The Importance of Family

For many of us, the importance of family is obvious. When we think of family we think of a group of people that we are related to by birth, who love and support us unconditionally.

It s wonderful when that is what family means, but what about when someone is raised in a home with abuse, whether physical, emotional, or mental? The thought of family can be filled with unpleasant emotions and memories.

So what kind of family am I speaking of when I say, "the importance of family"?

In a study that I am going through right now, I was struck by something I hadn't really noticed before. Jesus emphasized the importance of the "spiritual family", the family that is developed though the forgiveness that Jesus offers to each individual.

First let's make it clear that God established the family unit in Genesis when He made Adam and then made him a helpmate, a women who Adam named Eve. God told them to be fruitful and multiply.

Throughout the Bible God talks about and gives examples of the family. He sets up boundaries and commands in the Old and New Testament as to the roles and responsibilities that each member of the family is to fulfill, such as: children obeying parents, husbands loving their wives, and wives respecting their husbands.

Going beyond the family unit that happens through physical birth, we see a "new community" developing in the New Testament and it was being established through the teaching of the Savior, Jesus Christ.

When and how did Jesus do this? First through His example of love and care for those He ministered to. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John (the Gospels) all give us examples of the selfless life that Jesus lived. Then He solidified this "new community" when His mother and brothers came to get Him in Luke 8:19-21. He said to the people who were calling to Him that His family was there to see Him, "My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it".

In Luke 11:27-28, a women cries out that the mother of Jesus was a blessed women. Jesus corrects her train of thought by telling her that anyone who hears and obeys the word of God is blessed. "Family" was taking on a new and deeper meaning.

In John 19:25-27 we see John and Mary the mother of Jesus watching Jesus die on the cross. Two of the few that had remained faithful all the way to the foot of the cross. Jesus looks at Mary and tells her to look to John as her son. He tells John to look to Mary as his mother. Were they related? Not as far as we know, but they were both believers in Jesus as the Messiah, the Savior, and therefore were part of a community that went beyond the birth family. What a beautiful picture!

Why is this "community of believer" so important to me? You see, I was not "raised" in church even though, as a child, I attended church most Sundays. My parents didn't take me to church, it was the church bus that came to my door each Sunday to pick me up and take me to church. I can remember from the age of 6 or 7 going to church on the bus with my brother and sister, who I woke up so they could go as well.

My parents didn't teach me about the Bible, my church did. My parents didn't help me know the reason for doing what was right, my church did. My parents didn't lead me to Christ, my church did.

My church, was to me, my "second family", my "spiritual family". I learned about the love of God, and how to serve others, and how to love my Savior at church, among a body of believers, who were a part of the "spiritual community" that Jesus establishes.

Even as an adult my "spiritual family" remains important to me. Many years ago my husband and I "left" our birth families and moved about a thousand miles away for his job. We became an active part of a church who became our family. Each place we have lived over our 27 years of marriage, our church family has been our "family", a family that is even closer to us than birth family because of the bond that is formed by knowing Jesus as our Savior, and the unity that comes in serving Him all with the same goal in mind, building the kingdom of Heaven.

Is the church perfect? No, it is full of selfish, self-center people who make mistakes. We must keep our focus on our Savior and realize that when we are all following God's plan and obeying Him that the hurt we tend to cause one another (just as in a birth family) can be forgiven, and we can love one another as God loves us.