2/10/25 Bible Thought

The family of God

As Jesus continues His earthly ministry, we find that crowds upon crowds gather around Him. Once, when He was effectively trapped in a house because of a large crowd, He hears that His family is looking for Him (Mk. 3:20-21, 31-35). His mother and brothers are outside trying to get ahold of Him. Not only do they lack special privilege and remain outside, but Jesus looks around at the crowd and states, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother” (Mk. 3:34b-35).

Those who do the will of God, probably more specifically those who respond to the Kingdom-summons of repentance and faith (see Mk. 1:15) are labeled as family to the Lord Jesus! Although Jesus is the only, or unique Son of God (see John 1:18) there is also the truth that we are children of God through faith in Jesus Christ (see Gal. 3:26). I love how the Apostle John recounts this profound and unfathomable reality, “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 Jn. 3:1). What an awesome love it is that we can be made the children of God, truly it’s scandalous! We who were once far off have been brought near. Through faith in Christ, the Scripture says, “So then you no longer strangers and aliens, but you are saints and members of the household of God (Eph. 2:19).

This is the reality of Jesus’ claim in this passage. There is no natural family privilege, but those who are part of the spiritual family of God are all on equal footing. We are all made children of God, no longer being children of wrath. What grace that He adopted us and made us partakers of such wonderful promises under a new covenant!

With this, let’s remember that as the family of God we’re brothers and sisters with each other. All of those who follow Jesus, doing the will of God, are part of the family of God. The vertical change of being made a child of God has horizontal implications. Now, my fellow-believers are brothers and sisters in Christ. We’re all part of the same family. So, if we claim to love God whom we cannot see, we ought to love our brother too whom we can see (see 1 John 4:20). If we claim to be children of God, then we ought to act like a brother or sister to the rest of those in the faith. We might not agree on everything, we might have different preferences, we might look different, and we might hail from entirely different backgrounds; but, in Christ, we’re family. What a blessed privilege to not only have God as our Father, but to have a spiritual family that can be even closer than our natural families.