27 So
God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
28 And God
blessed them. And God said to them, “Be
fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over
the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living
thing that moves on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26-28
There is one plan for family and God
revealed it in the sixth day of creation.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Moses wrote the mystery that had not been
disclosed by God since the beginning of time until Israel went out of Egypt. This one revelation is crucial for all
humankind to realize, internalize, and value as the foundation of all family
life. Unlike all other creatures, God
has a specific plan that is far more dignified, honorable, beautiful, and
glorious for human family. God’s plan is
for human family to multiply, to grow in numbers, in order to rule over the
entire world. This is a wonderful
plan. In order to accomplish this plan
to rule the world, God endows humans with an essential thing that no other
creatures may have, which is the pattern of the image of God imprinted in each
human being. Humans are created in the
image of God!
This essential component marks the
holistic design of a human being. We are
thus in many ways like God. Not only our
ability to manipulate objects that surpass all other creatures, although that
alone would put us on top of the world’s hierarchy, but we also are given the
divine attributes within our natural limitations. Humans internally have a sense of love, of
justice, of mercy, of infinity, of categories and classifications, of
meta-consciousness, of the awareness of the transcendence and metaphysics, of
collaboration, of linguistic sophistication, of honor, of respect, of dignity,
of self-worth, of self-esteem, of self-reflection and correction, of
imagination – be it artistic or mathematical or scientific, of a superior
awareness of space and time, of holy emotions, of multiplication and excellent
education, and of desire for the future and the better and eternity. Therefore, no other creatures can compete
with us. We are far more superior than
any or all of them combined. With such
constitution, humans are for sure destined to rule the entire universe. The multiplication aspect is amazing because
multiplying imago dei that have such greatness is truly remarkable. And that capacity to multiply and provide
excellent education is given by God in human family.
However, the fall corrupts
humanity. The great and awesome
constitution that God has endowed to each and every one of us has been
corrupted. The human greatness soon
becomes a scary and terrifying prospect for themselves and for all
creation. A great destruction awaits the
beautiful world God has created. The
human family is affected greatly by the corruption. Adam considered Eve a threat. Eve became insecure as Adam failed to protect
her. Cain murdered Abel because he
considered his younger brother as a competitor that ought to be
eliminated. Ever since, even though the
human family continued to multiply, they multiplied broken image that
eventually caused God to regret creating humankind. So He took action at the wickedness of man by
commanding waters to wipe them all out, except for eight people – the family of
Noah. Sin corrupts the divine compass
within, and so man run wild with all the superior capacity to do things. All those with little or no moral compass to
guide. Thus, the more sinful humans
multiply, the more bleak the future of the world will become. Destruction upon destruction continues to
happen.
We see even today how humanity
self-destructs. Socially it begins from
the family. A lot of the problems every
human carries in their life starts from their family experience. This problem is so ingrained in our life that
we become used to it. As we become
saturated with our fallen-ness including our family broken-ness, we lost any
sense of what a true human family is supposed to be like. As parents, often we are no longer aware that
we are actually kind of dangerous if we are not properly raised in the right
way. With our advanced constitution that
is far more superior than any other creatures, the only one that can stop us is
God Himself. Surely we still remember
the horror of World War II, don’t we?
How one misguided leader could cause the destruction of the world? One Adolf Hitler had created a major world
chaos and had caused sorrows to so many people in the world. More than 30 million people died during the 3
year period of WWII. What a mess?!
Why would Hitler do that? Experts believe that Hitler read Friedrich
Nietzsche’s book “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” and concluded that God is dead, just
like what was proposed in that book.
Hitler adopted the kind of morality proposed by Nietzsche, which was the
morality of the strong ruling over the weak.
Hitler, thus, led the entire German nation to show its strength to the
world in order to rule over the world.
With their superior research and engineering in machine design and
construction, they devoted themselves to the creation of the instruments of
war, the war machines. Their creation of
the instruments of war included the construction of the Nazi concentration
camps for those they considered to be weak and only worthy to be killed. An expert on Hitler, Alan Bullock wrote about
Hitler’s view on Christianity:
In Hitler's eyes, Christianity was a
religion fit only for slaves; he detested its ethics in particular. Its
teaching, he declared, was a rebellion against the natural law of selection by
struggle and the survival of the fittest.[1]
Not
only was he influenced by Nietzsche, but also he was influenced by Darwin’s
evolutionism. So life was not sacred for
him. Life was just a struggle of who would
win in the competition.
Hitler’s life was not easy. His father Alois Hitler had him when he was
51 years old. And Alois did not want
anything to do with rearing children. So
he abandoned his children, Adolf Hitler for sure, to his wife. Adolf Hitler grew up without a father figure
who should have led him into the truth and life. Adolf Hitler rejected anything suggested by
his father. It was as if his main goal
was to contradict his father. With no
strong leadership that ought to lead him to have faith in God, Hitler grew up
rejecting God. It was only for his political
agenda that he called himself a Christian.
Hitler learned to utilize all the arsenal of abilities that God has
endowed human beings in general but without the proper control within his
soul. It was like granting a tantrum
toddler the button for nuclear missiles launch.
