealed will.
The New Testament Does Not Skip A Beat
The last words of the Old Testament:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction” (Malachi 4:5-6).
The first words of the New Testament does not skip a beat in picking up where the Old Testament left off. Referring to the prophet John the Baptist, Luke 1:16-17 says:
And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.