The God Behind the Commandments

Excerpt from Q&A with John Piper on How Can We Teach Our Children About God's Character and Not Just His Commandments

I don't think the kids will ever hear the commandments for what they really are—namely, a loving doctor's prescription for what will bring life and joy—if they don't know the God behind the commandments. We simply must help them see and feel the wonder that they've been created, that they are sustained, and that they are redeemed by a personal, loving, glorious, omnipotent, all-wise, all-sovereign God. And then the do's and don'ts will fall into a more proper place.

But if you only have do's and don'ts with children, that will become law; and the Bible says very plainly that nobody is justified by the law. And if we only relate to God like, "He gives me do's. I try to do them! I hope he likes me today because I did more of them," then we will never know the true God of the Bible. So somehow, even from the beginning, we must model for them and teach to them the greatness of God.

I want to acknowledge how hard this is, because when you're training a little child everything is mainly do's and don'ts: "Don't touch that! Eat that! Don't do that! Eat that!" You have to do do's and don'ts all the time. Therefore what you have to supplement that with is a personality and a verbal expressiveness that God is great and God is good, so that they see thankfulness and joy and exultation in mom and dad, and then they begin to hear that it is related to God. God is why mom and dad are happy. God is why mom and dad hug me. God is why mom and dad feed me. God is why mom and dad sing in the kitchen. And then the do's and don'ts begin to take their proper place.

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