Some of the newest genetic research is revealing the impact of environment and decisions we make on our own genetic structures. This influence on genes is called epigenetics and science is discovering that what we are exposed to or expose ourselves to not only affects our brain structure but actually turns on and turns off certain genes. This effect on genes can also be passed on to our children. What that means is that our children are not born into this world as blank slates ready to be written upon. They bring with them certain predispositions for certain behaviors and probably attitudes that they inherit from parents. What the parents chose to involve themselves in or expose themselves to impacts what is passed on to their children at a genetic level.

In practical terms, if a parent exposes himself to years of pornography, his child will likely have a predisposition toward pornography or addiction at a genetic, cellular level which means that his child may have a real vulnerability or attraction toward that sin as he or she grows up. On the other hand, if a parent exposes himself or herself to the word of God and practices godliness, a child of that parent will have a genetic predisposition toward godliness and will be drawn toward the things and people of God. Epigenetics is in its early stages but research is strongly pointing towards these realities. It means that not just physical characteristics are passed on to children but also behaviors and attitudes may be passed on as well.

This research adds a dimension to God’s declaration in Exodus 20 that the sins of the fathers will be passed down to the children to the third and fourth generations. This verse stands not as a judgment but a warning that what we do will affect who our children are. It’s not that our sin and brokenness cannot be overcome by the blood of the Lamb, but that our destructive and sinful behaviors do not just affect us but our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren as well. Our sins cannot only establish neural pathways that create habits and addictions in our own brains, but make our children vulnerable to the same destructive impulses. That should be a motivation for godly living.

This new research, which simply confirms what many of us suspected anyway, helps to explain why certain scriptures state that God does not punish one person for another’s sins or the children for the sins of the parents and yet other scriptures say that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children. God is not punishing the children but warning us that in some way our sins are passed on to the children.   We know that demonic spirits are given legal rights to family lines through the unrepented sins of “the fathers” but now science is also confirming that our sins or our righteousness affect them at the deepest levels of their genetic makeup.

However, since environments turn on or turn off certain genes, it stands to reason that repentance and a change of lifestyle can also change us at a genetic level so that our predispositions can lose power over us and our children. God is brilliant and has called us to the behaviors that give life not only to ourselves but our descendants. As this research progresses, I am confident that the words we speak will be classified as part of the environment that shapes the expression of our genes. The tongue has the power of life and death. Science does not replace God but simply continues to reveal his wisdom and confirm that he understands our inner workings so well that he must indeed, be the designer and creator of man.

Make good choices today for your sake and the sake of your children and their children! Blessings in Him.