“Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.
If the Lord does not guard the city, in vain does the watchman watch. Yes, it is in vain to get up very early and go to bed late and to take so much trouble to earn your bread. God gives as much to those who are dear to him while they sleep. Sons: this is the inheritance that the Lord gives, yes, children are a reward. They are like arrows in the hand of an archer, the sons of youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. He shall not be ashamed when he pleads against the enemy at the city gates”. Psalm 127
What is the fundamental difference between an adult and a father? The answer is simple, one is physiologically able to give life, the other has done so.
As I read this Psalm, I realize two things that many of us lose sight of. The first is that we are not essential, only God is! The second is that we are called to be fathers.
Many ministers of God feel that they are absolutely necessary for the work they are doing. They believe, sometimes with some justification, that they are the most suitable for the position they occupy. When it is not all the positions in the church.
They are so much everywhere and in everything that soon, nothing is done without them and they quickly feel that if they weren’t there, nothing would go forward!
This kind of feeling leads them to proclaim and believe absurd statements: MY church, MY flock, MY ministry… God reminds us that He is the Shepherd, the Master of the vineyard, that the harvest is His. In a word, that we are only HIS stewards! I believe that even today, Jesus could remind many ” ministers ” of the parable of the bad wine growers of Matthew 21:33 to 39!
God tells us that He expects us to work alongside Him, not to tell Him how He should act to build His work! He is the one who builds, otherwise we exhaust ourselves in vain. He knows the right place, the right time, the right materials, and then that which builds lasts for a long time.
Many understood this in the early years of their ministry. Aware of their weaknesses, they let God work fully and often witness wonderful things. Then, after they have let God build, they end up thinking that the vineyard has become their very property. They guard it so well that God himself no longer has access to it! If the Lord does not guard the city, he who guards it watches in vain. Who is better than God to watch over and care for HIS vineyard?!
« Look, sons are an inheritance from the Lord »…
The second aspect of this text is the role that God entrusts to us in his work. That of being spiritual parents.
The Lord explains that a time is coming in every work, in every life, when it is no longer the father who stands before the enemy at the door, but his sons. For this, he must have brought forth children.
Every father is driven one day to step down from the position of authority he holds in the life of his son, so that he can become a father in his turn. “For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh”.
There comes a time when everyone is called to release their children into their own lives.
God never intended for us to become adults, but spiritual fathers.
When John tells us about the logical evolution of the Christians, he does so by describing the following three phases:
Little children, young people, fathers:
“I write this to you, children: your sins are forgiven you because of what Jesus Christ has done. I write this to you, fathers: you know him who is from the beginning. I write this to you, young men: you have overcome the devil. I confirm it to you, children: you know the Father. I confirm it to you, fathers: you know him who is from the beginning. I confirm it to you, young people: you are strong, the Word of God dwells in you and you have overcome the devil.
The Bible
1 John 2 : 12 à 14
Unlike John’s remarks to children and young people, the two remarks to fathers are identical: “because you have known him who is from the beginning”. Spiritual fathers are those who have known God!
The Greek word used in this text for the verb to know is: “ginosko” which implies a particularly intimate knowledge, induced by personal experience and obtained by the proximity of the thing known.
In other words, a father is a person who is particularly close to God, with whom God shares his intimacy and who will be able to give birth to future fathers who in their time will be able to enter into the intimacy of God.
In all cultures, parents are the ones who pass on common values from one generation to the next and have the role of ensuring the continuity of the civilization to which they belong.
It is the parents who transmit the legal identity (name) of their children.
This identity gives them the knowledge of belonging to a group and of being faithful to it.
In the same way, in the church, the fathers (mothers) must transmit this to their spiritual children.
But the problem the church is facing today is the lack of this identity in Christ without which it become difficult to move from the position of a “slave to sin and death” to the position of a “truly free man”, from the position of a “stranger to the Nation of God” to the position of an “Heir to the Kingdom of God”! This new identity can only be transmitted by a father or a mother to someone loved as a son or a daughter.
An adult in Christ is not able to pass on his identity without becoming a father.
Parents usually seek to prosper in order to leave something to their children. That legacy, even if it is a small one, will include at least identity.
Then, in order to bear that identity with honor, the father will educate his children. “Go and make disciples of all nations… and teach them…”
Finally the role of the father is to give his children this feeling of belonging to a nation. He transmits to his children his nationality, with the rights that this implies, but also the duties! “So we who are many are one body in Christ, and we are all members of one another”. Romans 12:5
But now, where are the fathers ?
From immemorial times, when a civilization wanted to annihilate another one, it made sure to break the continuity between generations by separating the children from their parents in order to cut them off from their roots.
This is what Satan has been trying to do for a long time too! We can see how hard the devil has worked on the family principle.
The result is that a whole generation has lost its roots and finds itself lost, They become the prey to the first passing fad or blown about by the first wind of doctrine as Paul said.
This situation of rupture is also found in the church which for far too long has trained adults rather than fathers. Let’s understand that God is much less interested in what we know or do (being an adult), than He is in who we are (fathers and mothers).
A good parent in Christ is not one who can bring all the knowledge of God’s word, nor all the power of the Holy Spirit, nor all the faithfulness to his congregation. A good parent is the one who will transmit to his spiritual children the Heart of the heavenly Father and bring them to this intimacy with the Father so that they may know the One who is from the beginning and that they in turn become fathers.
Mikaël REALE