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.
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There Is the Will of God and There Is the Will of God
John Piper on the Two Wills of God:
“There are two clear and very different meanings for the term ‘will of God’ in the Bible. We need to know them and decide which one is being used [when we talk about God's will]. In fact, knowing the difference between these two meanings of ‘the will of God’ is crucial to understanding one of the biggest and most perplexing things in all the Bible, namely, that God is sovereign over all things and yet disapproves of many things. Which means that God disapproves of some of what he ordains to happen. That is, he forbids some of the things he brings about. And he commands some of the things he hinders. Or to put it most paradoxically: God wills some events in one sense that he does not will in another sense.”
via What Is the Will of God and How Do We Know It? :: By John Piper. © Desiring God