Children (and adults) must be taught to live as God commands: not to steal, to love their neighbours, to honour their parents, to tell the truth and not lie, to not let their anger get out of hand and not to let it turn to harming hatred, not to covet, to be kind, to learn to be faithful to prepare them for life. If we love God, and we must love God, we will train them to keep the commands of God, and we will train ourselves to do this too, and it will be an example to them. Even without children in our lives and our care, we should be upholding and holding out God’s commands. If we believe in His Son, Jesus Christ, we should keep the sayings of Jesus too. Then if we are incorporated by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ we should see how the Lord Jesus’ truth applies the commands of God in the context of life in the body of Christ. No lying between believers who are made part of this body together. No letting hatred and anger go too far. No adultery. No wronging each other in lustfully going beyond a brother or sister’s consent. No grieving each other or distressing each other. No coveting what belongs to each other. Keeping away from idols. No fornication, which is against our own body, which is become a temple of God in Christ. Paying lip service is not enough. We must learn to live like this, if we are in Christ, and it is towards our eternal wellbeing to live by such commands even before we find Christ. Jesus lived this way and he commands his disciples to teach all to do so too. This is how we can love God. The Holy Spirit teaches these things and enables this way of living by enlightening us in how best to so walk. Wrath is not far away, and sin gets constant surveillance and comes with sometimes dire results. Living by love for God is the safest path through the coming storms. The house built on sand is washed away in a storm but the house built on rock stands firm.
