John Knox addresses leaders of the family

The Lincoln Journal ^ | July 29, 2010 | JIM HALE

[Alex Murphy]

John Knox was a Scottish clergyman and leader of the Protestant Reformation and is considered the founder of the Presbyterian denomination.

In 1547, Mary of Guise requested the King of France, Henry II, to besiege a castle that led to the taking of the Protestant nobles and others, including Knox, as their prisoners. They, as many other prisoners, were forced to row in the French galleys. Knox was later placed in exile in Geneva, where he met John Calvin, and gained experience and knowledge of Reformed theology.

On his return to Scotland, he led the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. This was more like a revolution, since it led to the ousting of Mary of Guise.

The following passage is excerpted from a letter written by John Knox in 1557, before leaving Scotland for exile in Geneva. Knox addressed the letter to 'His Brethren in Scotland', that is, Christ's brethren, the Church. The complete letter appears in the new edition of the Selected Writings of John Knox: Public Epistles, Treatises, and Expositions to the Year 1559, printed by Presbyterian Heritage Publications: Dallas, 1995.

Knox's Epistle bears the original subtitle 'A most wholesome counsel how to behave ourselves in the midst of this wicked generation, touching on the daily exercise of God's most holy and sacred word'. This part of the letter addresses the duty of the head of the household to read and discuss the Bible with his family:

Dear brethren, if you look for a life to come, of necessity it is that you exercise yourselves in the book of the Lord, your God. Let no day slip or want some comfort received from the mouth of God.

Open your ears, and He will speak even pleasant things to your heart. Close not your eyes, but diligently let them behold what portion of substance is left to you within your Father's testament. Let your tongues learn to praise the gracious goodness of Him, whose mere mercy has called you from darkness to life. Neither yet may you do this so quietly that you admit no witness. No, Brethren, you are ordained of God to rule your own houses in his true fear, and according to His word.

Within your houses, I say, in some cases, you are bishops and kings; your wife, children, servants, and family are your bishopric and charge. Of you it shall be required how carefully and diligently you have instructed them in God's true knowledge, how you have studied to plant virtue in them, and [to] repress vice. And therefore I say, you must make them partakers in reading, exhorting, and in making common prayers, which I would in every house were used once a day at least.

But above all things, dear brethren, study to practice in life that which the Lord commands, and then be you assured that you shall never hear nor read the same without fruit. And this much for the exercises within your homes.

[Alex Murphy]

"Within your houses, I say, in some cases, you are bishops and kings; your wife, children, servants, and family are your bishopric and charge. Of you it shall be required how carefully and diligently you have instructed them in God's true knowledge, how you have studied to plant virtue in them, and [to] repress vice. And therefore I say, you must make them partakers in reading, exhorting, and in making common prayers, which I would in every house were used once a day at least.

But above all things, dear brethren, study to practice in life that which the Lord commands, and then be you assured that you shall never hear nor read the same without fruit. And this much for the exercises within your homes."

[US Navy Vet]

There are 2 Holy Bibles that EVERYONE that professes Christ should have:
1. King James Holy Bible
2. Geneva Holy Bible 1599(ALSO get a GOOD dictionary(you are going to need it when reading this one)

[thulldud]

I'll make do with the Biblia Hebraica (Kittel) and the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece.

When I want English, there's the 1901 American Standard. Mostly harmless, that one.