to conduct both personal and family affairs in sub mission to His authoritative will as revealed in the Scriptures, will be incorporated into home life. In the second place, a home where worth-while Christian learning may occur must be a place where the 'presence of Christ is practiced. By this is meant much more than the formal, and often perfunctory, mention of the Saviour’s name at the end of hurried prayers of thanks offered at meal times. What is necessary is the recognition of the constant presence in the family circle of One whose presence cannot be verified empirically but who nonetheless is there by His Spirit according to His promise, “ Lo, I am with you alway.” It may not be possible to specify precisely what the practical consequences of such an acknowledge ment will be in individual households. Yet it is obvious that there will be substantial differences. If we would alter our family life considerably in order to accommodate some mortal VIP — let us say, for example, the president of the United States, should he consent to be our guest — how much more ought we to introduce those specific changes into our homes which suggest themselves as being particularly appropriate for the presence of the Lord of lords and King of kings! A lack of discernible difference between the Christian home and the unprofessing home next-door teaches our children the erroneous lesson that perhaps Christ has not kept His promise to be “ in the midst.” How unfortunate! In the third place, a truly Christian home which will serve as the best kind of “ classroom” for our sons and daughters to learn of Christ will be a place where love is the environment. It is the low level of love in inter-personal relationships which, according to our best psychological insights, leads to serious disruptions of family life with resultant regrettable learning outcomes. Husband-wife es- strangements, childhood predispositions to neu roses, and similar problems most frequently have their roots in a deficiency o f familial love. And the love which is needed must be genuine. It is the considered judgment of knowledgable people that even infants are able to detect the authenticity of the love which is proffered them by adults. But who should better know what true love is than the Christian? The believer has seen genuine love personified in Jesus Christ. It is no longer a mere abstraction to him, for he has perceived it in terms of personality in the Saviour. In addition, the Christian knows pure love existentially in his experience of God’s grace and forgiveness at the Cross. Therefore he is in a unique position to shed abroad true love in his heart. What better place to begin than in his own home? In an atmosphere of Christlike affection, Christian learning of the best kind are most apt to occur. In the fourth place, a home which provides the most effective Christian education agency for en- JANUARY, 1969
couraging spiritual growth is a place where people are respected. A lack of appreciation for the worth of human beings plagues our world, our nation, and all too often our church fellowships. How can wholesome, positive regard for persons be devel oped, so that our children will really believe that man was not made for the sabbath, but the sab bath, and all that it symbolizes, exists for man’s advantage? The answer again lies in the family. Children’s disrespect for their parents distresses us. But so also should the lack of respect that we often see Christian parents show for their chil dren. The manipulation o f children by parents in order to assuage guilt feelings (for example, the father who psychologically conditions his child to become a foreign missionary in order to solve his own troubled conscience because he himself in his teenage days felt a call to such service but did not respond to it), the attempts to derive vicarious success experiences through one’s children, etc.— all of these somewhat common exploitations by parents are symptomatic of an absence of true respect. Yet once again the Christian has a distinct advantage in that he has a rational basis for an attitude of respect toward persons. God has in formed him that all men have been made in their Creator’s likeness, and it is this imago dei which gives to all humans their intrinsic value. Parents who understand this basic Christian truth will not dare use their children as means toward the realization of their own selfish ends but rather as ends in themselves. Such respect by parents will beget respect for parents in return. And our chil dren will learn through firsthand experience what it means to respect all men, regardless of race, social situation, or national origins, a lesson which we desperately need to learn if humanity is to survive the current threats of antichristian bar barism. Finally, the family which provides truly Chris tian learnings to its members will have a home where a corporate witness to Christ is maintained. While there is indeed an individual testimony to the transforming grace of the gospel, there are also many forms of group witness, of which the testimony of the family is one. This testimony to Christ is manifested by the quality of family life as much as it is by any verbal articulation o f the “What Christ Means to Me” variety. The reputa tion of Jesus Christ in the communities where our homes are located is affected very much by what fellow-members of those communities observe tak ing place in our families. This witness will have a threefold audience. There is first the witness to the yet unconverted members of the family itself. God’s best situated evangelists are parents. There is secondly a wit ness to be borne to other Christian families who want a model with which to identify and who can 21
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