We Are Family

By David Bragg

    Police, responding to a domestic disturbance call in a tiny Key West Florida community, found an aunt and her niece fighting. It seems that a board game led to an accusation of stealing some money which broke out into a fight. Her aunt had hit her in the mouth with a piece of wood, stabbed her ear with a screwdriver, and bitten two of her fingers. The niece also had gotten in a few punches of her own. The game they had been playing? The home edition of Family Feud (www.miamiherald.com).
    God has a clear plan when it comes to the family. The home is the central institution of any society and the bedrock of any nation seeking to please God. It is designed around, according to Paul, the husband's self-sacrificial love for his wife and the wife's willing submission to her husband (Ephesian 5:22-25). Because every husband and wife are mere mortals, the devil will do his utmost to disrupt their relationship with sin. Still, by keeping their focus of loving and obeying God, our homes can be havens of healthy and happy lives.
    But there is a more important design in God's establishing the family. Paul concludes his observations on the marital relationship with these words from Ephesians 5:23: "This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church." In the Christian husband's role in the family Christ's greater love is reflected. Likewise, in the Christian wife's role in the family the church's love and obedience is portrayed. It is no wonder, then, that the New Testament church is portrayed as a spiritual family, the house of God (1 Tim. 3:15; Heb. 3:6; 1 Pet. 4:17). There’s no way around it, we are family!

- David Bragg serves as one of the ministers at the Northwest Church of Christ in Greensboro, NC and is co-editor of BulletinGold. He may be contacted through the congregation's website: http://www.nwchurchofchrist.com/ or his blog: http://davidbragg.blogspot.com/