dating and marrying a disciple (continued)

I have been posting on taking a stand when family, church, or government might bring pressure on you to not follow Jesus' way. I want to post more on raising children in the faith.

First, we need to get one huge misunderstanding out of the way. If you don’t trust that when you are a disciple you get to join Jesus and live within the work he is doing now and enjoy the eternity you are spending with him, then it might seem “bigoted” to only look to marry a disciple of Jesus. If your worldview is, "everyone can live a healthy and fulfilled life regardless of their faith," and if you believe that "all people will live in heaven forever, or all 'good' people," then why would it matter to you if your children are Christian or not, let alone who they end up marrying? Of course you would have a problem with the idea that your children should have a shared faith with their spouse or prospective spouse.

At the same time, if Jesus is really God and his words from the Bible are true, then you are going to have a different view. Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me (John 14:6).” If he means this, then it would certainly be going against God’s desire for you to raise your children in such a way that you didn’t give them the best opportunity to place their trust in him, as well.

Hence, I posted earlier on teaching children to date active Christians only. This is an extremely difficult situation to comprehend, on the surface. To give one example. Christians, of all worldviews, want to make friends with potential Christians, in order to be an influence in the possibility of their coming to faith in Jesus.

But friendship isn’t all that marriage is about. It is about making a lifelong covenant under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and, for most married couples, raising children. If the model of Jesus and his words from the Bible are correct, then to not give your children every opportunity to trust in Jesus is sinful. To not encourage them to be the primary influence (which a parent is) to carry on their faith to the next generations by raising their children as disciples, is sinful, as well. So, the best opportunity for your children to raise growing disciples of their own is if they are joining in this mission with a spouse who is also a disciple.

Now, obviously, Christians marry non-Christians, or come to Christ after they are married, and are able to raise their children in the faith, in part, because their spouse is open to this and encourages this. I commend these non-Christian spouses for seeing the benefit of their children trusting in Jesus. I pray that they will see the benefit of discipleship some day and see the need to seek Jesus for themselves. If Jesus is God and the words of the Bible are accurate, we want our potential Christian spouses to come to faith. Our greatest act of love for them would be to pray for this and be as much of an influence for Jesus as we can.