Images of the Church abound in the Bible. We have considered several of them over the past three months — a building, a body, a bride, a field, a temple, a priesthood and a flock. These images remind us of the Church’s relationship with our Lord.
This week we look at the Church as a family or household. The idea of being members of God’s family, making up His household, appears in several places in the Bible. For example family ties are implied whenever believers are called children of God. Jesus taught His followers to address God in prayer as “our Father” (Matt. 6:9), with “our” meaning His Father and our Father, hence members together of God’s family.
His household
God’s people viewed as His household is an image that emerges chiefly in the New Testament. First Peter 4:17 alerts Christian readers that “it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God.” Ephesians 2:19 employs the same imagery when speaking about the changed spiritual status of Gentile believers, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”
Scripture sets forth two ways of thinking about how we become members of God’s household — by birth and by adoption. Christians are begotten of God or born into His family by the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit.
Adopted by God
We also are said to be adopted by God into His family by the Holy Spirit, who is referred to as the Spirit of adoption (Rom. 8:15). The term for adoption is a compound one that says in its two parts, “placing as a son.” The idea is of a gracious Father who has lifted us out of an alien family and placed us into His family as a dear child.
As members of God’s household of faith, believers enjoy fellowship that is both vertical and horizontal. The vertical fellowship is what we have with the Father and with His Son (1 John 1:3). The horizontal fellowship is what we have with one another as sons and daughters within the divine family (1 John 1:7). God is our heavenly Father and we are all spiritual siblings with one another. A genuine family feeling ought to permeate each church.
Mutual respect for each other
Certain family traits fall to us as members of the household of God. As good and loving family members care for one another with mutual regard, so church members ideally treat one another with mutual respect and in practical ways of caring.
A genuine family feeling manifests itself when the members feel one another’s hurts and needs. The same feeling manifests itself when we rejoice with other family members in their joys and victories. Normally family members have a deep sense of belonging with each other without any semblance of pretense or playacting being necessary.
Practical admonition
So it ought to be in the Church as God’s household. In its best expression, church membership carries with it the same sense of belonging and acceptance that exists in healthy families. In the absence of these family characteristics, both our literal family and our church family become dysfunctional.
Galatians 6:10 gives a practical admonition for members of God’s family, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
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