How to Build a Home

Proverbs 24:3-4

Through wisdom is an house built: and by understanding it is established;

and by knowledge shall the chambers be filled with all precious and pleasant riches.

Wisdom, understanding, and knowledge are the three components of education. But what is the goal of an education? Ask the university presidents and the school principals about the goal of education, and most would say that it is to prepare a child for a career or to prepare them to be good citizens of the state. You can immediately see a sharp difference between the socialist model for education and life, and the order that God has established. God’s educational program doesn’t focus on preparing children for jobs, careers, and citizenship. What He wants are “houses.” The biblical use of the word “house” conveys the idea of a family. But its essence goes deeper and includes the household economy with the members of the home functioning as a unit. At the basic level, the household is made up of a husband and wife—one flesh. Therefore, the household economy is a unit. If there are seven members of a household, there are seven people teaming up to bring in one income, functioning as one organization.

But a household is far more than income and the production of goods and services for the free market. The family is the seedbed for developing human relationships that are based on love, joy, peace, and longsuffering. Within the safety of a family, new generations and new families can grow. Healthy families form the basis of a healthy church. For if a man cannot rule his household well, he cannot rule in the house of God (1 Tim. 3:10). Also, the family home is typically where meaningful relationships are cultivated in regular times of hospitality.

According to this description of the “house,” the only way to build upon a fruitful household vision is through wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. Foolish men will ruin their relationships, make rash decisions when it comes to marrying, and then watch their households fragment in divorce. They may be successful with their careers. They may even help to build a little piece of some big powerful empire. But in the end, their lives will be in vain because their families shriveled up and died.

So if we want our children building fruitful and blessed homes, we must give them this full-orbed education. We give them knowledge so they will know biblical principles, the nature of man, the laws of God, and the roles of husbands and wives. But they need understanding as well. They should also be able to discern error and recognize counter-worldviews. If the family is watching a movie, and somebody is taking God’s name in vain, they should understand this as a violation of the third commandment. Should they happen to see a picture of a Proverbs 7 woman on a billboard, they should identify her as such. But even these two components aren’t enough. If life is a journey, knowledge comprehends the destination, and understanding charts the course, it is wisdom that navigates the waters. Our children need to know how to resolve conflicts in a peaceable way, how to be joyful in trials, how to nurture a two-year-old, how to love a five-year-old, how to fear God in the midst of temptation, and how to rightly prioritize their daily schedules. They need to know how to stay out of debt, how to disagree in a winsome way, and how to change oil in a car so as not to waste God’s resources. Every part of life requires the simultaneous application of these three elements for our children to build fruitful families of their own.