The church and the family (Part 8)

This post marks another in a series in response to the following statement at a church's website:

"We believe that the family is the first and most important institution that the Lord created. Moreover, following God the family should hold the highest priority."

In my first post of this series, I asked a series of questions regarding this statement. Since then, I have replied to one or two of those questions per post as I considered the relationship between the church and the family. In this post, I am responding to the final question I asked regarding the statement above. The question is:

-- Does this mean it is okay for me to think my family is more important than God’s family?

It is not difficult to guess what my answer will be if you have read my previous posts on this topic. I would say, "No, it is not okay for me to think my family is more important than God's family. God purchased His family by the blood of His own perfect Son. The blood of God the Son produced a family that will live together forever. As a forever family, the members will always relate to each other on the basis of the blood of the Son, not on the basis of whether they share the same bloodline."

This does not mean I should consider my family unimportant. Nor should you consider your family unimportant. And we are not free biblically to minimize, ignore or neglect our families. It is a matter of what is ultimate. God's family is ultimate. Our families are not. God's family is eternal. Ours are not.

Yet, the Bible makes it clear how you and I live in our families is exceedingly important in the context of the gospel and the church. For instance, God's Word says:

-- Marriage was intended by God from its inception to portray the everlasting union of Christ and His bride (Eph. 5:22-33).

-- A person who does not provide for his family denies the faith and is even worse than an unbeliever (I Tim. 5:8).

-- A man demonstrates his qualifications to shepherd the family of God by shepherding his family well (I Tim. 3:1-7).

-- Jesus showed His love and concern for His mother by giving responsibility for her care to one of His disciples, even while suffering on the cross to rescue the condemned to be the children of His Father (John 19:26-27).

May we sacrificially love our families because God has given us vital responsibilities to those whom He has placed in our care, but may we realize at the same time He has placed us in a family of fellow adoptees with whom we will worship Him forever.