Do Christian Mothers Have to be Stay-at-Home-Moms?

I heard a pastor say that Christian mothers should be stay-at-home moms and not work outside the home.

Is that what the Bible teaches? 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. You can watch us live on YouTube, and you can email us with your questions at questionsatcorechristianity.com. First up, let's go to Paul in Johnston, Rhode Island. And Paul, what's your question for Pastor Adriel?

Hello, yep. Pastor, I'm wondering now, is there somewhere in scripture that tells us that we have authority over devils and demons in this time? Paul, the one text that I think some people might go to in order to make that case is found in the book of Luke, in Luke chapter 10. It's when Jesus is speaking to the 72 that he had sent out. The 72 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. This is Luke 10, verse 17. And Jesus said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. It seems like there was a sort of apostolic authority that was delegated to these individuals to go and cast out demons and to preach the gospel. Now, is this something that is given to every individual Christian?

I don't think I would go that far, Paul. Throughout the New Testament, one of the things that we see is this call to resist the evil one. Peter says this in First Peter chapter five, verse nine.

We're called to put on the armor of God, to be prayerful. Paul talks about this in Ephesians chapter six, verses 11 through 18. We're told that the one who is in us is greater than he who is in the world. That's First John chapter four. And a little bit later in First John chapter five, we're told that the evil one cannot touch us. And so by virtue of our relationship with Jesus Christ, Paul, we belong to Jesus.

We are in Christ and Satan can't snatch us out of the hands of Christ. I get sort of nervous when I hear pastors trying to cast out Satan out of every corner, that kind of a thing, sort of having or exercising this quote unquote apostolic authority that you see described in Luke chapter 10. It's really interesting because even there in Luke chapter 10, the 72, when they return, they say the demons are subject to us in your name. It's the name of Jesus Christ that has power. And there are people who don't really know Jesus, who try to use the name of Jesus to exercise authority that Jesus never gave to them.

I think, for example, there's this interesting scene in the book of Acts, in Acts chapter 19, where a group of Jewish Hebrew exorcists, the sons of Siva, are casting out demons or attempting to cast out demons in the name of Jesus. And it goes really poorly for them because they don't really know Christ. So the power is in knowing Jesus and in the name of Jesus. And we're called to resist the evil one and to walk with the Lord and to be confident that Christ is really the one who gives us the victory.

And so thank you for your question, brother, and I appreciate your call. Yeah, it didn't go so well for the sons of Siva. That was kind of an understatement there. Yeah, you have to, if you've not read that story, you guys, you have to open up the book of Acts chapter 19 today and read that account because it really highlights the fact that one of the things you see in that account is Jesus's name isn't like a magic word that we're supposed to throw around here. Here, a group of people essentially using the name of Jesus superstitiously. And we're told that the person who was demon possessed leapt on them and basically attacked them and they ran out of the house naked.

And so, yeah, that was a bad move on their part. Definitely. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. If you have a question about the Bible or the Christian life, right now is the time to call. We'll take your calls for the next 20 minutes or so at 833-THE-CORE.

You might want to jot that number down for future reference, 833-THE-CORE, which if you dial it out, it's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to a voicemail that we received yesterday. Hi, I kind of just had a comment on asking forgiveness for sins of ours. I'm an ex-criminal and I did a bunch of damage when I was younger. And for me, it's just not wise to do that because I would hurt too many people in the process of things that I've done.

It would ruin marriages. Getting that family for forgiveness would probably open up a can of worms. And I don't think it's wise to go back and try to make amends where you're going to do more damage than good. I'm forgiven by God and I'm grateful to the Lord for my salvation. Some things are just better left alone.

Thank you. Yeah, I'm assuming you're listening to the broadcast where we had a question about, do I always need to go to the person that I've hurt and ask for forgiveness? Do I always need to reconcile? And you have the language of Jesus in places like Matthew chapter five and Matthew chapter six, and talking about if somebody has something against you, go to them and be reconciled. And in Matthew chapter six, you have that language of forgiveness, being forgiving. We as followers of Jesus ought to forgive those who have sinned against us. And so I typically encourage Christians to pursue those that they've hurt and to seek reconciliation, especially within the body of Christ.

