The Christian Home: Another Protestant Reformation Blessing

The Reformation was a time of rediscovery. The church, in a sense, rediscovered justification by faith alone. The reformation also rediscovered biblical worship, and this was seen as the second pillar of the protestant reformation. As the church was freed from the bondage of a fear based religion, other blessings were brought forth.

Other aspects of the reformation affected the life of the church and had profound implications on a developing Christian society. One such blessing in the rediscovery of biblical religion was the Christian home and the Christian marriage, which brings us to Psalm 128.

Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
 who walks in his ways!
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands;
you shall be blessed,
and it shall be well with you.
Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house;
your children will be like olive shoots around your table.

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.
The Lord bless you from Zion!
May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life!
May you see your children’s children!
Peace be upon Israel!

“Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in his ways!” What an assuring introduction. The fear of the Lord is the foundation of all blessedness. If you fear the Lord, the psalmist says, “It shall be well with you.”

In April of 1523, twelve nuns who had been convinced of Lutheran theology escaped in a fish barrel-wagon to Wittenburg. Martin Luther made sure that each of the nuns were able to safely continue their journeys to their parents, new husbands, or others who would care for them. After two years there was one nun left, Katherine Von Bora, and she had her eyes set on The Doctor himself—Martin Luther. However, his opinion of her was that she was proud and stubborn, and he would hear nothing of the idea of marriage for fear of ruining what was begun in the Protestant Reformation.

Eventually, Luther prayerfully considered marriage according to God’s Word and the blessed promise this this psalm puts forth about marriage and family: “It will be well with thee.” Subsequently, he confided to a friend that he would marry Katie, because  “My marriage would please my father, rile the pope, cause the angels to laugh and the devils to weep.”  Classic Luther, for sure.

In 1525, the Doctor Luther proposed to Katie. She accepted and they married, some sources claiming that very same day. Indeed they were blessed as they entered into marriage in the fear of the Lord.

Psalm 128 goes on to describe the blessedness that comes to a man when he is living in the fear of the Lord. Verses 2, 3, and 4 each describe the blessedness in this life which makes up the Christian home. The Word of God tells us that belief in the gospel will result in temporal blessings–even a home unto the glory of Christ. We must cling to this promise.

These blessings also show us that what was destroyed at the fall, as the man was cursed to labor by sweat and the woman was cursed to labor by pain, is reversed under the gospel and becomes great blessing unto Christ’s glory.

The husband who fears the Lord is promised in verse 2: “You shall eat of the fruit of the labor of your hands. A reversal of the curse delivered to man in The Garden.  The wife is described in the following verse as “a fruitful vine” within the house. The vine is a symbol of fruitfulness and joy and even of covenant faithfulness. The wife is seen here as productive and joyful and faithful. The curse is reversed for her as well as the kingdom labors within the home are shown as fruitful and blessed!

And then verse 3 continues that the children of the home will be “like olive plants” around the table. They will prove to be a blessing, but one that needs to be cultivated—the olive trees being described here as plants, or saplings, needing much love and care and food.

As we think again of Martin and his Katie, we know that they set a biblical example for all protestant marriages to follow. Love, industry, and mutual duties were well cultivated in the home. They lived in the former Augustinian monastery where Martin pastored, taught, wrote thousands and thousands of pages, and directed so much of the early stages of the Protestant Reformation. He had up to 30 theological students at a time that he was training for ministry!  So Martin was a busy husband laboring for the kingdom and seeing the fruit of those labors.  As verse 2  describes, he was blessed.

Equally blessed was Katie. Martin called her “Lord Katie” partly in fun, but partly because of her industry. She was a fruitful vine within the home. She administered the finances of the home. She purchased and bred cattle, even butchering them herself. She ran a fish pond. She was a well respected brewer of fine beer (a staple of German  Reformed Christianity). She  managed many of the affairs of the theological students as well.

Besides all these duties, Katie raised 6 children, one of whom died at the age of 13. She and Martin also had 4 long-term foster children in the home. A busy place indeed, but a place where kingdom work was central, and a place that was being watched by newly-wed Protestants in those early days of reform.

And all of this was kingdom work, as we see in our psalm, and it is called blessedness.

Katie was a fruitful vine for the kingdom of God—and  this idea of a godly marriage was something that was recovered at the time of the Reformation. The official Roman Catholic doctrine was that marriage was for the weak and celibacy was for the pious. Martin and Katie helped to normalize intimate, loving, industrious marriage with Christ at the center, a powerful force in the kingdom of Christ.

Each of their children grew to be productive in the kingdom as well—physicians, politicians, theologians. In our reflection on Psalm 128, we reflect on the man who believes the gospel and is blessed. We reflect on his wife who is blessed. We reflect on his children – who are blessed.

In verse 4 we are called to step back and to see this great blessing yet again, “Behold! Thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.”  The result of this great blessing is that the family–the  Christian home—receives  the benediction of God and it results in Jerusalem’s blessing. “The Lord bless you from Zion! May you see prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life! May you see your children’s children! Peace be upon Israel.”

When the family is in submission to God and his Word, there are resulting blessings that flow. We see that the church will prosper as families prosper. And we see that the covenant is expanded again to another generation. The psalm says, “You will see your children’s children.”

