Opening Verse
A Reflection on Generational Faithfulness
What will your grandchildren believe about God? Not what you hope they will believe. What will they believe because of what they saw in you?
God’s wonderful word guides us through this life, leads us to eternal life, and keeps us from an end that lasts for all of eternity. One of the clearest places that Word does its work is right inside the walls of our own homes. I firmly believe that strong families build strong churches. Families of faith will always overcome a chaotic, emotional world because they are rooted and grounded in the Word of God. True faith does not waver, even amid turmoil. That is why strong, faithful families are foundational to every local congregation of the Lord’s church.
Why This Matters to Me
From the very beginning of my ministry, family ministry has been one of my great passions. There are several reasons for that, and they are personal:
- My parents fell away when I was young, and Jesus was never shared with us at home.
- My grandparents filled that gap. They gave me the opportunity to know the God of the Bible and our wonderful Savior and King, Jesus the Christ. Like Timothy, I know what it is to have a “sincere faith” that first lived in a grandparent (2 Timothy 1:5).
- I want my family with me. When the day comes that the Lord takes His people home, I want every one of mine to be there.
- Most of all, God commands it. Scripture teaches that faith should be handed down within the family. When it isn’t, generations fall away from God.
The Great Thread of Scripture
If you follow the Bible from beginning to end, one great thread runs through all of it: God wants to be our God, and He wants us to be His people. And from the start, He framed that promise in terms of generations. As far back as Genesis 17, God spoke to Abraham (Abram at the time) and said:
“I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God”…Genesis 17:7-8
Notice that phrase: “and your descendants after you.” God never intended faith to stop with one faithful man. It was meant to be inherited.
Being God’s People, and Staying God’s People
Now skip forward to Deuteronomy 6. Moses is near the end of his life, preaching to Israel as they stand at the edge of the promised land. His subject is exactly this: being God’s people, and remaining God’s people.
This passage stands on a dividing line. Behind them was an unfaithful generation that was not allowed into the land, because their lack of faith produced a lack of obedience (Hebrews 3:18-19). In front of them was a faithful generation, their children and grandchildren, who would follow Joshua into the land because of their faith and their faithful obedience. Through Moses, God is teaching “faithful obedience,” the same idea Paul would later call “the obedience of faith” (Romans 1:5; 16:26). And He gives His people the proper and proven way to stay faithful to Him:
“Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates”…Deuteronomy 6:1-9
Look at who is in that sentence: “you and your son and your grandson.” Three generations in a single verse. And look at where the teaching happens: in the house, on the road, at bedtime, at breakfast. God’s plan for passing down faith was never a once-a-week event. It was a way of life. A few verses later, Moses spells out what that life looks like. You shall:
- Fear only the Lord and worship Him (v. 13). Jesus quoted this very verse to Satan: “You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only” (Luke 4:8).
- Not follow other gods (v. 14).
- Not put the Lord your God to the test (v. 16), another verse on the lips of Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:7).
- Diligently keep the commandments of the Lord (v. 17).
- Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord (v. 18).
Why Is This Such a Big Deal?
Someone might ask, “As long as we know who God is, won’t everything be okay?” Moses answers that in the very next chapter. Israel was to make no covenants with the nations and not intermarry with them, “for they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods” (Deuteronomy 7:3-4). Why? Because of who they were:
“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth”…Deuteronomy 7:6
“Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments”…Deuteronomy 7:9
A thousand generations of faithfulness from God. But Israel’s history shows how quickly one generation can break the chain on its end. Just one generation after Joshua, Scripture records this heartbreaking line: “there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord, nor yet the work which He had done for Israel” (Judges 2:10). Knowing about God was not enough. It never has been.
Love That Obeys
So let me say it plainly. Keeping God’s commandments is what shows your faithfulness and your love toward God.
- It is what keeps you where you need to be.
- It is what teaches you what you should do.
- It is what shows you the right path, the one that leads to righteousness and fellowship with God.
If you want to be a child of God, you must keep His commandments. John could not have said it more clearly:
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith”…1 John 5:1-4
The First Mission Field Is Home
Here is the point. Faithful obedience to God’s commands is how we show our love for Him, and that love, flowing both from God and back to Him, must be shared with our children.
How faithfully we live as God’s people directly shapes our ability to teach our children about the Lord. A child raised in a home that does not teach the Lord is far less likely to come to know Him than a child raised in a home that does. That isn’t a guarantee either way, but it is a sobering reality. Jacob Rutledge put it this way:
“If you have a family, your primary evangelistic endeavor is discipling your own children. This isn’t simply biological growth for the church but spiritual and generational.” — Jacob Rutledge
From the beginning, God has required, demonstrated, and promised that generational faithfulness is the key to God’s people remaining God’s people. A faithful father and mother sharing the Lord with their children is how the next generation becomes as faithful as the one before it. That is what God had in mind when He spoke to Moses: teach every father to lead his family to Me, and his children will do the same.
Heirs According to Promise
And this is where our series begins. The promise God made to Abraham and his descendants did not end in Canaan. Paul tells us in Galatians that it reaches all the way to us, through Christ:
“For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s descendants, heirs according to promise”…Galatians 3:26-29
“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God”…Galatians 4:4-7
Through faith, and by being baptized into Christ, we are adopted into God’s family. We become sons and daughters of the King, and heirs to His kingdom. But an inheritance is meant to be passed on. The question for every Christian parent and grandparent is not only, “Am I an heir?” It is, “Who is going to inherit this faith from me?”
Taking It Home
This truth isn’t just ancient doctrine. It speaks directly to us:
- God wants to be your God, and He wants your children and grandchildren to be His people too.
- Faith that is not taught at home is faith at risk of ending with you. One generation is all it takes (Judges 2:10).
- Teaching happens in ordinary moments: at the table, in the car, at bedtime, and in the morning (Deuteronomy 6:7).
- Obedience is not the enemy of love; it is the evidence of it (1 John 5:3).
- In Christ you are an heir. Live like one, and raise heirs who will do the same.
Closing Thoughts
Strong families build strong churches, and strong churches are built one faithful home at a time. Moses stood before a generation that had watched their parents fail, and he gave them a better way: love the Lord with everything you have, keep His word on your heart, and teach it diligently to your children. That way still works. It worked for Lois and Eunice and Timothy. It worked for a grandparent who took the time to teach me. And it will work in your home.
So this week, don’t wait for the perfect moment. Open the Bible at your table. Pray out loud with your kids in the car. Tell your grandchildren what God has done for you. And ask yourself one honest question: If my children inherit exactly the faith they see in me, what will they receive?