But you're totally right. I mean, these are complex issues. I have several friends who have done time in prison.

They've had to wrestle with these kinds of things too. What does it look like for me now to walk in the light and to honor Jesus, even considering my past and how do I now in Christ reconcile these things? And sometimes it is wisdom to say, no, you need to take a step back. It would actually be more harmful for you to go to this person that you may be committed a crime against or something like that. I'm not sure what the details are in your case, brother, but this just goes to highlight that in these situations, we need to exercise wisdom.

It's not always black and white. There are complex issues, and there are instances where an individual has hurt someone, caused a particular trauma, and the loving thing to do would be to stay away from that individual. God has forgiven you, and maybe this person knows that you're a changed man now, praise God by the grace of God, but you're completely right.

There are instances like yours where it isn't the wise thing to do to go and try and build a relationship again, and that could just reopen wounds for this individual. So I appreciate your call and just so grateful to hear that the Lord Jesus has brought you to himself and that you're walking with the Lord now. May God bless you and strengthen you.

Really a thoughtful question, Adriel, and yeah, it's got to be tough when he knows that it would hurt even more to go back to those individuals and try to ask for forgiveness. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Let's go to Julie in St. Louis, Missouri. Julie, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Hi.

Thank you for taking my call. I am going to pick up my 14-year-old son from school. He goes to a Catholic school, has some kindergarten, and he got taught to be on an exam today. And obviously, he knows it's wrong. We raised him that that's wrong, but he did it anyway. So I'm just looking for some good advice to him. Do I want to guilt him?

Do I want to beat him? Yeah, probably not those latter two, Julie. I hear what you're saying. In parenting, I have four young children, and these are the difficult kinds of things that we deal with. The big question is, Lord, how can I best represent you in disciplining my child?

Let me tell you one thing, Julie. The discipline of the Lord is always done out of love. And so I think that's the very first thing that we have to recognize. We don't discipline out of anger. We discipline out of love, and we want to communicate to our children when we do discipline them in whatever way that we do that, that it's out of love. Now, we have to be really, really careful here, because we don't want to communicate something that would be opposite of the heart of God for us and for our children. And so throughout the Bible, when scripture talks about God's discipline, it talks about just what I've already said. So I would say, you have to ask yourself the question, how can I communicate to my son in this situation that I love him and that this is why he's going to lose his TV time or be grounded or something like that?

And a lot of times, Julie, there are just the sort of natural consequences of our poor behavior. I mean, it sounds like probably he's going to get an F on that test, and maybe there are going to be repercussions there at the school. And so he might already have some form of discipline, and that's where you can come alongside of him and maybe talk through some of these things, ask him questions, get behind.

Why is it that you felt like you needed to cheat on this test? And maybe it's an opportunity for the two of you to have a deeper discussion about things that are going on in his life. But again, just always in love and not using guilt as a primary motivating factor and certainly not any kind of abuse. And so may God bless you. May God give you wisdom as you go to speak to your son right now. You know, Adriel, I'm just thinking of that passage of scripture where the Bible says it's God's kindness that leads us to repentance. And so certainly, as you said, you don't want to guilt the kid. You want to have some consequences. And hopefully he's going to learn from those consequences and maybe he goes to a Catholic school. So there may be who knows what the nuns will do.

Yeah, it could be. Well, and Bill, I mean, I know that you have worked with many families. You have you have children of your own and and every kid is different. You know, like we found in our own family that each child responds differently to different kinds of discipline. I mean, I might say something to my son that really just doesn't mean anything to him.

But if I if I say that same thing to my daughter, it really affects her in a different way. And so I think we have to use wisdom. And in Julie's case, you know, thinking about her son in particular, how can we, through the kindness of God, come alongside of this individual to help them to see, hey, this was wrong. There are consequences to this, but also to move in a direction that would be good and healthy and honoring to the Lord. Amen. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez.

Let's go to Molly in Hannibal, Missouri. Molly, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? I'm very confused. I know that God has in the past talked to people through their dreams. I try to be very conscientious before I go to sleep and put on the full armor of God. What is your opinion of him speaking to people in their dreams? Yeah, I mean, you read the Bible and it's inescapable. You see time and time again instances where the Lord spoke to people through their dreams. Now, the question is, is that how God is ordinarily speaking to us today, Molly? I would say that God can and does speak to people through their dreams.

