Are the Children of Believers Holy?

What does Paul mean when he says that the children of Christians are holy? That's just one of the questions we'll be answering on today's edition of CORE Christianity. Hi, this is Bill Meyer along with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and this is the radio program where we answer your questions about the Bible and the Christian life every day. You can call us right now with your question at 833-THE-CORE. That's 1-833-843-2673.

You can also post your question on our Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter accounts, and you can email us with your question at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up today, we have a good news story to share with you. An Arizona firefighter who was hospitalized with COVID-19 received an unusual visit from his co-workers last week. They used a ladder truck to drop by his hospital window. Dan Volkow is a 20-year veteran of the Phoenix Fire Department.

He was hospitalized when his case of COVID turned severe. Dan says his spirits were lifted by an unexpected visit from his fellow firefighters. He says, I was in bed and there was this beeping sound. There's a very distinct beep when you back up a truck, and I'm thinking to myself, that sounds a lot like a fire truck. Dan looked out his window and he discovered some of his crewmates had backed up a truck to the building and it extended the ladder all the way up to say hi through his window.

Dan said he drew strength and encouragement from the surprise visit. That's pretty awesome, Bill. I like that story. It is very cool. And you know, it just it shows you how people are really supporting their friends and co-workers who come down with this virus in some beautiful ways. And so kudos to the Phoenix Fire Department and those those good guys. That's right. Well, let's get to our first question of the day.

This one was a Facebook post we received from one of our listeners. He says this. I'm a 29 year old single man and I struggle with pornography. I know it's wrong and a sin, and I hate that I'm so weak. When I fall, I stay away from God for a little while because I'm ashamed and I feel I'm not worthy. Even though I know I'm forgiven, my brain just can't comprehend that God can forgive me over and over again for the same sin. It doesn't seem fair to him.

I was born and raised a Christian, but this is something I cannot understand. I don't want to take advantage of his forgiveness and cleansing blood, but I'm just so weak. I feel it's easier if I just keep away from him as opposed to constantly asking for forgiveness.

Yeah. Well, brother, it may be easier to distance yourself from the Lord, to stay away from Christian fellowship, Christian community, because you feel like you're in this rut of sin, but what you need, more than anything, is the grace of Christ, is the encouragement of the gospel, is accountability from the body of Christ. You see, that's one of the big problems is our sin will try to convince us that we need to isolate. I just can't be honest about this with anybody else. I have to hide, and that's precisely, I think, where the evil one wants us because it's in the dark, hidden, that sin grows.

What we really need to do is we need to walk in the light. John talks about this in 1 John chapter 1. He says in verse 8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.

What you need to bank on, brother, is the promise of God's word right there in verse 9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just. In other words, this is a part of who God is. It's how he's revealed himself in his word. When we come to him confessing our sins, even if it's the same sin over and over again, God, because he's faithful, because he's righteous, because Jesus has atoned for the sins of his people, will forgive us.

That's a promise that we have. One thing that I think is also really comforting, if you go to a little bit later in 1 John in chapter 2 verse 12, John says this, I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven, get this, for his name's sake. Now that phrase, for his name's sake, it appears throughout the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, it emphasizes the fact that God is working in us to forgive us, to sanctify us, not because we're good per se or because of something in us, but because it's about his glory. God forgiving you when you go to him is about his glory, not your goodness. On the basis of his name's sake, on the basis of his glory, when you go to him and say, Lord, forgive me again, brother, I can say to you that God does forgive you.

The prophet Jeremiah talked about this in Jeremiah chapter 14 verse 7. This is a prayer of confession. Though our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name's sake. For our backslidings are many, we have sinned against you. And so what gives you confidence when you go to the Lord and ask for forgiveness is not the fact that you've been walking with the Lord faithfully and that you haven't fallen into this sin in a while. It's the fact that God, on the basis of his glory for his name's sake, will forgive when we go to him. And so, brother, I would encourage you to continue to go to the Lord and make sure, as I said, you know, a lot of times in situations like this, people will isolate.

You can't do that. You need to be in a good church where you're hearing the word of God preached faithfully, where you can go and bring your sin into the light to an elder, a pastor who you trust. I think that's part of how we put our sins to death is by openly confessing them. You know, you can confess directly to Jesus, but I think that there's something there.

