The emphasis on family in the devotional has raised some questions for me. In a previous church, the teaching was along these lines: natural family was in every way inferior and even at times a threat to spiritual family. A key scripture was like chapter 14 verse 26 : "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, Yes and his own life also cannot be my disciple."
1 Timothy 5:8 " But if anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his household, he denies the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." was not so popular.
Whilst this position tended to overemphasised the conflict between natural family vs spiritual family and force a choice to be made between them, (a choice which many have to make in these times when they come to Christ.) and was overbalanced, it does beg the question what is spiritual family and how (apart from prayer) can I be a full participant?
Hey Giles, yes I think you raise something so important here, and the verses you pull out are great examples of why we have to hold different Scriptures together at the same time to make sure we find the Scriptural position. Jesus' language, which sounds harsh to our reading, clearly didn't look like 'hating' his earthly family, and so we have to conclude that He was using strong language to make a point.
I think the correction is around our priorities: when the concerns or opinions of our families mean more to us than God's opinion, we've got it wrong. But, at the same time, coming closer to God's love is meant to transform us to be able to show more love and more honour to those around us. In that way, being in (healthy) church family should teach us more how to inhabit our earthly families (and, in healthy family environments, vice versa).
Family was hugely connected to identity in the First Century world (think how all the apostles were also known as 'son of...', and how strong the tribal and sub-tribal divisions are in the Old Testament world). Jesus is speaking of a great reorientation to the heavenly family as our primary identity marker, which should then lead us to inhabit our earthly families as a Kingdom presence. And a Kingdom presence should look like love, wisdom, honour, and truth.
Couple more quick things:
Any healthy family or relationship (whether spiritual or biological) should be built on mutual trust, free choice, and mutual submission. That's the biblical way of things. When earthly or spiritual families go wrong, it's nearly always connected to these dynamics going wrong. Instead of being safe places where people are able to choose their measure of involvement, involvement becomes coerced or manipulated. This means that everything -- from how much we show up, to how much we give, or serve, or speak up, or any of it, is all freely offered and never demanded. The dynamics of the Kingdom are always about surrender, humility, service, freedom, and love.
And secondly, you touch on something also so important, that 'family' is a word that has been wounded for so many people -- from bad experiences either of biological or spiritual families. The Scriptures use of different words for the same thing (e.g. 'community' or 'fellowship' or 'church') I suspect is both being sensitive to this, and shows awareness that 'family' alone as a concept isn't as big a concept as the Scriptures wants to convey. It's always limited by our human experiences and understanding of those terms.
Thanks as ever for sharing, great thoughts as always.
The emphasis on family in the devotional has raised some questions for me. In a previous church, the teaching was along these lines: natural family was in every way inferior and even at times a threat to spiritual family. A key scripture was like chapter 14 verse 26 : "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, Yes and his own life also cannot be my disciple."
1 Timothy 5:8 " But if anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his household, he denies the faith and is worse than an unbeliever." was not so popular.
Whilst this position tended to overemphasised the conflict between natural family vs spiritual family and force a choice to be made between them, (a choice which many have to make in these times when they come to Christ.) and was overbalanced, it does beg the question what is spiritual family and how (apart from prayer) can I be a full participant?
Hey Giles, yes I think you raise something so important here, and the verses you pull out are great examples of why we have to hold different Scriptures together at the same time to make sure we find the Scriptural position. Jesus' language, which sounds harsh to our reading, clearly didn't look like 'hating' his earthly family, and so we have to conclude that He was using strong language to make a point.
I think the correction is around our priorities: when the concerns or opinions of our families mean more to us than God's opinion, we've got it wrong. But, at the same time, coming closer to God's love is meant to transform us to be able to show more love and more honour to those around us. In that way, being in (healthy) church family should teach us more how to inhabit our earthly families (and, in healthy family environments, vice versa).
Family was hugely connected to identity in the First Century world (think how all the apostles were also known as 'son of...', and how strong the tribal and sub-tribal divisions are in the Old Testament world). Jesus is speaking of a great reorientation to the heavenly family as our primary identity marker, which should then lead us to inhabit our earthly families as a Kingdom presence. And a Kingdom presence should look like love, wisdom, honour, and truth.
Couple more quick things:
Any healthy family or relationship (whether spiritual or biological) should be built on mutual trust, free choice, and mutual submission. That's the biblical way of things. When earthly or spiritual families go wrong, it's nearly always connected to these dynamics going wrong. Instead of being safe places where people are able to choose their measure of involvement, involvement becomes coerced or manipulated. This means that everything -- from how much we show up, to how much we give, or serve, or speak up, or any of it, is all freely offered and never demanded. The dynamics of the Kingdom are always about surrender, humility, service, freedom, and love.
And secondly, you touch on something also so important, that 'family' is a word that has been wounded for so many people -- from bad experiences either of biological or spiritual families. The Scriptures use of different words for the same thing (e.g. 'community' or 'fellowship' or 'church') I suspect is both being sensitive to this, and shows awareness that 'family' alone as a concept isn't as big a concept as the Scriptures wants to convey. It's always limited by our human experiences and understanding of those terms.
Thanks as ever for sharing, great thoughts as always.
LIKE SHOULD READ LUKE!