The Family of God

You have heard it said that blood is thicker than water, but what about the Spirit? Is the Spirit “thicker” than blood? The answer is yes. When the disciples told Jesus that his family wanted to speak to Him, His reply was, “who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” He then pointed to His disciples and said that they were His family (Matt 12:46-50). Throughout scripture there is discussion about the importance of family, but the spiritual family takes precedence over the natural family.

The greatest commandment is to love the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to also love our neighbors as ourselves. We shouldn’t put ourselves above anyone but see them as equal. In order to do this, we must first realize just how much our Heavenly Father loves us. Then, and only then can we love Him with all our hearts, and also love others as God loves them.

Imagine you work for a large corporation, and one day the owners 12 year old son is walking around the offices, you would show him respect because you know whose son he is. If you treated him poorly you would probably get in trouble, or perhaps fired. Now, imagine you were visiting another country where the government is a monarchy. One day you happen to meet the prince of the country, so you treat him with honor and respect because you know he will one day be king. Now imagine a God who sits on the throne of Heaven, He has many sons and daughters, all being equal in rank. If you are a Christian and filled with the Holy Spirit, then you are a child of the Most High God. The bible says He has made us Kings and Priests and that we are a royal priesthood, but why don’t we act like it (Rev 1:, 1 Pet :9)? If we fully grasped just who we are in Christ, we would love ourselves a lot more, and strive to be like Jesus. Our goal should be to fully comprehend the love of God for us (Eph 3:18). When we seek to do good, our priority should be to our brothers and sisters in the Lord (Gal 6:10).

Now that we know we are children of God and joint heirs with Christ, we must see ourselves that way. Jesus said that all authority has been given to Him and He gave it to us, so we must learn to walk in it (Matt 28:18). We must also learn to see others as princes and princesses. None of us likes it when we hear someone speak poorly of our children, now imagine how God feels when we talk about His kids in a negative manner. He doesn’t like it. If we want to have unity in the Spirit, we have to see each other as equal heirs. This is why Jesus said that if we desire to be great, we must become a servant. When two of the disciples asked Jesus to sit at His right hand and on the left, He told them, that is not for Him to decide. Their request angered the other disciples, I imagine it was because James and John seemed to think higher of themselves as they should. That is why Jesus had to teach them about humility (Mark 10: 35-45). If we are more concerned with ourselves than others, we are not walking in the love the bible defines in the first letter to the Corinthian church, in chapter thirteen.

God loves us all the same so we cannot show partiality to one another. If someone comes to your church with nice clothes and you treat them better than the person dressed in rags, you are in sin (James 2:1-9). We must learn to look through unveiled eyes and see things as God does. The next King David could have blue hair and covered in tattoos (1 Sam 16:7).