That's a very extraordinary occurrence. I mean, I've heard stories of people in Muslim countries coming to faith in Jesus Christ because they had a dream that they needed to go talk to some individual and that individual shared the gospel with them, that kind of thing. I really do believe that God can and does work in these extraordinary ways, but the fact of the matter is a lot of times we're expecting God to do that as though it were the norm, when in reality, God has already spoken to us so clearly through his word. So if you want to hear from the Lord, instead of taking a nap and saying, okay, God, speak to me during my dreams or waiting to hear from him while you're sleeping, that kind of a thing, we open the word of God, we study the scriptures, we draw near to Jesus in prayer, we go to church, we hear the preached word of God. We really need to recover I think today in the church, Molly, a high view of the ordinary ways that God is working in our lives today through other people, through Christian encouragement, brothers and sisters in Christ, through, as I said already, the preaching of the word of God through Bible study, those kinds of things. God is speaking, and he's speaking today through his word. Now, does that mean, again, that he can't speak through a dream?

No, that's not what we're saying at all. We're just saying that's not the primary way that God speaks to people today. So if we're setting aside the Bible and we're waiting for God to give us a miraculous sign or to speak to us through a dream or something like that, we're really missing it. We need to fix our eyes on God through his word, and that's what I would encourage you to do, sister, and should the Lord in his providence in this extraordinary fashion give an individual a dream. The one thing I would want to also say is we've got to be careful because a lot of times people can be led astray by these sort of quote-unquote miraculous experiences.

There are some people who think, oh, God really spoke to me, but if it contradicts the word of God, well, then it's not God speaking. And so those are all things we want to keep in mind. God can work in extraordinary ways, but he's spoken primarily in his Son and through his word, and that's where we need to focus. Amen. Be a Berean, right? Yeah. Search the Scriptures. Absolutely.

Exactly. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez, and we are excited to announce we have a brand new Bible study to offer you. It's on the book of Revelation. Yeah, we're stoked about this Bible study on the book of Revelation. It's just going to really get you into the last book of the Bible, a book that a lot of people have questions about. People wonder, what does the Bible have to say about the end times? What does all this talk about the rapture that you sometimes hear thrown around in the church?

What is the book of Revelation about really fundamentally? That's what this resource is going to help you with. It's yours for a gift of $20 or more. And here's what you do to get that. You just go to corechristianity.com forward slash revelation. That's corechristianity.com forward slash revelation. Or, of course, you can call us for that resource or any one of our resources at 833-843-2673.

That's 833, the core. Let's go to Mike in Orlando, Florida. Mike, what's your question for Pastor Adriel? Yes, hi. I just want to say I'm a first-time caller, and I just had a question here. I know that in the scripture...do you guys hear me?

We can hear you well. Oh, okay. There's a scripture where it says, I believe it's in 1 John. It says, now by this we know him if we keep his commandments. My question is, are we required... And I have to say yes, but I want to know why.

How come there's a lot of people who don't really do it? And I'm just confused myself. Are we required to keep the Sabbath day? I mean, it's in the Ten Commandments. I know there's another, I think it's in Ecclesiastes, that it says this is the all of man, keep the commandments. So that's my question. Hey, great, great question. So, I mean, how is it that we as Christians are called to keep the fourth commandment, the Sabbath command?

And you're right. I mean, Jesus, John, Jesus and the Gospels, especially in the Upper Room Discourse, and John and his first letters, I mean, they talk about the importance of obedience and following the commandments of the Lord. And so why is it that the majority of Christians throughout church history, including the apostles themselves, worshiped God not on Saturday, but on Sunday? We have to remember that the Sabbath, and I mean, I just recently preached on this, the seventh day of creation initially, where God rested, Genesis chapter two, verses one through three was really a picture of heaven in one sense, the eternal rest that God was inviting his people into. You see this in places like the book of Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter four, where the author of the Hebrews talked about the fact that there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. And he said, here's how you enter that Sabbath rest.

