The Family of God
For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.
The Church is the family of God. The local church is a family. Local churches are made up of believers from a certain area who have chosen to live in God-focused community as worshipers and disciples of Jesus. The key element of everything we do and how we do it is that we are family.
Jesus pointed out the family nature of the Church in Matthew:
While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you." He replied to him, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" Pointing to his disciples, he 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."
Everyone who does the will of God is our brother, sister, and mother; we are family. And we have a big family. I’ve been to a few family reunions in my life, and there is always a lot of people that I do not know. Still, whether I know them or not, they are my family. We can start up a conversation without much difficulty because we already have a bond.
Suppose one of my distant family members had a problem and called me up. I might not remember his name, and I may never have met him, but because he is family, I will do my best to try and help him. Likewise, if I saw a family member in need, whether I knew him personally or not, I would be compelled to try to help him. That is the nature of family.
Now some may think, “Yeah, he’s family but he’s not closely related, so I don’t treat him the same way I would treat a close family member.” Maybe you wouldn’t go out of your way for a distantly related family member but notice that Jesus calls believers His brother and sister and mother. These are as close as you can get family-wise. Jesus is saying that everyone who does the will of God is to be considered a close family member. You might not drive hours to help your third cousin on your dad’s side, but you’d better go if it’s your mother or brother or sister.
This means that every believer is our close family, equal to a brother, sister, or mother. When we meet a believer, it’s like meeting a brother we never knew before or like reconnecting with a long-lost sister. Think of children who are adopted. How many times have you heard of adopted people going to great measures to find their birth mothers? I’ve heard stories like that many times. The reason they want to find their birth mother is because there is a blood connection which is a special bond.
Devotion to family is a requirement built inside of us. Going against that brings great disaster and pain. There is a unique difference in the marriage relationship though. God compares our relationship to Him with the marriage relationship. We are called the Bride of Christ. The key difference between the relationship between husband and wife and that of brother to sister or mother is that the devotion in marriage is purely based on choice.
I had no choice in who my brother or mother or father would be, but I certainly had a choice in who my wife would be. That was the biggest decision in my life. The beauty of the relationship between husband and wife is that out of all the other people in the world, they chose each other. There was no “have to” involved. I have to love my mother and my brother, but I don’t have to love Stephanie—my wife. I chose to love her and she chose to love me. Likewise, I chose to love God. When I saw and understood how wonderful God was and how He loved me, I was compelled to know Him and love Him.
When I saw and understood how wonderful God was and how He loved me, I was compelled to know Him and love Him.
The family of brothers and sisters is joined by blood just as the family of God is joined by blood. The blood of Christ is our connection point. We’ve all been covered by the blood of Christ, and through God’s grace have been adopted as sons and daughters into the family of God; therefore we are all family, whether we like it or not.
You might have a hard time getting along with a fellow brother in Christ. So what! He’s family. You might not agree with a sister in Christ. So what! She’s family. Being family demands complete devotion to each other and we are to love each other.
Being Family is Our Greatest Witness
Our love for one another is the factor that shows the world we are followers of Jesus. Jesus said, “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” (John 13:34).
If we aren’t walking in love with the family of God, then the lost world will have a hard time believing we are followers of God. Our love for each other will identify us as people who truly follow Jesus.
Peter compels us to walk in love for our fellow family members. I like the way the Amplified Version states this:
Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others]. Practice hospitality to one another (those of the household of faith). [Be hospitable, be a lover of strangers, with brotherly affection for the unknown guests, the foreigners, the poor, and all others who come your way who are of Christ's body.] And [in each instance] do it ungrudgingly (cordially and graciously, without complaining but as representing Him).
As we walk in love for each other we are representing Christ to the world. Jesus called us His brothers and sisters and mothers, so we should represent Him well by treating believers as family.
The Christian community walking in love for each other covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8). What will stand out about us should not be our imperfections but our love. There is nothing great about us individually. Because we are sinners, if it were up to our individual attractiveness to bring people to God, we would be helpless. But our love for each other covers up the fact that we are imperfect. When we live toward one another as we should, what is broadcast to the unchurched is not our individual imperfections, but our love for one another. That should make us all breathe more easily and pursue greater devotion to loving our brothers and sisters in Christ.
It is fitting to mention here Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is the strongest point behind our being family. Families are united, and the family of God is to be united as one in Christ. Jesus prayed for this:
Neither for these alone do I pray [it is not for their sake only that I make this request], but also for all those who will ever come to believe in (trust in, cling to, rely on) Me through their word and teaching, that they all may be one, [just] as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be one in Us, so that the world may believe and be convinced that You have sent Me.
When we are united in Christ, living in love for each other and as one, we communicate God’s love to the lost world. When we live otherwise, we become a stumbling block to those who are truly seeking for God.
If we are not walking united in love as one in Christ, it will bring a devastating blow to our effectiveness to reach the lost with the Gospel. One of our most effective approaches to evangelism is to be devoted to one another in the family of God.
The Body of Christ
The Bible calls the Church the Body of Christ. Paul gives a long description of what being the Body means:
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.
All believers are part of one body. When one hurts, we all hurt; when one rejoices, we all rejoice. It’s like the motto of the three musketeers, “all for one and one for all.” As we are all joined together as one body, we are all gifted by God’s Spirit to have a specific function for that Body. There is no person within the Body of Christ who is expendable, for God has a special purpose for each individual that relates to the whole.
Just as the entire Body of Christ functions as one body throughout the world, so each local church is to follow the same pattern. God is all-knowing; therefore, in each and every community of believers, God has given each individual believer a specific and special function that relates to the whole Body within that local church. Just as no one is expendable in the full Body of Christ, no one is expendable in the local body of believers.
It has devastating results when this principle is not honored and followed in the local church. Sometimes people are treated as if they are expendable, or as if they are not really important to the overall functioning of that church. When this happens, it hurts the local body and the whole Body; it grieves the Holy Spirit, and it offends God.
Just as some people are treated as dispensable, others are treated as if they are the most important to the body, like they are the most needed and special of all. This goes totally against what Paul taught when he said we “should have equal concern for each other,” and that God has ordained this so there will be “no division in the body.” Yet, some people are elevated to great prominence and indispensability, and others to extreme insignificance. This shows a confusion between the true Biblical mindset of local church and the secular business mindset when churches operate as if some people are more valuable than others.
Just as no one is expendable in the full Body of Christ, no one is expendable in the local body of believers.
Conclusion
God in His great wisdom is building His Church through which He is demonstrating His glory. When we as His Church are devoted to each other as family should be, walking in love and grace, the world will see and be amazed. They will be drawn to Jesus and His gospel by the glory they witness through His Church.
Sometimes being family his hard. It requires the power of God moving and working in our hearts to help us love as Jesus loved. We need His help to forgive. And we need His grace to help us give ourselves for the good of each other. But when we are doing this, we are blessed, the lost are drawn to Jesus, and God is glorified.
