PK's

"The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law." 1 Corinthians 15:56

Preacher's kid (abbreviated as PK) is a term referring to a child of a preacher, pastor, deacon, vicar, lay leader, priest, minister or other similar church leader. Although the phrase can be used in a purely descriptive way, it may also be used as a stereotype. And what is that stereotype? Basically, the stereotype of a Preacher's kid, or PK, is that this person is so weighted down by the demands of their preacher father to live a "perfect" life, that they eventually rebel into an avalanche of sin and unwholesome living. It is as if the father says to their child, "I expect you to live a life you cannot live and if you fail to live this life you will be punished by me, your mother, the church, God and live in shame the rest of your life." Besides having to deal with the normal pressures of growing up, there is this added expectation that just increases the burden of living. Not too long ago, there was a pastor embroiled in a drug and sex scandal which made national news. This pastor was forced to step down in shame. Not surprising, he was a "Preachers Kid." When this scandal broke a friend of mine stated, "With what he was teaching, he needed a little sin in his life." What my friend meant was that this pastor was teaching that Christians must live the impossible life they cannot live that I mentioned earlier. This impossible life is, basically, a life of being put under the law, whether God's law or the law of a particular church. It is a life that says you must identify and eradicate all sin in your life or you are a failure. What it leads to is more sin not less. In Romans 7:7-8, Paul writes, "What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet. But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting."" Paul says that without the law, he would not have known what sin was (in this case the sin of coveting) and, furthermore, sin took advantage of the law and produced in him every kind of coveting. In other words, the law may have identified sin for him, but it did not help him overcome or prevent that sin. It just gave him more sins to think about.

Therefore, the more laws we add to a person's life, the more we arouse sin in their lives. Why? Because, eventually, a person will seek rest from living this life of trying to identify and avoid sin and will turn to sin in order to rest! In other words, it leads a person directly into the life of sin they were trying to avoid. Now, you see why Paul said the "power of sin is the law." While not all Preacher's kid's turn out to fall into a life of sin, enough of them do to the point where the Christian Church as a whole takes a hit for it. Unbelievers will use it as an excuse to turn away from Jesus or listening to the Gospel. To them, they are like, "Why should I become a Christian when even Christian's can't live like Christians?" This could all be avoided if we just realized why God gave us things like the Law. He did not give the Law as a guideline for Christians to live by in order to direct us how to live sinless, obedient lives that are pleasing to Him. He gave us the Law to show us that we cannot live up to its demands, so we would realize that we need His grace and mercy. He gave us the Law to lead us to Jesus Christ. "Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor (Galatians 3:24-25)." The Bible says the Law leads us to Christ. Once we are in Christ, the law has done it's work in us. It shows us our sinfulness and spiritual death. We accept Jesus Christ as savior, receive the benefit of forgiveness and life of God for all eternity. Now, we live by faith; responding to the truth of God revealed to us through His indwelling Spirit. It is not about living the burdensome life of a Preacher's Kid under the law, but receiving the light burden of Jesus Christ, which is really no burden at all. "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:28-30).” Whether you are a Preacher's kid or not, if you have placed a saving faith in Jesus Christ, you are, in essence, "God's kid." Let Him live the life you cannot because He is the only one that can live it.