Titus 2:3-4 reads: “Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children…”
Over the course of my next three posts, I would like to share some practical ways for us, as Christian mothers, to love our children. The first way is this: by reading the Bible to our children. (If we are new Christians, or do not know the Bible well, this is a great opportunity for us to learn right along with them.)
Even when our children are very young, they are able to listen to the Bible, and this is the best education we can give them (and ourselves), and the only one which has promise both for this life and also for the life to come.
Promise for the Life to Come
In 2 Timothy 3:15, Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, writes to Timothy, saying,
“from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus
(2 Timothy 3:15).
Only God, working through His Word, is able to give our children “the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus”
(2 Timothy 3:15).
Through the Bible God teaches us the truth about who we are, who God is, and how we may have peace with Him by grace alone, through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
Because God is Truth, His Word is Truth
The Lord Jesus speaks truth. The Lord Jesus is Truth. He says,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6).
In the book of Revelation, God gives John a vision of the Lord’s second coming. In this vision our Lord “is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God” (Revelation 19:11-13). The Lord Jesus, God the Son, “is called Faithful and True,” and “His name is called The Word of God.”
God is good to give us The Word of God: Jesus, God the Son, as the “one mediator” between God and man (1 Timothy 2:5), and He is good to give us His Word, the Bible — the source of Truth and the revelation of our Lord.
The Bible calls God the “God of truth” (Psalm 31:5; Isaiah 65:16). It also testifies that God’s Word is truth (2 Samuel 7:28).
We need God, and so do our children. We need Truth, and so do our children. We need God’s Word, and so do our children. And all need the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to be saved.
Promise for This Life
“Good and upright is the LORD; Therefore He instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble His way. All the paths of the LORD are lovingkindness and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. For Your name’s sake, O LORD, pardon my iniquity, for it is great” (Psalm 25:8-11).
God “instructs sinners in the way.” He has not left us to guess at what is right and wrong. He has not left us to go through this life leaning on our fallible and sinful ideas, nor to depend on the world to teach us.
We are not condemned to do what is right in our own eyes, as the people in the book of Judges did. We need not build our houses on the sand.
God has given us His Word, which Psalm 119 says “is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105). Wisdom calls out from its pages, “Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you” (Proverbs 1:23).
With God’s help, we need not stumble through this life in the dark, nor leave our children to do so. Let us turn to Him, by turning to His Word — reading it, and, by His power, heeding what it says.
Let Us Love Our Children
The world is our enemy. Our flesh is our enemy. Satan and the demons are our enemies. But Jesus Christ is Faithful and True. He is God, and the only one who is good and wants that which is good for us, and for our children. He speaks to us through His Word: the Bible.
Let us do our part to fill our minds and hearts — and the minds and hearts of our children — with God’s Word by reading the Bible to them. This is one excellent way you can love your children.
