It’s weird that the Bible champions the older schooling the younger, and yet, your typical American church removes the older from the younger and tosses their tutelage to an over-ebullient twentysomething. The discipleship and mentoring of young people was the duty of older generations. They’re the ones that the fresh squabs were to get their biblical wisdom, character, and faith stories from. Hello.
Herewith are a smidgen of scriptures spotlighting God’s blueprint from the Bible about the older training the younger.
1. And here’s what I want you to teach the older women: Be respectful. Steer clear of gossip or drinking too much so that you can teach what is good to young women. Be a positive example, showing them what it is to love their husbands and children, and teaching them to control themselves in every way and to be pure. Train them to manage the household, to be kind, and to be submissive to their husbands, all of which honor the word of God. (Titus 2:3-5 Voice)
Please note that it says the older women who fear God are to teach the younger women how to crank out a godly household, not their ridiculous peers who live on Instagram.
2. Teach a child how to follow the right way; even when he is old, he will stay on course. (Prov. 22:6 Voice)
The older generation, dads in particular (Eph. 6:4), are to train up their kids in the Word of God. This training has a massive, multi-generational impact for Christ’s kingdom expansion. This is the duty of the parent, not your woke youth pastor who likes K-Pop and thinks AOC is all the rage.
3. One generation after another will celebrate Your great works; they will pass on the story of Your powerful acts to their children. (Ps. 145:4 Voice)
No age segregation in that verse. The older generation shared with the younger generation how God kicked Satan’s butt in their day. If it were up to the modern youth movement in the church, this wouldn’t go down because they primarily exclude old warriors from their silly soirees.
4. Make the things I’m commanding you today part of who you are. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re sitting together in your home and when you’re walking together down the road. Make them the last thing you talk about before you go to bed and the first thing you talk about the next morning. (Deut. 6:6-7 Voice).
Wow. You won’t hear this taught in your typical evangellyfish church. Moses, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, puts the discipleship onus of the children upon the parent, not Crispin, the “youth pastor” from Leightafart, Georgia. Ignore this, Mom and Dad, to your own peril.
5. A wise child is attentive to his parents’ instruction, but the mocker is deaf to correction. (Prov. 13:1 Voice).
Pardon my redundancy, but it is the parent … hello … instructing the kid. Age superiority, headship in the household, and Holy Ghost wisdom flowing from the parent to the child is God’s glide path. The child who has godly parents would be wise to listen to what they have to say. Again, folks, this is family-based passing down of the faith.
6. You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Tim. 2:1-2 Voice)
Paul, the aged demon-thrashing warhorse, passes down the apostle’s doctrine to young Timothy. Again, no age segregation here…
7. Teach them God’s requirements and pass on His laws. Show them the right way to live and the kind of work they should be doing. (Ex. 18:20 Voice)
Please note that the Elders are responsible for showing the younger folks God’s law, the right way to live, and what kind of industry they should be involved with, not their peers.
8. You who are younger in the faith: do as your elders and leaders ask. All of you should treat each other with humility, for as it says in Proverbs, God opposes the proud but offers grace to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5 Voice)
Most youth in the American Church have never met their elders, just the youth pastor. Ergo, how are they going to submit and learn from them if they’ve been purposefully removed from their presence, huh?
9. So, my son, pay attention to your father’s guidance, and do not ignore what your mother taught you. Wear their wisdom as a badge of honor and maturity, as fine jewelry around your neck. My son, should your less honorable peers pressure you to do what is wrong, you should be strong enough not to go along. (Prov. 1:8-10 Voice).
The kid is to give ear to the godly father and mother. They are to wear their wisdom as a badge of honor and maturity and blow off their goofy peers. Again, parent, you are the primary fount from where godly wisdom is to come out for your children. Quit shirking that responsibility off to some unbiblical youth group. You birthed them, you lead them in a godly direction.
10. Now as I grow old and my hair turns gray, I ask that You not abandon me, O God. Allow me to share with the generation to come about Your power; Let me speak about Your strength and wonders to all those yet to be born. (Ps. 71:18 Voice)
In order for the Lord to answer that prayer in our current ecclesiastical milieu, he’d have to work around youth groups because they weed out the gray-haired and only allow the young, spikey-bleached-haired quasi-male to share with the younger generation. Yep, if it were up to most churches, they would disallow this old warrior's request because he isn’t young and groovy enough.
