Why God Emphasizes the Nuclear Family

“But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us.” (Titus 2: 1-8, ESV)

It’s so important to read our Bibles and know scripture. We all know this, and I know I’ve spent so many weeks and months saying this statement in a multitude of ways, from countless different verses and passages. Yet somehow, it always begs repeating. 

We need to know God’s word. Yet, we don’t make time. We’re too busy, too inundated, or we don’t even want to try to understand it. What it comes down to is if you’re looking for an excuse to not read it, you will easily find one, and most Christians will give you a pass for it. 

But now, more than ever, we need to know what the Bible says. Because over the course of just one year, our society has become a pressure-cooker of political correctness, mob mentality, diluted social-justice religiosity, and the dangerous overcorrection of trying to un-offend the easily offendable. And the issue is that so many people are worried about being painted a villain that they fall into traps that the enemy is setting under false pretenses of “tolerance” and “love.”  

But I’m here to tell you that you’re only being fed false doctrine.

And if you’re throwing your support to organizations that claim to fight for the underdog externally, and then hide within their mission statements that their true purpose is to breakdown the “nuclear family,” then you need to get back into your Bible and hit your mental refresh button. Because the fact of the matter is that biblical teaching considers the nuclear family as a paramount example towards the evidence of Godliness.

Take our key verses for today, found in the second chapter of Titus, a book of the Bible that focuses on how the church should function and portray itself. In these verses, Paul is explaining to Titus that the natural flow of doctrine should begin with the pastoral leadership of the church (verse 1), and trickle down through the generations of the church from oldest to youngest. You see, Paul writes his letter to Titus after evangelizing the gospel to the island of Crete. Once Paul leaves, he puts Titus in charge of building the Church in every city on the island, training up elders and leadership that will help the Church thrive and grow there. Since Crete is the largest and most populous of all the Greek islands, this is a large job for one man.

As such, Titus will need encouragement and a game plan as to how he is going to accomplish the tasks Paul has left with him. With this, Paul is clear: a healthy church requires all hands on deck, with every generation doing its part. The elderly, who Paul warns against falling into bitterness or laziness as they enter their sunset years, are tasked with remaining sober-minded, sound in the faith, and steadfast. They still have purpose, which is to teach the faith to the younger generations. They do this not only through discipleship but by example as well. Older men teaching younger men, and older women mentoring younger women.

Mentoring how? Paul instructs them to teach each other how to be better husbands and wives, better parents and children. By teaching the younger generations this, they can then teach their children the faith as well and build better, more stable, and Godly families. And over all of this, is the pastoral leadership that preaches God's word from the top to the bottom.

But why is the family unit so important to God? Because it is the physical expression of God’s love itself. Godly parents will produce a house in order, with children that love the Lord. Godly children will grow up to be Godly adults that will go on to build other stable families. A functioning family unit gives God glory, because that is the way it was always intended to be; God being the heavenly Father over His children in a loving, edifying, and healthy way.

And that’s not to say that single parents are doing something wrong. Sometimes, that just is the way it is, and that’s not to say that those families are getting it wrong. But it is to say that God created the family to function and thrive in this way: one mother, one father, and the children they create and raise to know and fear the Lord. And those family units are just further proof that a church is doing its job and preaching good and Godly doctrine.

And that’s just one example of how worldly society tries to undermine the will of God; by saying that we need to somehow normalize and celebrate the dismantling of family the way God designed it. This is why it’s so important to know God’s word. Because by knowing the scriptures, you learn God’s character and train your eyes, ears, and mind to discern things that are unbiblical and displeasing to God. Satan’s stumbling blocks don’t come with a visible label that reads, “I am meant to turn you away from God!” He’s a lot sneakier than that. He will hide his tricks behind simple and effective banners of things that should have good intent, when in reality all that lies beneath is poison meant to kill, steal, and destroy.

We need to read the Bible. And when we read something that makes us uncomfortable, we need to lean into it and ask ourselves why it makes us uncomfortable. Maybe, as part of the older generation, you are peeved about your work not being done and that you can’t kick back just yet. Maybe you read today’s key verse and find that submitting to older authority makes you uncomfortable. Maybe as a wife, you feel uneasy when it talks about wives submitting to husbands. If you do, ask God to show you why. It might be a heart issue that needs confronting and ironing out.

In the Bible, everything works together to glorify God. The trick is knowing what God’s word says about each thing, and discerning where things need to be reassessed in your own life.