There's something healing about that. I mean, James talks about this in James chapter 5. And there are other things out there that you might look into. I know that there is different kinds of accountability software that you might want to put on your computer or your phone, things that will help you stay away from this sin struggle. And I know also the one thing that we can say is sexual addiction is a real thing. And so consider maybe even sitting down with a counselor who specializes in addiction. Individuals who use pornography oftentimes are looking for something deeper that they're hoping to find in pornography that ultimately they never will find there.

I mean, that could be a sense of power, a sense of control, a sense of being wanted, desirable, masculinity, affection. There are all sorts of reasons why people run to sin. And you need to recognize that and address the sort of deeper heart issues. But focusing on the gospel, not on your failures, on God's forgiveness, not on whether or not you deserve it, going to him and resting in his word is what I would encourage you to do. You know, Adriel, I'm so glad you mentioned that verse in James about confessing our sins, confessing our faults to one another, because I think oftentimes with sin, Satan does try to isolate us. And we feel like, okay, I'm praying to God, but we're not confessing our sins to other individuals in the body of Christ. And that can be so healing, so freeing.

Yeah, absolutely. And like I said, and we want to be very clear about this, you know, you don't need to confess your sins to a priest or that kind of a thing. Jesus is our ultimate high priest. We can go directly to the Father through him, and that's how we receive forgiveness. And yet, I think a lot of times when we're able to go to another brother or sister in the Lord, you know, for women who are struggling with this, and just be honest and say, look, there's this sin that I've not yet put to death that I need help with, I need accountability with, bringing it into the light really helps, I think, to deal with some of the issues of shame. But it also helps in terms of not minimizing sinful behavior, identifying it as sin and saying, Lord, put this to death. And we need to together as the body of Christ pray for one another and encourage one another with the hope of God's word.

Amen. Let's go to a call from Raul in Bakersfield, California. Here's the phone number.

It's 1-833-843-2673. Raul, welcome to Core Christianity. Hi, good evening or good afternoon over there.

Over here, it's about 11 40 a.m., so thank you for receiving my call. And the very first of all, I want to say thank you for your guys' faithfulness and answering all these questions that come in, and thank you also for answering mine. And the question I have is that in the biblical way, in the correct biblical accuracy, would it be wrong if I depart from the current church that I'm at? I've been here for about three years, well, four years now, and the reason is because I haven't been growing as much like there hasn't been in the sense of mentorship where the older men in the faith build one up and encourage each other to push them more towards Christ. And also for my fiancé, she hasn't been like mentored by any of the women, like in Titus and Timothy and Shrugged, to build up a man. And also as I'm pursuing into the office of ministry, I haven't been like in any way mentored or, and also like the preaching is kind of shallow and stuff like that, not really made much of it.

I would say to you, I mean it sounds like there are a lot of things going on there. One thing I'll say as a pastor is I know this last year with the pandemic, it's been really difficult for a lot of churches, and especially one of the things that's been a challenge for many churches is just that fellowship component, people not getting together like we were before. That's, I think, made it very difficult to do some of the one-anothering, that sort of individual discipleship stuff that you were talking about. So one thing I would want to say, and of course speaking as a pastor here is be patient, especially coming out of such a difficult year. Certainly, I think if a church is really struggling with fellowship and with some of that community piece, I mean you think of Acts chapter two where it talked about the early fellowship of Christians, they were devoted to the apostles' teaching, to the breaking of the bread, to the fellowship and the prayers, and if that element there of fellowship is lacking, I would say you want to maybe bring that forward, have a conversation with the leadership of the church. I think first and foremost when you think about the elders of the church, what they're called to do, they're charged with shepherding the flock of God, and the primary way they do that is through teaching the word of God. Paul said to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 1, preach the word. I mean that's the call for ministers of the gospel in particular, and elders need to be able to teach. 1 Timothy 3, Titus chapter 1, and so that's a huge question there. Is the word of God being faithfully taught, and if the word of God is being faithfully taught, but there's some maybe lapses in fellowship, I think that's something that you could bring forward to the leadership, and you can have a conversation, a prayerful conversation.