To look back to our believing grandparents or forward to believing grandchildren is a blessing that results from a gospel-centered home. The church of Jesus Christ will only be as strong as her families. During the reformation, the biblical concept of a loving, Christ-centered, and biblically ordered home was recaptured and the church prospered because of it, under the blessing of God.

One historian said of dear Katie and Doctor Martin’s marriage, “It is likely that no marriage has done more for establishing and demonstrating to the world the power and beauty of the gospel in a time when so many desperately needed to be rescued from the torments and prison of monasticism, depression, and guilt—all products of a burdensome and corrupted religion that had wreaked havoc upon the Church.”

May the Lord Jesus strengthen our homes and establish us in our roles as Christian fathers and husbands, mothers and wives, and children.And may we see the blessing of Zion and the covenant extended to the next generation of sons and daughters of the reformation.

 

Love One Another

Love is something often talked about in today’s culture. There are countless love songs played on the radio each day. Many magazines claim on their covers to contain the magic formula for lasting love. The daily news often contains stories of the latest love interests of the rich and famous.

Most of this is meaningless when we compare these definitions of love to those of Scripture. While references to love constantly surround us, more often than not, it is not the type of love Jesus shows us and requires of us each day.

In John 13:34, shortly before His crucifixion, Jesus tells His disciples: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” What type of love was Jesus speaking of here? Not the type of fickle love displayed in the media each day. No, He was speaking of a sacrificial love, the love that He has for us. He loved us so much that He gave up His own life so that we may live eternally.

He goes on to say in John 13:35: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” This sounds so simple, yet it is profound. It is easy for us to love those we hold most dear, our spouse, our children, parents and our closest friends. But how easy is it to love the person who cuts you off on the highway? How easy is it to love the telemarketer who calls during dinner? Or how often do you show love to your co-worker with whom you constantly disagree?

Those closest to us are not only the easiest to love, they also know of our faith in Christ. The stranger on the street does not. We must show the love of Jesus to everyone that we come into contact with each and every day. Jesus does not just consider this a nice idea, He commands us to do so. While Jesus endured the ultimate sacrifice — His own life — there are many smaller things that we are called to sacrifice for others, in order to show our love for them.

Each night when I pray before I sleep, one of my first prayers is that the love of Jesus may shine through me each day. The reason for this prayer is because this is a difficult task. Without the Lord’s help, it is impossible. I encourage you to examine your life, to consider, are you striving to love others as Jesus loves us? It is a daily struggle, but a daily necessity. May the love of Jesus shine through you each and every day.

One Thing Leads to Another

J.W. Alexander, in Thoughts on Preaching, raises the following sober–yet much needed–warning for ministers of the Gospel to be on guard against spiritual declension:

You will be called, as a minister, to spend much time in laborious study, the tendency of which is to draw the mind off from spiritual concerns; and sometimes in the perusal of erroneous, heretical, and even infidel works, that you may know what it is you have to combat. Your condition in this is like that of the physician, who ventures into infection, and makes trial of poisons. You will need much grace to preserve your spiritual health in such perils. The freedom with which you must mingle in society will expose you to many of the common temptations of a wicked world; and it will require the extreme of reserve, caution, and mortification, on your part, to prevent your falling into the snare. In the present day, out of opposition to the ascetic life, we all probably act too much as if we were ” children of the bride-chamber,” and too much neglect the subjugation of the body. That a man is a minister is no token that he shall not be cast into hell-fire. The instances of apostasy within our own knowledge stare at us, like the skeletons of lost travelers, among the sands of our desert-way. No temptation hath befallen them but that which is common to man. The apparitions of clerical drunkards, and the like, should forewarn us. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall I The apostle Paul expresses his view of this, in terms of which the force cannot be fully brought out by any translation: “But I keep under my body,” ?p?p?a??). I strike under the eye, so as to make it black and blue, a boxing phrase, indicative of strenuous efforts at mortification; as who should say, “I subdue the flesh by violent and reiterated blows, and bring it into subjection,” d???a????; ” I lead it along as a slave;” having subjugated it by assault and beating, I treat it as a bondman, as boxers in the Palaestra used to drag off their conquered opponents. And the reason for this mortification of the flesh is, “lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” 1 Cor. ix. 27. Dreadful words! but needed, to deter us from more dreadful destruction. The tophet of apostate ministers must be doubly severe. It is the “deceitfulness of sin” which hardens so many of us into carelessness about so great a danger. Pride goeth before destruction, till suddenly, like Saul, the careless minister finds himself inveigled into some great sin. This may never be known to the world, yet it may lead to his ruin. “I am persuaded,” says Owen, ” there are very few that apostatize from a profession of any continuance, such as our days abound with, but their door of entrance into the folly of backsliding was either some great and notorious sin, that blooded their consciences, tainted their affections, and intercepted all delight of having anything more to do with God; or else it was a course of neglect in private duties, arising from a weariness of contending against that powerful aversation which they found in themselves unto them. And this also, through the craft of Satan, hath been improved into many foolish and sensual opinions of living unto God without and above any duties of communion. And we find that after men have, for a while, choked and blinded their consciences with this pretense, cursed wickedness or sensuality hath been the end of their folly.”