Hebrews chapter four, we who have believed do enter that rest. In other words, the Sabbath was really this picture of the eternal rest. What's interesting about the seventh day of creation is you don't have days one through six, you have this phrase, there was evening and there was morning the first day, there was evening and there was morning the second day. But then on the seventh day, you don't have that phrase. It's this sort of timeless seventh day, no evening, no morning.

It's a picture of the new creation of heaven. John had a vision of that in Revelation chapter 22, where he talked about in heaven, there's no day or night, there's no sun or moon. We're just there in the presence of the Lord with his light. And we experience that Sabbath rest now in Jesus Christ. That's why Jesus said, come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. And so the disciples from very early on, after having embraced Jesus Christ, began to worship God, not on the seventh day, but on the first day of the week, the day of resurrection. And ultimately the Sabbath, as it pointed to that heavenly rest that God gives to us, was in one sense also this picture of the Lord's day, the day of judgment, the day of being in God's presence. And that's why the disciples began to worship God on Sunday. And so I think we follow their example, brother, we follow their example. And you see that they did this in places like Acts chapter 20, in 1 Corinthians chapter 16, even at the beginning of the book of Revelation, John talks about being in the presence of the Lord on the Lord's day, having his vision then and there. And so I would say that's the way in which we're faithful to enter into the quote-unquote Sabbath rest that God has given to us by believing in the gospel, by being in Jesus, and by gathering together on the first day of the week to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus as the apostles did. And so we follow their example. Thanks for that question, brother. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate you listening to Core Christianity.

Let's go to an email question that came in from Amber, and Adriel, here's what she says. My husband and I are losing health insurance through his work, and I was just offered a part-time job that has health insurance, but the job takes place only during school hours. I have two younger children that my family, who are Christians, can babysit during these hours, but my mother recently told me not to go to work after hearing another pastor say that Christian mothers should only stay home and raise their children. What am I to do? Am I being responsible by taking the job?

I've had cancer issues twice, and I'm only 30. Does taking the job mean that I'm not trusting God? Is it going against his word, getting into the working field at all?

Amber, man, thank you for that question. It sounds like there's a lot going on here, and I expect that maybe the passage of scripture that your mom was thinking of, you know, this idea of not working outside of the home, was something that Paul said in Titus. Maybe she was listening to a sermon on this text in Titus, Titus chapter 2, verse 3. Elder women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine.

They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. And there are some people who take those statements and they say, yeah, if you're a Christian woman, you can't work outside of the home. You have to just be at home working, raising a family.

That's your focus. And let me just say this. I do think in our day and age today, we have really undervalued the blessing of motherhood and children. I think that a lot of times we don't treat that like we should. I mean, it really is such a high calling in what you're doing, Amber, seeking to raise children in the Lord, to love your children well.

You can't be supported enough in that, and you really need to understand that what you're doing is so meaningful, so important. And I think in some situations, like the doors are open for us to be able to do that, for an individual like yourself to be able to do that, to not have to work. But the fact of the matter is, is that's not always how things play out. I mean, I'm talking to you as someone who was raised by a single mom, and my mom had to work a ton to take care of her kids, to take care of me. And I look up to her. I mean, she really was an amazing woman. I don't think that she was doing something wrong there.

And so I think that life is a lot more complex than we would like it to be. And you are not sinning by taking this job. It sounds to me like the Lord has really provided for you. Another instance, actually, as I was listening to that question that you gave to us, I think of Lydia in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 16, it says, One who heard us, this is the disciples preaching, was a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. And after she was baptized and her household as well, she urged us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.

And she prevailed among us. Here you have an example of a working woman. And there are some commentators who say she was probably pretty successful in making a decent amount of money, because a seller of purple, this was fancy stuff. And she has a family. She has a house. And yet she's providing for that family.

So we can't say that it's always wrong for a woman, a mother, to work that it's sin, that kind of a thing. No, sister, it sounds like the Lord is providing for your family through this opportunity. And continue to love your children, to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And know that Christ is with you as you seek to do that faithfully to Him. Trust that He's going to continue to provide for you and for your family. And may the Lord richly bless you.

Thank you so much for your question. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar. Or call us at 1-833-843-2673. That's 833-THE-CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together.