The first institution God created was the family. God has revealed very specific and clear guidelines for family living, and Christians ought to have strongly held beliefs—convictions—based on those guidelines.

Sadly, our world is filled with moral and spiritual chaos regarding home and family life.

For example, in April of this year, Colorado passed a law that expands legal protections for transgender individuals in areas of family law, education, and public accommodations. It prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and expression, including misgendering and deadnaming. The bill also makes it easier to change names and gender designations on official documents. The new law requires schools to be inclusive of all reasons a student might choose a different name and prohibits gender-based dress code rules. The law reinforces Colorado as a safe haven for gender-affirming care and expands protections for transgender individuals, particularly within family law and other aspects of public life.

The Colorado law is an example of the moral chaos that has descended upon our nation. Many families today are deeply affected by this moral confusion. Did you know that today, 25% of high school students in the US identify as LGBT? That was only 11% ten years ago. Christians should not be led astray by the moral madness so common in our world today. We should have strong biblical convictions about such things, especially as they affect our families.

Everyone is well-aware that the biblical model of family life is under attack these days. People are abandoning the biblical model and replacing it with all manner of illegitimate and sinful behaviors. We must maintain and strengthen our commitment to the divine pattern for the family. We should hold these principles very strongly and not compromise on them.

After our convictions regarding fundamental doctrines of the faith, our convictions regarding the home and the family ought to be some of our most strongly-held beliefs. All of us have family relationships, and it’s incredibly important that we try to conform those relationships to biblical standards. At the very least, we can make sure that our own families follow the basic biblical guidelines for families.

Sadly, many people today are compromising on these issues. Even Christians today are embracing and endorsing unbiblical, dysfunctional, destructive lifestyle choices.

We must admit that many of the examples of family life we find in the Bible do not provide a good example for us to follow (e.g., Jacob, David, Solomon). We find many dysfunctional families in the Bible. Yet we know how God originally designed the family unit, and we know what the NT teaches about how families should operate. So our convictions must be based on the clear teaching of the NT, not on dysfunctional OT family examples.

I’m sure that we are aware of the biblical principles regarding family life. But it’s good that we review them, and my concern is that we make these things a personal conviction; we should hold these principles very strongly and not compromise on them. Our culture is pressuring us to compromise on these issues. Personal circumstances may tempt us to compromise, but we must not.

Let’s consider several biblical convictions regarding home and family life.