Articles
Importance of the Family
When Jehovah spoke to Israel through the prophet Amos, He said, “Hear this word that Jehovah hath spoken against you, O children of Israel, against the whole family which I brought up out of the land of Egypt, saying, You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities. Shall two walk together, except they have agreed?” (Amos 3:1-3), and again, “A son honoreth his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a father, where is mine honor?” (Malachi 1:6).
Families: “a circle of relatives,” those who are “connected by origin, kinship, marriage, etc.” You may have heard the phrase, “You can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family.” Well, there is a sense in which you can choose your family.
Throughout the scriptures, there is an importance applied to the family: Joshua said, “as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah” (Joshua 24:15), i.e., Joshua’s family. Phrases such as, “blood is thicker than water,” are often applied to the devotion that exists between individuals springing forth from the same father and mother, i.e., blood relatives.
What we see in the flesh can also be achieved spiritually. There are, and have been since the fall of man, only two families. The scriptures use such phrases as, “the sons of God came unto the daughters of men” (Genesis 6:4), or “for the sons of this world are for their own generation wiser than the sons of light” (Luke 16:8).
As in the physical, so in the spiritual, your family is determined by who your Father is, and who your Father is, is determined by your conduct. Jesus said to the Jews, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth not in the truth, because there is no truth in him When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father thereof” (John
If God is your Father, you are a member of the family of God, and such will be reflected in your conduct, as was stated by the Apostle Peter, when he said, “Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance: but like as he who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy. And if ye call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to each man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear” (1 Peter 1:13-17).
Remember the words of the Apostle Peter, saying, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). ret
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