We owe a duty not merely to our God, but also to our friends and family, to educate them and help them to grasp the truth of the Bible’s message.
The maintenance of our families in a godly manner is one of our most important duties. For if we do not encourage our children to learn the truth, they will wander into waywardness, into immorality and degeneracy. While a damascene conversion can still happen at that late stage, the risks are still inherently dangerous, and as such it is much simpler for everyone if we simply raise them in the truth of Christianity from a young age.
If we want our friends and family to live happily in the resurrection, this is what we must do. It has consequences for this world as well, for if they are living in the service of God, they will be less influenced by antichrist purveyors of unwholesome anti-moralism, and stand a better chance of surviving in the dark days that lie ahead of us.
Many otherwise good people out there are living their lives in service to evil, because they do not know the history of modern popular culture, and persist unthinkingly in consuming it. This can be shown in 2 Timothy 3:6, “For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts”. Our families will be led astray through ignorance, and they may not even recognise it as evil, it being disguised as “freedom”, “progressiveness”, “inclusivity” and other such concepts that appeal to intelligent people who have not seen the damage that these things can cause.
But we are shown the way to avoid this destruction of our own families in this same chapter. 2 Timothy 3:15 states: “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.”
If we bring up our families in the faith, we can arm them against their self destruction, and shield them from being led astray by the sins of others. It is said at John 8:32:“and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free”. We cannot help to free anyone of these people from their own self destructive paths unless we are willing to take a stand and preach the truth of God’s laws to them.
If we do not, there may not be as many people left in the end, for we did not make the effort to show them the path to salvation while we still had the chance.