KneEmail - a devotional by Mike Benson associated with Forthright Magazine
Disqualify
QUESTION: BASED ON 1 Tim. 3 and Titus 1, is a man disqualified (from serving as an elder) if his children become unfaithful after they leave home...?
ANSWER: Since each of us "shall give account of himself unto God" (Rom. 14:12) for "the deeds done in the body" (2 Cor.5:10), there must come a time when parents do not have to answer for the conduct of their offspring. When a man is appointed to serve as an elder, and his children are under his roof and jurisdiction, they must be "faithful, not accused of riot or unruly" ( Titus 1:6). But when they "leave father and mother" (Gen. 2:24) to make their own home, those children must be responsible for themselves.
Some contend that the unfaithfulness of grown children disqualifies a man because it shows he wasn't the kind of father he should have been. But God is a perfect Father, and 23,000 of His children fell into sin and died in one day! Read Num. 21 and 1 Cor. 10. Surely that tragic situation does not reflect upon the character of our Father in heaven! He did not fail, those who sinned failed. When children leave home to start their own home, a man is no longer responsible for the actions of those once under his roof but who are now on their own. (Johnny Ramsey)
KneEmail: "One who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence" (1 Tim. 3:4).