Take Care Of Your Family Series

Take care of your family

1 Timothy 5:7-8

Our goal is to strengthen families. We want to strengthen families in general and in our church in particular. Churches need to focus attention and efforts in strengthening families. There has been family breakdown and there are so many good reasons for us to strengthen families. Let us be about reversing the trends of drug abuse, alcoholic parents, high divorce rates and millions of ask risk children who are vulnerable when they do not have a family to nurture and protect them.

The vision for our church is to strengthen families that these families will stand as a model before our troubled world. Every family that makes Christ the head of the home and walks with the Lord and puts the Word of God as their guide and prays to God and walks by faith trusting the Holy Spirit in the midst of the challenges that will come to every family there will be a blessing to that family.

Families that have faith in God have a blessing, like the blessing given to Abraham who was blessed to bless all the families of the earth. Abraham was not blessed to hoard his blessing but to bless others. Let’s strengthen families to bless you, your family and others, up to all the families of the earth. If these are dark times for the institution of the family then we need to shine the light of Christ. We need couples who live as disciples of Christ and raise their children to love God.

Christian, you have an obligation to your family. You have a stewardship with your family. God has entrusted you with your family and you have a Christian responsibility.

Give the people these instructions, so that no one may be open to blame. 8 Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:7-8)

Paul uses strong language for the Christian who doesn’t accept his responsibility for the family. He says that Christian is worse than an unbeliever. Scripture gives clear teaching, Christians have a duty to take care of the needs of their family.

God places a high priority on the family. Christians are to take responsibility for their family. The context of the verse is set in verse 4, the teaching to take care of widows.

Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. (1 Timothy 5:4)

But with this context verses 7-8 are more general to take in all the needs of the family. Not just children caring for widowed parent or grandparent but parents caring for children. This is a general call for Christians to care for their families.

There were some Christians in Paul’s day who were ignoring their own family. They were trying to avoid personal responsibilities and shift them somewhere else. They might have made some pious excuse using Paul as someone who is not a family man because he was not married.

Later Paul refers to Timothy’s family members by name. I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. (2 Timothy 1:5)

The instructions to take care of family were not just for Timothy, but for him to pass on to the entire congregation and are for all of us. We are all to know that part of our Christian stewardship is to provide for our families.

Taking care of our family is a way Christians shine their light. A family that honors the Lord is a powerful testimony. Our testimony should be in word and deeds. This is a way we will make a difference through strong families.

In taking care of our family there is an aspect of providing and planning. The idea is to give forethought to what it will take to care for your family. This requires us to plan for what it will take to care for our family even for the unforeseen difficulties that will come up. We will have to look ahead.

Those of you who are leaders in your family have all the more responsibility on you to provide for your family. You need to manage your personal resources in a way that enables you to care for the family and prepare for the future.

Our giving to the Lord’s work should be accompanied by providing for our families. It is a poor reflection on God’s people. Probably in most cases the ones who are generous givers in the Lord’s work are the same ones who excel in taking care of their families.