It’s not debatable that we must protect our children from bad influences, which is a noble desire, for 1 Corinthians does say that bad company corrupts good morals. That means that an overexposure to those who are bent on doing evil can influence others to such an extent that any teaching on biblical commands is overshadowed.
However, the threats from outside the home are typically more discernible than the threats from inside. More specifically, what about parents’ hypocrisy? Keep in mind that hypocrisy does not arise from merely possessing the sinful nature and then having that express itself in words and actions. That describes all of us, but the term hypocrite in the NT is reserved for those whose Christianity is a sham, meaning that there is no genuine walk before the Lord and everything that looks like it may be an act of obedience is entirely, selfishly motivated. We’ll talk much more about that next week, but the crucial consideration is if we are not constantly aware that our sin and unbiblical lifestyle patterns negatively affect our kids, then we will miss out on a crucial parenting emphasis.
The bottom line is: Who cares about our church attendance or even what we say and teach our children if we have no discernible practice of following Christ in our daily lives? Yes, we have certainly seen parents destroy their families by allowing wicked influences to penetrate their kids’ lives, but have we not also seen many children severely damaged due to parents claiming allegiance to Christ, but blatantly ignoring clear commands in Scripture? The most notable infractions along these lines are first unreconciled relationships between mom and dad. If parents constantly argue in front of the children and never reconcile in front of the children, children get confused, insecure and eventually disenchanted with anything the parents say. Another major area of hypocrisy is having misplaced priorities, which results in a lack of commitment to a local church. As we clearly saw during our study of key passages throughout the church series, the NT does not have a category for a Christian who is not actively participating in a body of believers. No one can love Christ and at the same time be indifferent to the primary way he is working in this world, namely in and through his bride, the church. If fact, 1 John 4:20 states that no one can love God, who is unseen, if that one does not love his brother, who is seen. Besides that obvious one, hypocrisy can manifest itself in refusing to confess sin. 1 John 1 says the person who does that makes God a liar. Another one is when parents consistently have a fearful, unbelieving response to life’s circumstances. This response creates massive insecurities in the children, which ends up placing burdens on the children they are not meant to bear. It’s difficult to reconcile parents claiming to have faith in Christ, yet not being able to see that faith in practice in any areas of life.
All these reasons are why it’s helpful to look to the negative way we can impact our children, along with the various ways the world can.