11. What strikes me most is how natural and sincere your faith is. I am convinced that the same faith that dwelt in your grandmother, Lois, and your mother, Eunice, abides in you as well. (2 Tim. 1:5 Voice).
Wow. Timothy’s granny and mom influenced his faith, big time. Paul didn’t say he got it from Crispin, the youth pastor, but via his family. I don’t know where his dad was in that equation. He was probably living on Facebook, chatting up old girlfriends from high school. Who knows? At least his mom and grandma stayed engaged and made certain Tim was raised right.
12. With age comes wisdom, and a long life grants understanding. (Job 12:12 Voice).
Don’t quote that verse to the youth pastor. He’ll run off and pout for a month or two. Then he’ll renounce his faith, get a nose ring, an angry tattoo, and complain on TikTok how he was wronged by the church, which didn’t buy his schtick. If there’s one thing that the biblically young and dumb need, it's heaven-born wisdom via the Word of God. That wisdom and understanding usually comes with age. Again, young people ain’t gonna get a heck of a lot of wisdom from a twenty-four-year-old Justin Bieber-wannabe youth pastor.
13. We will not keep these things secret from their children; rather, we will tell the coming generation all about the praise that is due to the Eternal One. We will tell them all about His strength, power, and wonders. (Ps. 78:4 Voice)
The Psalmist states the importance of the older warriors and wildmen schooling the younger generation regarding God’s power and his rock-solid faithfulness.
14. Listen to your leaders (elders), who have spoken God’s word to you. Notice the fruits of their lives and mirror their faith. (Heb. 13:7 Voice)
Here, the author of Hebrews is telling the church to imitate their leaders … their elders … not Taylor Swift. A young Christian can’t do that if they’ve been purposefully segregated from the elders' influence.
15. Encourage the young men in the same way: in every situation, they should learn to control themselves. Titus, you have to set a good example for everyone. Go out of your way to do what is right, speak the truth with the weight and authority that come from an honest and pure life. No one can argue with that. Then your enemies will cower in shame because they have nothing bad to say against us. (Titus 2:6-8 Voice).
Paul told his charge, Titus, to showcase to the younger dudes self-control. Titus was to do this and not the “youth pastor.” Why was Titus called to do this? Well, it’s because youth pastors didn’t exist in the early church, that’s why. Also, please note that Titus was to teach the young men the truth, not politically correct bunkum, and he was to do it with “weight and authority.” Good luck finding that in a modern youth group.
16. Remember the days long ago; consider the years of past generations. Ask your father, and he’ll explain it to you; ask the elders, and they’ll tell you: (Deut. 32:7 Voice).
Here, Moses puts the onus on young people to ask their old man and the elders about the things of God, not some zit-faced, sixteen-year-old dufus who plays video games 24/7/365.
17. In the same way that iron sharpens iron, a person sharpens the character of his friend. (Prov. 27:17 Voice).
Dear Young People: If you want to get sharpened, then clash swords with an older swordsman and not your lame buddy, Beavis, who takes notes while watching Disney movies.
18. You are to stand in respect for the older people in your community. You must fear your God. I am the Eternal One. (Lev. 19:32 Voice).
Dear Mom and Dad. Teach your self-obsessed, me-monkey, iPostured kid to stand up when an older person graces the room. Moses said that proves the young dolt fears God. This admonition, by the way, is a decree from the Eternal One.
The aforementioned scriptures, and a ton of them that I have left out, make it crystal clear that God’s way of discipleship is older to younger. No age segregation here, folks. When the disciples tried to separate kids from the “adults only meeting”, Jesus jetblasted that bad idea. Read Luke 18:16 if you don’t believe me. Finally, if you wanna have fun, share this chapter with your church’s leadership and have them explain, via the Verbum Dei, the “reason” they separate the younger generation from their parents and the older generation.
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Doug Giles is Pastor of Liberty Fellowship in Wimberley, TX, and is the founder of ClashDaily.com
Follow Doug on Instagram and Twitter @TheArtOfDoug.
