WE ARE FAMILY – Part 1

“So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when He adopted you as His own children. Now we call Him, ‘Abba, Father.’ For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” (Romans 8:15-16 NLT)

Part of the normalness and significance of churches for the New Testament writers came from the association of these groups with homes. Houses were not only the context for these gatherings, they provided an essential perspective on what living as Christians meant. Christians were family and… this experience mirrored the heavenly reality.

The New Testament almost always used the Father/Son image to explain the relationship of Jesus and God. It was, therefore, natural to describe Christians as adopted into this family (e.g., 1 Thessalonians 1:10; Galatians 4:4-6). Thus Christian growth was a matter of maturing from infancy to adulthood (Ephesians 4:11-16; Hebrews 12:4-9) and of learning to relate to each other intimately and responsibly as in an ideal family (e.g., 1 Corinthians 8:11-13; Galatians 6:10; Colossians 3:12-14; 1 John 2:28 – 3:3). 

-- Mark Strom in “The Symphony of Scripture: Making Sense of the Bible’s Many Themes”

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