How do parents guide their kids in the lifelong balancing act of loving other people, while avoiding excessive negative influence? Pastor Paul joins Critical Thought as we navigate how Christians love non-Christians.

1. Leading your children in loving others

1.1. Key Points

• Christian parents (and our children) are called to love sinners.

• Christian parents (and our children) are called not to sin.

• We are called to guide our children and help them choose wisely.

1.2. Discussion Questions:

• Any time you interact with someone, influence goes both ways. How should parents help encourage their children to engage in relationships that show love to everyone, but protect them from excessive negative influence?

• What weight do you give the potential positive influence your kids can have on another child who might not get that anywhere else?

• How can you protect your children while teaching them to positively influence others?

1.3. References:

Ephesians 6:4:

And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.

Proverbs 13:24:

He who spares his rod hates his son,
But he who loves him disciplines him promptly.

Romans 12:20-21:

Therefore “If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.”
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Mark 12:30-31:

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

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Special Guest: Pastor Paul Knight.

This week Paul joins us and we talk about what role the Church plays supporting couples who want to live a Biblical marriage.

1. Supporting Marriage

1.1. Key Points

• People are marrying later in life due to college, careers, etc.

• Religious people who marry younger, without co-habitating, have lower divorce rates

• Study shows single Christians have premarital sex at almost the same rate as non-christians

1.2. Discussion Questions:

• What are the "requirements" for a sucessful Biblical marriage?

• Do you see a corelation between people who put God first and have successful marriages?

• Does age (within reason) matter?

• Do you think later marriages and higher trends for premarital sex are related?

• How can The Church better support and encourage young people who want to get married?

• Talk to me about forgiveness.

1.3. References:

Genesis 2:18

And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.”

Genesis 2:24

Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Matthew 19:4-6

And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

1 Corinthians 7:2

Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.

1 Corinthians 7:9

but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Matthew 5:28

But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

1 Corinthians 6:16

Or do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For “the two,” He says, “shall become one flesh.”

Hebrews 13:4

Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.

• https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-religious-marriage-paradox-younger-marriage-less-divorce

• https://www.christianpost.com/news/are-most-single-christians-in-america-having-sex.html

• https://www.biola.edu/blogs/biola-magazine/2020/what-do-falling-marriage-rates-mean-for-the-church

2. Church Influence on Marriage

2.1. Key Points

• Churches have certain biblical limits on what they can condone and accomodate when marrying people

• Rates of marriages done at churches has fallen from 41% in 2009 to 22% in 2017

• Some churches have requirements such as marriage counceling or lack of co-habitation

2.2. Discussion Questions:

• When churches do fewer weddings, they have fewer opportunities to participate in people's lives. While there are some biblical limits on marriage, is it harmful or advantageous for churches to add requirements beyond the bare minimum?

• In the old testament, when people had sex, they were married (Exodus 22:16). Why do churches shy away from marrying co-habitating couples, or couples having sex. Shouldn't they encourage them to marry right away?

2.3. References:

2 Corinthians 6:14

Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

Romans 1:26-27

For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

Exodus 22:16

If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride-price for her to be his wife.

• https://research.lifeway.com/2018/05/31/why-no-one-may-be-getting-married-at-your-church-this-summer/

• https://blog.bctconference.org/article/should-you-require-pre-marital-counseling

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Special Guest: Pastor Paul Knight.