It seems like we often hear people today speaking about faith that has been handed down from their parents as if it was somehow a second class faith, or as if it couldn’t possibly be true faith at all. We hear statements like, “Your faith isn’t real until you ‘make it your own’”. While there may be an element of truth in them, statements like this can be less than encouraging for Christian parents. Why should we strive to teach our kids the ways of the Lord if those very efforts are going to cause them to doubt the legitimacy of their faith later in life? Does God really work through parents to pass faith on to their children?
When we look at the way Paul addresses Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter one, it can help to shed some light on this issue. It appears that Timothy (whose mother and grandmother were both believers) may have struggled with doubts regarding his faith. In the opening section of this letter, Paul sneaks in a few words of encouragement for him.
In 2 Timothy 1:3 Paul says, “I thank God whom I serve, as did my ancestors…” (ESV).
According to Strong’s concordance, the phrase ‘as did my ancestors’ would be more literally translated ‘from my parents’, or ‘out of my parents’, or even ‘by means of my parents’. Any of these meanings (and even the ESV rendering, though more vaguely), make it clear that Paul is attributing the fact that he now serves God to the fact that God worked through his parents, and he is speaking of his faith in God as an heritage that has been passed to him by his parents. It would seem that Paul is not speaking in covenantal terms, but it does seem that he is trying to encourage Timothy with this statement because he then makes the connection two verses later to Timothy’s faith, which was “first in your (Timothy’s) grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well“.
It’s easy to imagine Timothy, being raised in a Christian household (as many of us were, and as our children will be), questioning the validity of his own faith, and whether it was truly his own, or if he only believed because his mother and grandmother did.
Paul seems to be saying, “Yes, I know your faith was handed down to you. So was mine! Hand-me-down faith is great faith!”
While I don’t take this to mean that Timothy was a “child of the covenant” in the
paedobaptist sense, I do take it as a great encouragement to us, as mothers and fathers, that God does use parents as a means of grace in the lives of their children, and in that sense we do pass on the torch of the faith to our children. In fact, we get a beautiful picture of how God can (and does!) work through multi-generational faith when we see that first Lois (the grandmother), then Eunice, (the mother), and then Timothy (the son/grandson) all were given faith in Christ. Three generations of faithful Christians! That should give hope to all Christian parents and grandparents. God does choose to work His saving faith through families!
I’m reminded of a Psalm that I believe would be beneficial for all parents to memorize.
Psalm 78:3-4 says, “Things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us, we will not hide them from their children (descendants), but tell to the coming generation, the glorious deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonders that he has done.”
As we pray that God would grant faith in Christ to our children, let’s not fail to tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord at the cross, and His might in freeing us from the bondage of sin, and the wonders that He has done in giving us everlasting joy and peace in Christ Jesus!