President Akin shares biblical foundations for marriage and family

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family life conference2014 marks the seventh consecutive year of the Family Life Conference at Southeastern.

Since 2008, Daniel Akin, president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS), has taught biblical principles for marriage and family in this setting. The conference continued to grow this year with approximately 115 attendees from the SEBTS family and beyond.

This is the most requested topic for Akin to speak on from churches across the United States.

Attendees enjoyed a time of humor as Akin shared personal stories after almost 36 years of marriage to his wife, Charlotte, and raising four sons. Akin’s lectures focused on the biblical model for marriage and family life.

Akin taught on Colossians 3:18-21, “When Christ is Lord of the Home.” He told listeners that God’s commands are often contrary to one’s natural instincts. However, “when we do marriage and family God’s way, it works,” Akin said.

He provided a realistic picture of the struggles couples face. “Every marriage has its difficulties and troubles,” Akin noted. “Even two people who passionately love Jesus … and each other are two sinners. You are going to have to negotiate and work hard.”

The lectures called listeners to persevere through challenges because “there is always joy on the other side if you take the energy to work through those difficult times,” he emphasized. The audience was urged not to become frustrated with differences in a spouse but to use them as a picture of the Gospel to the watching world.

“Biblical love has very little to do with emotion,” Akin said. “As long as God gives us breath, one of the ways we can love our wives is to just encourage them.”

Akin highlighted statistics about family dynamics and talked about the ability for the Gospel to transform the lives of families. “God’s grace in the Gospel is capable of overcoming all of this,” he said. “My wife grew up in a children’s home and had alcoholic parents.”

The passages read focused on God’s intended design for family. “God knew what He was doing when He put children in a family with a mom and a dad,” Akin said. “If you really love your children, you will have a great [emphasis] to work through troubles in marriage.”

Akin focused on parents honoring Christ as the head of the home and aspiring for their children to grow up to be women and men of God.

Akin also spoke on Song of Solomon 2:15, Philippians 2:1-5 and Ephesians 6:1-4. “God calls men to lovingly shepherd and care for their family,” he said. “The manliest man who ever lived was Jesus … [and He was] also the most kind, compassionate and gentle.”

Husbands and wives were called to strive for being best friends. “In marriage, we are better together than we would ever be separate,” Akin noted.

The conference will be held again in Spring 2015.

To view photos from the conference, please click here.

To watch the messages from the 2013 Family Life Conference, please click here.

A DVD study series, “A Biblical Marriage in a Broken World,” is also available from Sampson Resources.

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