Hear, O Israel: The Lord 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. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 describes what I have termed, “covenantal fatherhood.” A father who raises his children in the covenant must first commit God’s Word to His own heart before he can diligently teach it to his children. As the passage describes, this method of teaching goes far beyond verbal instruction. The Word of God is to inundate the daily life of the family, finding expression in the way the father lives and leads his household. As I continue sharing godly lessons I learned from the way my father lived his life before me, I owe him a debt of gratitude for his commitment to Scripture. You often hear people say, “I’m standing on the Word of God.” While I understand what they mean, my father preferred to say, “I’m standing under the Word of God.” The first phrase might be misconstrued to suggest authority over the Word of God while the second phrase affirms submission to God’s Word. I consider my father’s commitment to the authority of Scripture to be the greatest lesson the heavenly has taught me through my earthly father.
Psalm 119:89 says, “Forever, O LORD, your word is settled in heaven.” What God has ordained in His Word will always remain steadfast and unchanging. What He has affirmed will always remain true. What he has promised will be certain for all time. All earthly things are subject to fluctuation, but God’s Word is as certain and unchangeable as the heavens.
All earthly things are subject to fluctuation, but God’s Word is as certain and unchangeable as the heavens.
The Scripture is self-authenticating. As Paul says in 2 Tim 3:16, all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness. The Scripture is the supreme authority in all matters pertaining to life and godliness. As the apostle goes on to affirm in verse 17, the Scripture equips us for every good work. Good works of godliness are not possible apart from the instruction of God’s Word.
The Word of God is more than mere ideas expressed in language. It is living and active (Hebrews 4:12). Jesus said His words are “spirit and life” (John 6:63). Creation was brought into being by God’s powerful Word (Hebrews 11:2). As Hebrews 4:12 goes on the explain, the living Word of God is the means of our sanctification, penetrating into the deepest recesses of our being and exposing the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
Contorting and perverting God’s Word to fit one’s own agenda has been an ever-present danger throughout the ages. It is as old as creation itself. In Eden, the serpent twisted God’s Word and challenged its truthfulness, provoking Eve into perverting God’s command (Genesis 3:1-5). In the 1st century, Peter talked about those who tortured Paul’s writings andother Scriptures (2 Peter 3:16). We must let the Scriptures speak. God’s Word is His revealed will. When our philosophies of life do not fit what Scripture says, it is our thinking that must change.
My father not only admonished others to submit to God’s Word, this was his own practice as well. I have witnessed this firsthand in my father’s life and ministry. He went through many changes on his quest to be faithful to God’s Word. And this has always been his admonition to me: “Whenever we discover that what we believe does not square with what God has revealed in His word, we must submit to His Word. We must not torture and twist the Scripture to fit our own ideas.” It’s been over 40 years ago, but I can still remember the first time I read Romans 9 seriously. My father had already been studying that passage. He and I had numerous conversations about the headaches it was giving me. I was desperately searching commentaries looking for some explanation for this difficult picture of God’s absolute sovereignty. Some commentaries merely skipped over it, making trivial observations here and there. Those that tried to explain away the absolute nature of His sovereignty made me uncomfortable. It seemed they were going to great lengths to deny what the text clearly said. My father confirmed my suspicions. He told me, “The text says what it says. God is not the problem, we are.” My view of God was completely renovated. It would take years for the rest of my theology to catch up, but this was a realigning of the foundation of who God is and what that means for everything else.
When our philosophies of life do not fit what Scripture says, it is our thinking that must change.
This wasn’t the first time my father had given me this advice. Less than a year earlier, I began to teach a series on suffering. My initial intention was to prove that Christians need not suffer here and now. However, I had barely begun the series when I hit a snag. I looked up every verse I could find on the subject and found the Scripture was saying the exact opposite. We are called to suffer (Philippians 3:10; Acts 14:22). Christ promises suffering in this life (John 16:33). It’s through tribulation that we enter the Kingdom of heaven (2 Timothy 2:12). I asked my father what I should do. He said, “Let the Scripture correct you.” I replied, “What do I tell the people in the Bible study? Do I tell them my initial premise was wrong?” He said, “Without delay.”
This was not only the type of advice my father gave, it is also how he lived. I have heard him apologize to the congregation for teaching things he later discovered were unbiblical. Over 40 years ago he publicly asked forgiveness for teaching misconceptions about God. Over 35 years ago, he stood before the congregation and apologized for teaching a works-based salvation. This was not an easy thing to do. However, it’s an expression of integrity and a proper, humble view of oneself. Most pastors and teachers would never apologize because they think it would damage their image. We need to remember the words of John the Baptist: “He must increase but I must decrease.” If we have proper humility and commitment to God, we will change when we see the truth, repent when we are wrong, and will give all glory to God alone. This is a powerful, life-altering lesson I learned from my father.
In our next post, I will bring this series to a close with a few additional lessons I learned from the example of my earthly father’s life and ministry.