Family life affects the development
of the children living in the family. God
designs family in such a way that husband and wife/dad and mom may multiply and
teach their descendants how to live the true life as imago dei. Multiplying
biologically is not enough. God
institutes family for the purpose of multiplication, biologically and also
spiritually. If the spiritual
multiplication is in actuality multiplying the broken image, or even the image
of Satan, then the human race is in danger.
The balance between dad and mom in God’s original design plan is so
wonderful that children born in the family may learn how to live as children of
God. Until sin disturbs the balance and
family begins to have a huge crisis if not worked out carefully.
But God gives us hope. The hope God gives can be found in
Christ. As the husband is the head of
the wife, the head of man is Christ. 1
Corinthians 11:3 says:
3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head
of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
Family
leadership is then established once more by God through Christ. This is the greatest hope because we all know
the character of Christ. Jesus Christ is
the most trustworthy person in the whole wide world. This means that when a husband, who is
considered as the head of the family, submits to the Lordship of Christ, then
his life would be under the guidance of the Wonderful Counselor. As his life is led by Christ, he then in turn
could lead his entire family into God’s wonderful plan for the human
family. Together with his wife, the
husband may lead their children into Christ.
And so they do not merely multiply biologically, but they also multiply imago dei spiritually. When the dad and mom follow Christ and become
like Christ in every possible way, their children will also adopt, imitate,
internalize, and live out the life of Christ through their parents. With their soul tamed in Christ, as they
learn how to use all their powerful arsenals as human beings, they would use
them only for the glory of God and for the betterment of the entire creation.
If all family on the face of the
earth follow this simple rule, then there would be no Hitler, no terror, no
chaos, no destruction, and no hopelessness.
Sounds like a utopia, doesn’t it?
Yes it is indeed. The fact of the
matter is that we still face many difficulties even when we have submitted to
the Lordship of Christ. But take heart
brothers and sisters in Christ, God knows our difficulties and problems. So He sends His Holy Spirit to dwell in our
hearts for all eternity. He is our
guide. Besides, He also gives us the
word of God to help us find the way to life.
God does not stop there, but He also continually sends His servants to
help us figure out and to actually live faithfully to the Lord as true family
in this broken world. We are indeed
destined to rule the world. But we won’t
rule in a way that the devil wants to rule.
We will rule in the way God wants us to rule, which is by serving. The strong serves the weak. The powerful protects the powerless.
Let us return to our everyday
life. You will be surprised how God’s
magnificent design is actually a reflection of such order. Remember the time when a baby is born into
our family. Isn’t the baby the
weakest? Isn’t the baby powerless? The parents obviously, in all normal
situation, are the strong and powerful.
Will the parents lord it over the baby and put the baby in labor in
order to serve the parents, the strong and powerful? No one in their sane mind would do so. God’s design is so amazing that a baby can’t
do anything without any help from the strong and powerful. The parents then serve the baby. The parents then protect the baby. The strong serves the weak. The powerful protects the powerless. In the meantime, the parents also teach the
baby how to utilize all his/her marvelous arsenals in order to master them for
the purpose of ruling over the world as so ordered by God. But ruling over the world not by exploiting
it, just like the parents do not rule over the baby by exploiting him/her, but
by serving and protecting them.
Remember that little child born to
you. One day that little baby will
become an adult. He/she will have certain
capabilities to do things that could affect the fate of the entire human race,
or at least the fate of their fellow companion.
How would you teach your little baby?
Will you teach him/her to use their strength and power to serve and
protect the weak, or will you teach them to serve and protect themselves and in
turn to exploit others for their selfish gain?
Hitler held just the position that it is natural for the strong to
devour the weak. For him, according to
the theory of evolution, when the strong wins the competition of life, it is
just the way nature ordains it. Look
where he went with his philosophy. His
hands commanded destruction. The very
gift God has given humankind to rule over the creation was used by Hitler to
strike terror to the entire world of man.
Had Hitler been taught to rule by way of serving and protecting the weak
and powerless, WWII would not happen.
Millions of lives would not die in the most tragic way.
Your family is the key to raising children
who walks in the way of the Lord. You
would not wish to raise another Adolf Hitler, would you? You would not wish to multiply Adolf Hitler,
would you? But I trust that you would
wish to raise a child that has the character of Jesus Christ, wouldn’t
you? I trust that you would wish to
multiply Jesus Christ until the whole world is filled with little Christs,
wouldn’t you? For we know that Jesus
Christ is infinitely better than Adolf Hitler.
We want our world to be filled truly by little Christs who follow the
way of Christ. The secret lies in your
family, in your commitment to teach the way of the Lord to your children, in
your obedience to follow Christ no matter what, in your faithfulness in living
the life of Christ each and every day, in your true worship and devotion to the
true God in Christ Jesus, and in your wholehearted love for the loving and
gracious God. And for all these
requirements, God has given you His Spirit that enables you to do it through
His Son Jesus Christ. Brothers and
sisters in Christ, this is God’s grace for all of you. Amen!
No comments:
Post a Comment