A Workable Family Worship -- By: Robert W. Myrant
Journal: Central Bible Quarterly
Volume: CENQ 05:4 (Winter 1962)
Article: A Workable Family Worship
Author: Robert W. Myrant
CenQ 5:4 (Winter 1962) p. 25
A Workable Family Worship
Central Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary
The Need
In the divine order the family stands as God’s basic unit for man’s social relations with other men and for man’s worship relations with God. When God created Eve from a rib of Adam and brought her to be his wife He established this all-important social pattern of the family (Gen. 2:21–25). This basic pattern was not changed by the fall. In fact, our Lord went back to the beginning of creation to establish the sanctity of marriage and the family relationship (Matt. 19). Paul concurs in Ephesians 5:21–6:4, showing that the man and wife unity portrays the relationship between Christ and His people, and that the parent-children relationship in the home is to be controlled by a desire to honor our Lord in every aspect.
Family worship has been divinely ordered in each dispensation. In the present age, a full life of worship includes (1) the personal worship of the believer-priest, (2) the collective worship of the family circle, and (3) the public worship of the assembled church.
No doubt most believers recognize the need for family worship. Psalm 68:6, “God setteth the solitary in families,” coupled with Joshua 24:15, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord,” points up the God-given responsibility for household worship. But, undoubtedly it is one of the most frustrating problems in the average Christian home.
CenQ 5:4 (Winter 1962) p. 26
Token Worship
In some Christian homes the need for family worship is answered by the same lack of spiritual interest and drive that characterizes their service in the church, with the result that there is no family worship. For some, a general pattern is that privately or collectively the family reads two or three verses, adds two or three sentences from a devotional article, and then consider themselves to be “devoted”! Such a pattern develops little real reverence for the Word of God, contributes practically nothing to the spiritual edification of the members of the family, and provides a balm for the guilty conscience of the parents, who then proceed to occupy the time which could be used for worship, with other pursuits which may or may not be beneficial in themselves. But to call this family worship is a sad commentary on our understanding of the word worship. In some Christian homes there is an attempt at a more substantial and effective time of family worship, but the natural ...
Click here to subscribe