PARENTHOOD
a divine stewardship

Growing with the Growth of GOD

Parenthood is dedicated not to teaching the proper way to raise children-how to be proper parents or how to successfully train children to become models of proper humanity. Our goal is simply that we personally, as Christian parents, might grow with the growth of God (cf. Col. 2:19); in this way we become qualified and equipped by the maturing of the divine life within us to carry out the divine stewardship: the raising of children who will be God's own people.

Christian parental nurturing depends almost entirely on who we are, not on what we understand of child rearing methods. How much have we grown in God since our regeneration? To grow in God is our preeminent vocation. The extent of our growth in the life of God will practically determine the effectiveness of the guidance, instruction, and example that we impart to our children.

The life of a Christian is a life not of self-improvement, nor one of humanizing our living with a view to being proper members in society. Through regeneration, we have received the life of God into us as a seed which is now growing in us until we reach maturity. We need to cooperate with God for this growth. When we are matured in life, we will be proper citizens, proper spouses, proper sons and daughters, and proper parents. The "life seed" in us is the word of God which has been sown into our being. Now we need for that seed to be watered and fed until it reaches full maturity.

In First Corinthians chapter three, Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth." Growth in the Christian life fully depends on God, but there is the need for our cooperation in the process. If we would grow and mature as Christians, we need to give our full attention to daily receiving the word of God as our food and drink on a consistent basis. Peter writes: "As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word in order that by it you may grow unto salvation," and Paul urges, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God." May we hear the Lord's calling and give ourselves to grow with the growth of God until we reach full maturity.

In speaking concerning our growth in Christ, we must begin with regeneration. Our growth is based on the fact that we have been regenerated by the Spirit with the life of God as the seed contained in God's word (John 3:5-6, 15; 1 Pet. 1:3, 23; James 1:18; Matt. 13:3; 1 John 3:9). First, we were born in Adam through our parents; therefore, we have had one birth already. However, according to God's economy, every person should have another birth, a second birth; that is, every person should be regenerated. To be generated once is not adequate. We need to be regenerated-not to be born of our parents but to be born of God (John 1:12-13). We were born once of man, yet we need to be born a second time of God. Actually, we were created after God's kind, but that was not adequate. To be God's kind, we need God to be our life. This means that we need God to be our content....

Instead of being merely washed, we need to be regenerated. We need to be born of another life, a divine life, a life in another category. We need to be born of God and with God. As believers in Christ, we have experienced such a divine birth. On the day we repented, when we called on the name of the Lord Jesus, something unconsciously entered into us. Although we did not expect this to happen, something was added into us. That something is actually not a thing but a person, the divine person. The very God, even the Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, came into us (Eph. 4:6; Col. 1:27; John 14:17). We have another person in us as a threefold Being-the Triune God.

As believers in Christ, we are not alone. We do not live, walk, and have our being by ourselves. We do not rejoice or weep by ourselves. We are continually with one Person who is not outside of us but within us.... This One is the Triune God, the One who was triune from eternity, who created man, who even became a man, who walked and lived on this earth for thirty-three and a half years, who went to die on the cross an all-inclusive death for us, and who resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. Today this One is the life-giving Spirit within us. Through this Spirit we have been reborn, regenerated, in our spirit (John 3:6). The Spirit of God regenerated our spirit....

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