Disciples or Defectors

By Matt Watson

Last week I wrote that if you want to create or change culture, then you have to obey God, get married, and have babies. Another angle would be to say that to create or change culture then you have to obey God and make disciples (both physically and spiritually) who obey God. 

But it doesn’t stop there. Culture is created by what you teach and what you tolerate. You can tell your toddler to sit on their bottom in their chair rather than standing on it, but if you tolerate them standing anyway then they will never sit. (Congratulations, Dr. Frankenstein. You just created a monster, not a man.)

Note that there is a difference between discipline and punishment. Discipline isn’t punishment any more than a cover protecting toddlers from outlets is punishment. It is a shield that helps keep your kids from electrocuting themselves and dying. So it is with discipleship. Jesus said to go and make disciples, baptizing them, and “teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt 28:20). That’s what we do when we discipline and disciple: we teach, grow, and protect. 

The Call to Make Disciples

This is why covenant households are so important. By that I mean those homes who have echoed what Joshua said during God’s covenant renewal with his people at Shechem, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Josh 24:15 ESV). These are homes led by fathers (and at times single mothers) who follow Jesus, administered by mothers who follow their husbands and Jesus, teaching their children to obey their parents … and Jesus. These homes are devoted to being “little churches” where the Word of God is proclaimed, believed, and obeyed by all who dwell within.

This is why catechisms and family worship are important because if you do not disciple your kids, someone else will. If you do not teach them that God's Word is sweet like honey, then they won't recognize how artificially sweet the world's high-fructose corn syrup heresy is (more on that below).

That’s what we see in the book of Judges after Joshua leads the conquest of Canaan. Joshua’s generation followed the Lord, and so did their kids. But the grandkids didn’t. “And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel” (Jdg 2:10 ESV). This means that at some point, Hebrew parents quit obeying God by neglecting to teach their children about him. They forgot to do the Great Commandment:

What happens when parents don’t obey Deuteronomy 6 and fail to teach their children to obey the Lord? Instead of disciples, they create defectors. Defectors are those who abandon their country or cause and join an opposing one. Another word for this is apostasy. Apostasy is what you get when you tolerate the culture, rather than transform it. The enemy is waiting with arms opened wide ready to welcome you and your children with tolerance and winsomeness.

Outsourcing

As a culture, we've outsourced our parental responsibilities. We’ve outsourced teaching to the state, but state schools are increasingly hostile to all things Christianity. We've outsourced discipleship to megachurch youth groups. We've even outsourced nutrition to the food industry, the same industry that has been pumping artificial sweeteners, high-fructose corn syrup, and seed oils into everything we eat for the last few generations. We are malnourished but obese, physically, spiritually, and mentally. 

And for the most part, we didn't know any better. My mom and dad were hard-working parents, doing what they knew to do, as their parents did for them. I don't begrudge them, partly because it wasn't just them. It was everyone, from Boomers to Millenials. It's a whole cultural paradigm shift that has been generations in the making.

This is the cost of progress. Cottage industries and productive households had to make way for the Industrial Revolution and government regulation. The post-war economy led to convenience which created more and more processed foods. The sexual revolution convinced millions of mothers to leave the home to go work for someone who doesn't care about them to have that dual-income lifestyle. 

This is the cost of losing sight of the covenant. God told Israel to conquer and drive out the inhabitants of the Promised Land, but they didn't (Jdg 1:27-36). The tribes of Israel slowly, gradually, began to neglect the covenant with the Lord. They stopped teaching the next generation to obey the Lord, and they saw mission drift. They got comfortable, compromised, and then jumped on Canaanite Tinder.

Then they were surprised when their kids who went to Canaanite state schools came back acting like Canaanites, rather than Israelites. Their kids came back from attending their university's freshman world religions class talking about Baal and Ashtaroth rather than Yahweh. They abandoned God and defected.

Make Disciples, Not Defectors

When we let the culture dictate what is normal, we'll have mission drift. We need to let God's Word dictate what is normal and choose his kingdom rather than the culture of the world. "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Rom 12:2 ESV). We can't tolerate our kids eating candy and then worry about why they are obese. We can’t send our kids to state schools and wonder why they are depressed, bullied, and forced to conform to false doctrines. We can’t emphasize sports, dance, band, or whatever, over the church and then wonder why the church isn’t a priority for them.

It's time to reclaim our role in shaping a God-centered culture, starting within our homes. Make disciples, not defectors. This means prioritizing family worship, engaging in daily biblical discussions, and demonstrating a life that honors God's Word. Being countercultural used to mean listening to punk music and defying societal norms. Now that means going to church with your family. Stand firm in your faith amidst a world of shifting values. The culture of tomorrow is being shaped in your living room today. Embrace this responsibility with love, prayer, and unwavering faith in God’s promises, proclaiming with Joshua, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." 

This article was originally published by Matthew Watson with Awake! Put on strength!, and is used under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.