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Day 1 –
Faithful in Commitment
INTERDEPENDENT AS A FAMILY(Romans 12:9-12)
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil;
cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly
love; give preference to one another in honor; 11not lagging behind
in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in
hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer,
(1 Timothy 5:1-2)
1Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather
appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers, 2 the
older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity.
Brainstorm for a minute. What are some
different analogies to the church that can be found in the Bible? For instance,
the church is called a Family, it is also referred to as a Body.
All this week we will see different analogies, but there is an
old saying that “you can pick your friends, but you are stuck with your family”.
That is especially true with the family of God. We will spend eternity with
each other and with Christ. John concludes that we cannot honestly say we love
God, whom we have never seen, if we don’t love His children, our brothers
and sisters, whom we have seen.
The Church Family
Our focal passage shows that we should have “brotherly love”
and we are to relate to one another in the context of family relationships. We
are to have a love devoid of conflict, contentions, or impurity.
Our membership in Christ and in the church is like a family.
We were born into the human race, but also into a family. In the same way, the
born-again Christian is born into the universal church, but we also must be
involved as members within the local family of believers.
One qualification for a pastor in 1 Timothy 3:5 is that he
manages his family well, with the reasoning that if he cannot manage his
family, how can he manage the church? Why would that be a condition of a pastor
if it was not also true that the church should be like a family? We as brothers
and sisters should be faithful in our commitment to our church.
Being interdependent on one another means love and
faithfulness. One of the strongest passages on our relationships as a church
family comes from 1 John 4:20, as the beloved Apostle wrote that anyone who
hates his brother or sister in Christ is not truly a Christian. Earlier in the
same letter, John stressed commitment: “they went out from us because they
were not of us,” (1 John 2:19).
Benefits
of the Family. Galatians
6:10 says that we should do good to all people, especially to those who belong
to “the family of believers” (NIV). Ephesians 2:19 says we are no longer
strangers to God, but we are now “of God’s household.” We also are
related to our spiritual family in order to meet the physical (James 2:15),
emotional (Mark10:29, 30), and spiritual (1 Corinthians 8:11-13) needs of
others. Members of the local church are to help one another to grow into a
spiritual household (1 Peter 2:5). As a church family we should be available to
help and benefit one another.
Blessings of the Family. In Romans 8:15, we see that
we have received a spirit of adoption into God’s family and are now able to cry
out to Him as “Abba, Father.” And if we are children of God, then Jesus
is our brother and we all have direct access to our Father’s throne to present
our requests. Since we are blessed to have God as our Father, we should also be
a blessing as brothers and sisters as members of the church.
Behavior
of the Family. 1
Timothy 3:15 says we ought to know how to conduct ourselves “in the
household of God, which is the church of the living God.” Later in 5:1-2,
Paul tells the young pastor that church members should be respectful and pure
with our spiritual brothers and sisters. 1 Peter 4:17 says that judgment begins
with the “family of God.” We then are recipients of God’s blessings, and
of God’s benefits, but we also should expect to be corrected (Hebrews 12:5-11).
As a family we are to be responsible and respectful to one another.
Click here for Day 2 Accountable in Stewardship
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