For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy … For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? –1 Corinthians 7:14-16.
As we gaze across the thoroughfare of homes surrounding us, we grieve as we behold one Christian tragedy after another. Almost every Christian has some near kin who has experienced divorce, a rebellious child, or strained marital relationships. Perhaps we cry out to God as we wonder why it is so, for it is surely not His plan. Herein we behold the apostle Paul bringing out an amazing principle that is little understood and even less employed—a sanctified home. It is what every sincere believer wants and seeks, but few apprehend. Christianity is not a rubber stamp that automatically clones offspring after the same sort. Still the scripture must be true and there must indeed be a sanctifying effect that a true believer brings into a home. This is no guarantee that the unbelieving spouse or the children of the union will be saved, but when a believing husband or wife acts in accordance with the scripture and the Spirit of God, the effect they have on the home will allow God’s power to be evident and an avenue of grace is poured into the pathway of all who dwell therein.
Our impotency is not caused due to the lack of God’s power, but because our dim understanding is infested and infiltrated with the influences of this present world. Faith in God alone is inevitably a powerful force, while faith injected by human reasoning and impatience will hardly prove any more effective than Abraham and Hagar’s attempts to produce a holy and sanctified child.
What then sanctifies the home? Casual observation will notice that merely being a believer isn’t enough to accomplish it. To sanctify is to make pure and holy. It is a process of filtering and a separation from that which is impure to bring greater purity to the object being sanctified. The Pharisees understood the principle well. They spent many a rigorous hour paying heed to countless miniscule details to make their vessels holy. Still, they were critically unsuccessful.
Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also –Matthew 23:25-26.
The Inside Sanctified by Faith and Prayer
What a foolish thing it would be for a man to wash only the outside of a cup, which is to be looked at, and to leave the inside dirty, which is to be used. Yet there are those who avoid only the scandalous sins—those that would spoil their reputation with men—but would still allow themselves pride and moral decay in their heart. It is this which renders them odious to the pure and holy God. Such it is when a man or woman seeks to purify their home by superficial cleansing. Pharisaic attempts to root out and remove the surface details and inconsistencies from the lives of their helpmate and children, in order to sanctify them, are generally fruitless.
However quick-sighted they are in other things; Christ calls them blind. In Christ’s estimation, those who are not acquainted with the wickedness of their own hearts—those who see not, and hate not, the secret sin that is lodged within—are strangers to sanctification. Self-ignorance is the most shameful and hurtful ignorance. The rule is, “Cleanse first that which is within, to get cleansed from the filthiness of the spirit.” Corrupt affections and inclinations, the secret lusts that lurk in the soul, unseen and unobserved, these must first be recognized, mortified, and subdued. If due care is taken concerning that, the outside will, by extension, become clean also. External motives and inducements may keep the outside clean, while the inside remains filthy; but if renewed sanctifying grace makes the inside clean, that will have a lasting and profound influence upon the outside, for the commanding principle is within. If the heart is well kept, all is well, …for out of it are the issues of life –Proverbs 4:23.
Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price. For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands: Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement. Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered –1 Peter 3:1-7.
Here Peter speaks of a wife winning her husband with the due benevolence mentioned in Corinthians. While she has no unconditional guarantee of sanctifying her husband, she certainly will meet with little success without it. Eunice was a Jewess, who, upon embracing faith in Christ, found herself in an unequal yoke with a Greek. We read that unfeigned faith was first wrought in her mother Lois, and that affected Eunice. This, in turn, had a sanctifying effect on young Timothy, who was then prepared for the work of the Lord. We have no record that his father was added to the faith, but one can only imagine the initial turmoil within the breast of this young Jewess as she reverently honored her head and circumcised not her son but rather committed him to prayer. Here brings us to the other vital dimension of home sanctification. While she was not emboldened to teach her husband, she apparently had won his respect enough to allow her to teach her son in the home. This she diligently did… For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer –1 Timothy 4:5.
And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness –2 Timothy 3:15-16.
The Outside Sanctified by the Word
When the heart of the believer is dealt with first, the visible dimensions of the home fall into place in succession. Worldly influences have little appeal for the budding child of God. The Word of God must take its full place being administered to the children as well as the adults, for they are profitable for sanctification. A husband is to wash his wife and children (as well as himself) by administering the Word of God so that he may sanctify and cleanse his home.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish –Ephesians 5:25-27.
When the Word of God is given full authority in the home, it becomes the governing principle around which the home operates. It must be allowed to filter out the media of the masses and the influences of all evil communications, which will corrupt good manners.
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful –Psalm 1:1.
Individuals within the home may not always appreciate the direction received from it, but submit to it they must, and usually do so heartily. Most of us have received direction from our parents that we did not appreciate at the time but years later have come to grasp the blessedness of their leadership. Leadership that does not lead, is not expressing love, and will leave the home unsanctified and its members disconnected. Though it is rather uncomfortable and inconvenient to ask children to do without what others are partaking in, they are not sanctified by following their peers, but rather by the truth. For us as parents, there is no greater joy than to know that our children walk in truth. Equally so, there is no greater joy for them than to walk in it. Daily family devotions are a cohesive force within the home that is central and integral to home sanctification. We dare not apologize for the authority we give to the Word, nor slack from its use. It is an erroneous Gospel to believe that souls are stifled who are held to the mandates within it.
Here is Christ’s summation of His home.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth –John 17:6-17.
Christ, as the head of His home, employed no complicated means to the sanctification of His children. His life manifested a constant keeping Himself in the love of God through faith and prayer, and the administration of God’s Word to those about Him. At times they stumbled at it, wrestled inwardly, and misunderstood Him, but the keeping force rested not on the laurels of convincing words, adamant force, fun activities, nor prudent reasoning.
While a home must employ these resources from time to time, they of themselves do not carry the sanctifying power. For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer –1 Timothy 4:5.
