Monolithic Man - 19
We are all the same now. Let's not be separated again!
God made me responsible for my household. And as I mentioned earlier, a good working definition of a household is: that which includes all people, and property, for which God holds a person accountable.
A person’s responsibilities go backward as well as forward. God would have you care for your own wife and children and descendants onward into the future, but He also expects you to respect and care for your father, mother, grandparents and (to a degree) the things you inherited from your ancestors.
Furthermore, your household must be a greater priority for you than another man’s household. What I mean is that it would be ungodly to give all of your time and attention to make sure your neighbor’s children are fed if it meant your own went hungry. The same as it would be inordinate to demonstrate a husbandly love for your neighbor’s wife. No good person neglects the things God has committed to his care. No good person loves in ways out-of-bounds with God’s assigned role for them.1
The Apostle Paul instructed Timothy how people should be quick to take care of the widows among their relatives. He concludes the section by writing, “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8)
So even though we should love our neighbor, even though we should care for the sojourner in the land, even though we should show respect to our enemies, still God makes our household the first priority due to His concern for familial love. This is Bible 101.
Yet there is a progressive current that runs beneath the surface of society that wants to disparage the family, the household, ethnicity, and also multiplicity of languages, and national borders. The goal of this effort is to create a monolithic man. A universal mankind. Man as individual. No one more privileged than another. No place for favoritism. No family earned advantages. No people looking out for their own.
It is a constant effort to erase God-designed differences in order to force unity. Not surprisingly, it appears the destination is again, Babel.
But God gave us birth into a group or groups. And it is that group or groups that a person must answer for and answer to. It is a first priority. If any man does not think of his family’s provision as more essential than another man’s family, then he has forsaken his duty. If he mistreats and victimizes people in the society in which he lives, then he is not a good citizen of his city and/or country. If he doesn’t work alongside the members of his own church congregation but remains unengaged, then he’s hardly playing his part in the local body of Christ.
These relationships are gifts from God. They are each covenantal: family, church, and state. And the person who neglects these relationships, or attempts to isolate himself from them, is not acting in love. He is not behaving as a godly man. He should not be put in authority over others, for by example he will lead others poorly.
This is an idea that echoes St. Augustine’s concept of ordinate and inordinate love. See St. Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, Book XV Chapter 22.