Catchy title? Should be. When it comes to looking at the Gospel and the influence of Godliness verses worldliness in our lives we see generational gaps. It’s very evident in our society today, more and more looking at people’s views, beliefs, and traditions are not being carried through the next generation. A lot of times this can be a bad thing given the era that most of our parents came from and seeing how our country is moving more and more away from Christianity, but on the flip side it can be a very good thing. You see parents who grew up in the church, have lived a “good” Christian life, but then their children get caught up in what the culture says is “In” and forget what their parents tried to teach them. Of course vice versa seeing the impact of an ungodly home and seeing the children turn away from the ways of the ungodly to the Godly and to the Gospel.

The impact of finding gaps along the lines of the generations isn’t something that is new or that has happened recently. You can scope out and go back thousands of years and see the same significant impact in Scripture. Throughout the first five books of the law you see the drawing to God and then the turning away from constantly and being defined by the different generations. In Judges 17-18 we find exactly what I am talking about. The passage begins by introducing this guy Micah.

The people of Israel in those days knew very little about the Lord and worship of the Lord, and some simple good people were making and worshiping idols. They had forgotten the first of the Ten Commandments, which told them not to make idols. There was this guy named Micah living in the hills of Ephraim, whose mother had saved up silver, and they made of it images to worship. Micah made a chapel in his house where the idols were kept and were worshiped. At first one of his sons served as priest, and afterward there came a man who was a Levite who had been trained as a priest and was looking for a home, and Micah hired him to stay and be his priest.

There came one day to Micah’s house five men. They were from the tribe of Dan, Samson’s tribe (One of the twelve tribes of Judah), who had been sent to spy out the land, to find a place to which the tribe of Dan might move and make a new home, for the land which had been given to them they never wholly got from the Philistines and they did not have room. The five spies went up through the country and far up in the north in the beautiful sunny valley under Mount Hermon they found a place called Laish, settled by people from Zidon, the city on the seashore. It was a lovely place by one of the great springs of the Jordan. They liked the place and went back and told their tribe to come and take the city and live there. So the five men led the way, and many of the Danites came with their little ones and their cattle and six hundred armed men. They took the city Laish and made their home there and called it Dan. That is why we find the name Dan near the top of our map.

But one thing the Danites did on their way. They stopped at Micah’s house. The armed men stood at the gate of the village and the five men that had been spies went into the house and stole Micah’s images. They also asked his priest to go with them, and he went. Poor Micah went after them with a few of his neighbors, but the Danites were too strong for him; they only laughed at him and carried away his idols.

Now I am not referring to Micah’s mom and her shallow faith. But to the tribe of Dan and Micah alike whose preceding generation had been with Samson, who was of the tribe of Dan, and had shown great faith and obedience at the end of chapter 16 of judges, then easily turned away and follow this man Micah and easily fell to idolatry and worshipping idols as a way of faith. The act of Godliness became rubbish and the following generation was easily swayed by the culture at the time.

Ezekiel 18:20 tells us, “The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son.” We do not suffer the sin of our previous generation nor will the next generation suffer ours! God is calling all of us to Himself and just because your parents may have made bad choices and were not of the faith doesn’t mean you were genetically predisposed to be an unbeliever as well. God throughout the Old Testament punished generations for their sin and turning away but He then would bless the next generation as they would strive for Godliness! 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” God wants a personal relationship with each and every one of us and no matter what your parents did or didn’t do; God meets you where you are and seeks to fulfill you with His Gospel that is His son and give you the tools and obedience to pursue Righteousness!

Being Godly is not genetic nor is the Gospel immediately inherited. God calls us to it but we choose to let Him in and see the impact of the Gospel transform our lives to Christ. There is a trend in the church today to try and blame every sin and problem on some sort of generational curse. This is not biblical. The cure for generational curses is salvation through Jesus Christ. When we become Christians, we are new creations as 2 Corinthians 5:17 tells us. The cure, then, for a “generational curse” is faith in Christ and a life consecrated to Him.

Choose to follow Christ in light of or in spite of the generation before you