I think you want to be patient. You want to be charitable, but if the gospel isn't being taught, and if the word of God isn't being preached, and that's a different thing altogether, but I would encourage you, especially in this season, brother, to maybe exercise a little bit of extra grace for your local congregation considering everything that's been happening over the last year, and realizing that a lot of churches, I know many churches are trying very hard to really care for the people in the congregation while also working through some of these broader issues related to the pandemic and gathering together, and so, Raul, I trust that that encourages you, and you mentioned that you're interested in pursuing the ministry. Is that true? Yes, brother, and I was going to add, but I didn't want to cut you off in any way, brother. This has been happening before ever even the pandemic ever hit, because I was looking into going into the seminary, but one of the requirements said I needed a mentor, and my pastor said that he doesn't have any time for that right now, and that's as I'm pursuing into the office of a ministry, but this, like I said, this has been happening way before the pandemic. Let me just say one more thing to you, and again, I think continuing to have this conversation with the leadership in your church, I don't know your situation a hundred percent, so I wouldn't want to encourage you to leave the church or to stay at the church. I think this is something you're going to have to think through for yourself and with your fiancee, but one thing I will say in terms of a call to the ministry and sensing that call to the ministry, that's something that we have internally that an individual feels.

I mean, Paul talks about this. If somebody aspires to the office of an overseer, they desire a good thing. That's a really good thing, but I think that also needs to be confirmed through the people around you in your church, and so as you're a part of the body there and as you're serving, as you're getting to know people, as you're using your gifts, the gifts that God has given you to build up the local church, the body of Christ, other people around you should be saying, wow, Raul, you're an encouragement to us. God has really gifted you in these ways and helped to confirm that call to the ministry, and so it really is two things there, an internal call and an external call, and I pray that the Lord guides you as you think through some of those things, but I would say be patient, be prayerful, and open up this conversation with the leadership of your church some more. Thanks for your question. You know, Adriel, looking back on your own life, when you first felt a call to ministry, I think it was as a teenager or in your early 20s, did you have individuals in your church who affirmed that? No, I'm just joking.

Actually, there were quite a few, thankfully. Yeah, I mean, it was something where I did. I felt that internal call as a new believer. Initially, I thought maybe I'll be a missionary. I just want to serve the Lord, and then over time studying the scriptures, I wanted to teach the Bible, and it was really encouraging to be a part of a local church where other people came around me and said, hey, Adriel, you know, we appreciate what you're doing and what you're pursuing, and we think that you're gifted in these ways. We want to encourage you, and that's really, really important. We don't call ourselves to the ministry individually.

It's something that the church does, and so we really need to have that element as well when we think about whether or not we're going to pursue ministry. You're listening to Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Here's the number if you want to talk live to Adriel. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Frank who's calling from San Diego, California. Hi, Frank. Welcome to Core Christianity. Hi, how you doing? Doing well, Frank.

What's your question? Well, my question is a lot of confusion around today with the word apostles. I just wanted to know if you would be able to, I would say, explain how apostles are then and how we can distinguish, you know, the false apostles of today because that word apostle is getting used a lot these days. So I just wanted to see, like, if you can just explain that. Could I take the position that there are no more apostles? And I just wanted to see if you would be able to flush it out a little bit better.

Thank you. Yeah, a really important question, and as you noted there, Frank, there is a difference of opinion among Christians today. You know, there are some who sort of throw that word apostle around and suggest that there are apostles today, just like there were apostles in the days of the New Testament. And then there are others, and that happens to be my position as well, who say there aren't apostles today, that the office of apostle ceased essentially in the first century. You had the apostles there who had received the authoritative communication from Jesus himself, you know, the word of the gospel, and they handed that down to people that they had trained up in local churches, pastors that they had established, and that those pastors were called to train up others, but they weren't establishing new apostles. The apostles were foundational for the church, and that's actually what the apostle Paul himself said in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 20. He referred to the apostles as foundational for the Church of Jesus Christ, and let me just read what he said there, beginning in verse 19. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

And so I think it's really important that we understand this. Now throughout the New Testament, that word apostle is sometimes used in a technical way to refer to the 12, those who were eyewitnesses of Jesus's resurrection. And so in that sense, we can't have apostles like that anymore because people today who claim to be apostles didn't walk with Jesus like the actual apostles did.

But the Greek word apostolo means I send out, it refers to one who is sent out. So maybe in like a not a technical way, people could refer to apostles, but I think it's unhelpful to use that language today because typically when we use it, we're thinking of the authoritative apostles, the 12. And in that regard, we don't have new apostles today. And the scary thing, and this is where I think it can be dangerous for the church, is when somebody claims to be an apostle, they sort of take that title to themselves and they use that to exercise authority over others.

