Household according to the Bible

    One of the major doctrines in which I have been spending a lot of my time and thought on lately has been on a doctrine which has been very much misunderstood in our day in age. And that is the doctrine of paedobaptism (infant baptism). Now I will not be spending time on this particular doctrine (perhaps on another day). But through my studies on infant baptism I have been reminded of some really neat things in scripture, things which have been running in my mind this past year and a half or so, things which have been growing in my Christian worldview. Within these things there is one thought in particular I want to talk about, and that is the idea, or better yet, the reality of a household, particularly a Christian

household. Quit frankly I believe there is so much misunderstanding on infant baptism because in our lone ranger American mentality we have lost the concept of the reality of a household and have become enslaved into a individualistic, independent mindset, me myself and I. Now let me note here that I am not saying I believe in infant baptism nor am I saying I will never believe it. As any doctrine it takes much prayer, studying the Scriptures, studying Church history of godly men who have paved the way before us before we can start believing something. But just because one has not embraced a specific doctrine does not mean we cannot learn from that particular doctrine or agree with certain aspects of it. Aspects such as households. So here I now begin. What does the Bible have to say about households, particularly a household of believers? What does the Old Testament have to say about it and what does the New Testament have to say about it? And what can we learn from this? No matter which side you stand on, wether it be infant baptism or credobaptism (believers only baptism) this study will be beneficial and encouraging to each side. Sometimes, even if we do not want too, we let the culture mold the way we think, live, talk etc. We then read the Bible with such a mindset and forget that there was a specific audience that was being spoken to at that time. An audience that had its own culture and way of life in which the author of the the specific book in the Bible would relate to its audience.

How would the first century Mediterranean people thought on issues of households? Would these people have thought and saw the world primarily as individuals or as a household covenant unit?
First, we will look at the Old Testament concept of the household. Before we can understand the New Testament passages on "household" we must understand the Old Testaments concept of household. There are some who say that there is no real scripture passages that explain the concept of household therefore we have liberty to define it as we wish. But those of us who know better know we do not have such liberty and must study the scripture to define important doctrines such as the one at hand. scripture is full of definitive examples in which households are understood as including all members who are under the authority of the head of a covenantal family unit. A household could include not only a husband, wife and children but also their slaves. As the head of the household went, so went the rest of the family. Old Testament society was ordered by God and was dominated by a family tribal structure. it was a patriarchal society that depended on the head of the household for everything. Adam not only represented himself but also all his posterity (Rom. 5:12). Noah went into the ark with "all his house" (Gen. 7:1). The Lord "plagued Pharaoh and his house" (Gen. 12:17). "All" who were "born in Abraham's house" or who were "bought with his money" were to be circumcised (Gen. 17:12'13, 23, 27). The Lord spared Lot and his household from the destruction of Sodom (Gen.19:16). God "closed fast all the wombs of the household of Abimelech" because of Abimelech's sin (Gen.20:17-18). As a result of the sin of Simeon and Levi, Jacob said, "I shall be destroyed, I and my household" (Gen. 34:30). Households were spared death where the blood of the Passover Lamb was applied to their doorposts (Ex. 12:27). The Levites were numbered according to their household membership (Num. 3:15). Joshua spoke for his entire household when he declared, "As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD" (Josh. 24:15). God judged the house of Eli because of the sins of his sons (1 Sam. 3:12-14). David brought God's judgment upon his whole house because of his sinful conduct with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 12:10). There are still hundreds of more references in the Old Testament to "houses" and "households" that clearly include all members born in the those families and all who were adopted or who were owned by those families as slaves. In the Old Testament (and in the New), the parent-child relationship is organic; that is, God views parents and children not simply as individuals that happen to be related but as a divinley created unit or organism. This organism extends through the generations. We find the principles of the organic unity of the family illustrated in the pages of Scripture, both negatively and positively. In Joshua 7:15, 24-25, we see a negative example, in that not only Achan but also his entire family with him were stoned for his theft of silver and gold. God promises to punish the wicked, "visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations" (Ex. 34:7). So there is a concise description of the Old Testament view of a biblical covenantal household, which is seen as a family unit as the male being the head not an individualistic each for his own type household. The Lord took the family unit serious and still does today. In our next post I will be going through the New Testament and its use of household. So my encouragement to those of you who read this, is to take a step back, search the scriptures and see how God desires and designed the biblical household to look like. For those of you who are yet to be married, let this be a starting point to see how God wants you to be as a family. For those of us who are married, let us by God's grace live our lives according to His word in the area of households. Let us conform our lives to His holy writ. And for those of you who have already had children and are out of the house, my encouragement to you is to see where you failed (every parent fails because we are not perfect this side of heaven) and encourage us young ones on how to do things different to the glory of God. Stay tuned for part two of this series on biblical households.