Oakroot Forge

Young men, I spend a lot of time with you. I have three married children aged 18–21, pastor a church with many young couples and singles, and talk with many of you in my public office. Many faithful young men work full-time, live carefully, and struggle to afford a home and support a family. Others want to marry, raise children, serve their churches, and put down roots. These are good desires, and you shouldn’t be dismissed as entitled chumps playing the victim and unwilling to work. (Sure, there are bad actors on either side.) Being told to work harder by someone who hasn’t bothered to understand your circumstances wears thin. So does being asked for your vote by people who show little interest in whether you can build a life afterward. You inherited serious problems you didn’t create, and you deserve an honest accounting from the men who helped hand them down. Those of us who are older ought to be willing to hear hard things without treating every criticism as dishonor. And we ought to understand and help. If we want young men to become faithful husbands, fathers, providers, and leaders, we should use our time, experience, resources, and influence to lift them up. Proverbs 13:22 commends the man who leaves an inheritance to his children’s children. We ought to give our children both a passive inheritance when we die and an active inheritance while we live, training/discipling them, helping finance their start, and working beside them. Scripture also commands, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4). We can’t demand the honor owed to fathers while neglecting the duties God gives fathers. We should open our homes, teach useful skills, make introductions, and put our resources and wisdom to work. They ought to see us own and repent of our own sins and labor to repair what our generation has damaged. Young men need to know older men stand beside them, love them, and will put their strength and resources toward helping them faithfully build and carry the load. As older and younger men build together, we ought to conserve what our fathers did faithfully, correct what they did wrongly, and create what our children will need. We inherited churches, families, a country, and the fruit of sacrifices we never witnessed. “Honor your father and your mother” still binds us (Exod 20:12; Eph 6:2). We can tell the truth about our fathers’ sins while remaining grateful for their sacrifices and caring for them in their old age. We will need our children to do the same for us. My hope is to see fathers and sons doing this work together, as so many have, under the lordship of Christ, with enough humility to receive correction and enough courage to shoulder the duties before us. And we have every reason for glorious optimism. Christ is on His throne. He leads us in His triumphal procession (2 Cor 2:14). Our labor in the Lord is not in vain (1 Cor 15:58). Young men, I want to see you marry, raise children, build homes, strengthen churches, and govern faithfully. I want your children to inherit the good fruit of your obedience. Those of us who are older have work to do to help you. You ought to be able to count on us.

.@MikeWingerii has asked for a mandate from Scripture, not a thin principle that Christians are left to stretch over a whole nation. That's a fair request of anyone claiming that God requires something. Psalm 2 gives one, addressing rulers directly: “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him” (Psa 2:10-12). This is a command to civil authorities. The Holy Spirit addresses men in their public office and commands them to serve the LORD and kiss His Son. If magistrates are commanded to serve Christ, then political authority cannot be religiously neutral, and the nation they govern already stands under that command. The question that remains is how a nation can faithfully obey Christ in its laws, courts, schools, and protection of life in the womb. That is a conversation worth having carefully and charitably among brothers. It begins under the same warning and resting in the same mercy: "Blessed are all who take refuge in Him."