Trigger alert. The title of this post may, for people of a certain age, provoke unnerving flashbacks to a shrilly voice calling out, “Did I do that?” However, please stay with me. My purpose is not to traumatize anyone, but to call attention to this simple point. Family matters.
Few would openly deny this, especially when considering your wife, kids, parents or siblings. But the point’s often lost in the church, or in a family of churches like GTBN or the SBC.
Consider the following references (from ESV) :
Eph. 2:19, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…”
Rom. 12:10, “Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.”
Gal. 6:10, “So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
1 Tim. 5:1-2, “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.”
When you trusted Christ, you entered a familial relationship not only with the Lord, but with his other children. This applies to those within your local congregation, as well as Christians among sister churches like those across GTBN. It even applies to believers in different theological silos within SBC life, and yes, even those in different gospel centered faith families. We’re family, and family matters.
Now, as we all know, family life can be messy. It can also be great and wonderful, but at some point everyone has their “Urkel moments” (If you don’t know what this means, ask someone who was a teen or older in the 90’s). We either create or stumble upon problems within the family.
The problem is that today, when through social media we all curate friends and information according to our personal preferences and positions, it’s too easy to cut off or cancel others. Instead of pressing through the messiness to strengthen the family, we’re quick to denounce and sever relationships.
As I read Paul’s letters, the familial bond he felt for God’s people was clear. He had clear boundaries which, if crossed, would break fellowship. But it was a high bar defined by outright heresy or unrepentant sin, and even then restoration was the goal (2 Cor. 2:5-11). He lived with a deep conviction that the work of Christ not only freed us from the condemnation of sin, but it also bound us into a family through which His purpose would be fulfilled. Family mattered to Paul, because it matters to the Lord.
Does family matter to you? We need each other, in the local church and most certainly through the GTBN.
Blessings!
Bro. Jim