Is Having Children an Essential Part of Being a Christian?
In Genesis 1:28 God said to “be fruitful and multiply”, so does that mean that all Christians need to have children? If so, should I have 1? 2? 10? Shouldn’t people be careful about bringing new children into the world when the earth’s natural resources are depleting?
Command given to humanity as a whole (not every individual)
I think the “be fruitful and multiply” command was given to humanity in general, not necessarily to every single individual who is a Christian. In many ways, Adam represented all of humanity. When God told Adam to multiply, I think he was giving that command to human kind as a whole. Many Christians (like Paul for example) never get married and never have physical children. When those people fail to have children, that doesn’t mean they are disobeying the “multiplication” order God gave to humanity.
Not having kids allows for more ministry
Not having kids can actually be a good thing. Paul says that being married forces Christians to split their resources. Instead of spending 100% of my energy on ministry, being married would force me to spend a significant percentage on the relationship. I think having kids continues that split even further.
Another thing to consider is that the founder of Christianity—Jesus himself—never had kids.
Adopting existing children vs having new ones
Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you. —James 1:27 (NLT)
James says that the heart behind Christianity is to take care of orphans and widows. These are the people who can’t take care of themselves. The earth is filled with children who are unwanted and have no one to parent them. To me, it makes more sense to adopt and parent these kinds of children who are already here rather than bringing entirely new children into the world.
Spiritual fruitfulness > physical fruitfulness
Maybe the command to “be fruitful and multiply” was a two-part command. One being PHYSICAL reproduction, and the other being SPIRITUAL reproduction. Even though the apostle Paul never had physical children, he had many, many SPIRITUAL children. He took the gospel and was fruitful with it and multiplied the number of believers. Even though having physical children isn’t necessarily required of every believer, I would say that it’s the responsibility of every Christian individual to fulfill God’s command of “being fruitful and multiplying” on a spiritual level.