Do you know that you’re part of a family? Do you feel that you belong? The answer to the first questions is – YES. The answer to the second is dependent upon you. That’s the truly remarkable reality that accompanies all of us when we accept the gift Jesus offers. You, as in you, are always accepted. No one can tell you that you aren’t part of the family. You, as well as others, may not always like what you do but that has no bearing on your ‘membership’. So now you have three families – your nuclear one, your church, and your eternal one. The latter will never disinherit you.
The caveat in this is that the family does tend to disagree at times, typically on non essential things – I suspect this is why we have as many denominations within Christianity as we have. While the church family may disagree, just like our nuclear family, we need to never forget that this is us, it is not the Father – He never leaves or forsakes us. Never forget that the angels rejoiced when we come into the Family.
Just like every nuclear family is or can be vastly different in the interpersonal dynamics, the same is true of our church family. But in the Family of God, we are all equal and share all things together. Galatians 3:28
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is
neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
We are all one! Verse 29 goes on to tell us: “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seek, and heirs according to the promise.” One! Heirs! If that isn’t reason for shoutin’ time I don’t know what would be.
Each of us have our own jobs and responsibilities in our earthly families that we need to fulfill. My bias is that 1 Corinthians 12 is an attempt by Paul to give us an understanding and appreciation of the Family we have been birthed into, to emulate in our early ones. In verse 12 Paul begins to teach about the body and the membership we have. Everyone is needed, their gift and talent acknowledged; verse 26 – “And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”
It never is a question of you earning your place or being worthy enough. None of us can. But the unspeakable joy is that the Father sees us through the eyes of Jesus. And, our acceptance and belief in Jesus is sufficient.