I mean, situations, cases of spiritual abuse, it can be really concerning. And so I think that's why it's unhelpful to use that terminology, that phrase or that word for today, apostles for today. And it's better to stick to what the New Testament says is established in local churches for all time, that is elders and deacons, 1 Timothy 3, Titus 1. So thanks, Frank, for your question.

Good counsel. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. And today we want to offer you a very special resource. It's actually one that Adriel has produced called Seeing Jesus. Yeah, Seeing Jesus is a short four-week devotional that we want to put in your hands for free.

I'm excited to get this to you. One thing I want to say about this resource in particular is there's a kind of familiarity with Jesus that is not good. It might shock you to hear that, but there's this passage I often go to in Mark 6, Jesus went to his hometown and no one there believed in him, or at least very few people believed in him because they had this sort of familiarity with Jesus. They thought they knew who he was. And frankly, I think today a lot of people have that same kind of familiarity with Jesus. They don't really understand who he is. We've sort of been raised around the church.

We hear these stories. We have these assumptions about Jesus, but we haven't ever been truly introduced to him. And so it's really important that we have a right understanding of who Christ is from the scriptures, that we see him according to what the Bible says, and that's what this resource is going to help you do. To sign up to receive a free copy of Seeing Jesus, just head over to corechristianity.com forward slash jesus. You can also call us at 833-843-2673 for help getting any of our offers. Again, that's 833-the-core. By the way, you can find today's offer and all the resources mentioned on today's program by going to our show notes page at corechristianity.com. Let's go to a call, a voicemail that came in on our phone number at 833-843-2673.

Hello, my name is Shay Carter. I had a question about 1 Corinthians 7, 12 through 16. My family was discussing that one night, and we determined that it doesn't mean that there's a salvation situation here, but what does it mean that the spouse or child is made holy because of the believing spouse or parent?

Thanks a lot. Bye. Yeah, a really good question. Let me read the text for those who are unfamiliar with it. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, beginning in verse 12, to the rest I say, I, not the Lord, that if a brother has a wife who is an unbeliever and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is made holy because of his wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy because of her husband.

Otherwise, your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy. Now, it seems like in the context of 1 Corinthians, the Corinthian church had probably reached out to the apostle Paul. There had been some sort of communication where they had a question about, how do we treat our unbelieving spouse? What is the relationship to the Christian, someone who's accepted Jesus, but they're married to someone who doesn't embrace the faith? And under the old covenant in the Old Testament, if you remember, in places like Ezra 9 and Ezra 10, the people of God were rebuked for being in these mixed marriages. Their children were not treated as a part of the visible family of God, if you will, the covenant people of God. And so this was probably a really big question on the minds of the Corinthians.

What do we do with our children and with our spouses who aren't believers? And Paul says, here's something that's so wonderful about the new covenant is, by virtue of the fact that one of the spouses is a believer, he says, your children are holy, they belong to the Lord. That language, holy, unclean, it's taken from the book of Leviticus. That which was holy had to do with the temple worship of the Old Testament, it belonged to the Lord. And Paul, I mean, this really is an encouragement for them, but an encouragement for all of us also if we have children to know that our children belong to the Lord. I sometimes hear Christians refer to their kids as vipers and diapers, that kind of a thing.

It's like, oh boy. But no, to know that the Lord expects us to include them in this visible worship of his people, that he treats them as holy. And you're right, brother, that doesn't mean that they're just born again by virtue of the fact that they're our children.

No, not at all. But it does mean that they have this special status according to God that they're to be a part of the worshiping community, and that's how God treats them. And so it really is this wonderful encouragement that we see there in 1 Corinthians chapter 7. And so we should take it as such, and especially in a day and an age where many people are lamenting the fact that children are just leaving the church, abandoning the faith when they go off to college. It's so important for us to understand this, that God expects us as his people to bring our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord because they belong to him. We've actually got a great resource on that topic for Christian parents who might be concerned about their kids' faith, and will they remain in the church, remain in the faith, or will they try to leave the faith. You can find that at our show notes page at corechristianity.com, something that all of us as moms and dads need to be praying for diligently.

Yeah, that's right, Bill. And what a great reminder for us. We've been talking about discipleship in today's program and passing the faith on to the next generation. It's so important for us to cling to those truths and to hand them down to the people around us, especially to our children. The truth of God's word together.