We conclude this four-part series on the family by thinking of the ultimate family, the family God is creating; the fellowship of believers.
Does Jesus scorn the human family?
During his ministry Jesus took the commonly held notion of what a family is and turned it upside down. The ultimate family is no longer just those with whom we share a natural bond, but the family God is creating through a spiritual bond. When told his mother and brothers were looking for him, Jesus indicated those who were listening to him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother” (Matt 12:46-50). The qualification of this family relationship is not only believing, but actually doing the will of the Father.
Many bridle at this as though Jesus was dismissing the importance of our natural family. The physical family is foundational for human social interaction. Without the natural family human society is faced with the alternatives of lonely individualistic atomisation or coercive regimentation. What Jesus is doing is pointing out that God is remaking his creation in and through a spiritual family made up of all who call upon the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and follow him. This is an eternal family drawn “from every nation, tribe, people and language” (Rev 7:9).
Aren’t we all God’s children?
The phrase ‘children of God’ is often used as a general description of all humanity and the Bible is clear that all people are God’s creation. We are all created in God’s image (Gen 1:26–27 with inherent dignity, value and worth, even after the Fall. Generally, people take this to mean that God has an equal relationship with every human, with the implication that God relates to each person directly as heavenly Father. But in the Bible only those who are born again are termed children of God (Jn 1:12; 11:52; Rom 8:16; 1 Jn 3:1-10). In Scripture, unbelievers are never referred to as God’s children.
In Scripture, unbelievers are never referred to as God’s children.
The apostle John makes this distinction clear in his Gospel, where we read, “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (Jn 1:12-13).
We are each born into a physical family, and when we are ‘born again', we are born into a spiritual family. Paul describes this as being adopted into God’s spiritual family (Rom 8:15). God becomes our Father in more than the physical sense of being our Creator, and Jesus becomes our elder brother.
The scope of our new spiritual family
This spiritual family transcends the usual criteria regarded as important within society, such as ethnicity, gender or social standing. Paul assures us that regardless of our background there is only one common family attribute, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. (Gal 3:26-29).
They were no more a perfect family than Christians are today, it was composed of fallen human beings after all, but they treated one another as a close family for whom they cared.
In Biblical practice the terms ‘brother’ and ‘sister’ are common terms for fellow Christians and when the apostolic writers wanted to address an entire congregation, they frequently called them ‘brothers’. As a family the ‘oikos’, the local house church, introduced a radically new way of looking at fellow believers. Unlike other religions, they viewed their fellow believers as more than just people who believed the same thing. Under their common Father they regarded each other as a family, brothers and sisters, despite their varied backgrounds and social standing.
All human relationships were given a new setting – parent and child, husband and wife, slave and free, Jew and Gentile – all were part of the same family and lived anew under the rule of Christ. This did not mean the early believers lived in some form of commune but that they treated each other as family. They were no more a perfect family than Christians are today, it was composed of fallen human beings after all, but they treated one another as a close family for whom they cared (Acts 2:42-47).
The family connection
The defining characteristic of this spiritual family is love for one another: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (Jn 13:34-35).
Throughout the New Testament, God commands us to demonstrate mutual care within the local church.
Those in the pews around us are, in reality, our family and it is part of our new relationship with our Father that we treat each other as brothers and sisters in a practical way. Throughout the New Testament, God commands us to demonstrate mutual care within the local church. The epistles, in particular, tell us what it means to be brothers and sisters, teaching us “how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God” ( I Tim 3:15).
With its many ‘ ___ one another’ commands, the New Testament reminds us that life in God’s family reorients the believer’s allegiance to each other.
The Rev. Dr Campbell Campbell-Jack is a retired Church of Scotland minister. Check out his many incisive articles on his blog, A Grain of Sand