FAMILY MATTERS by Pastor Julien Cyrus
With God, family matters. God speaks in the language of family. Family is a way of thinking, communicating, and functioning. Family is about identity and inheritance within an intimate environment.
Like every other institution, the family is divinely structured. The head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God (1 Corinthians 11:3). Roles and names may differ, but we are made one for the other and are accountable one to another.
God is not just ‘the Man upstairs’, but identifies as our heavenly Father. Jesus advises that when we pray, we must address God as “Our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9).
Jesus came as Messiah, but more importantly, identified as the only begotten Son of God. He arrived on earth through the medium of a family headed by Joseph and his wife, Mary, to whom he submitted as a son.
God, the Father, because of his great love for us, has called us his children. When we believe the gospel and receive Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, we access the right to become God’s sons (John 1:12).
Thereafter, we are no longer strangers, but members of God’s very family, citizens of God’s country and belong to God’s household (Eph 2:19). We also receive God’s Spirit and our adopted spirits cry, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15).
Family is established on the foundation of marriage. A marital relationship is a replica of the relationship between Christ and his church. The husband gets to function as Christ and the wife, as the church. Christ loved the church and died for it. The church loves Christ and lives for him! So, within the family, Christ is the ultimate recipient of our services.
In Luke chapter 15, Jesus shares the experience of a family–a father and his two sons. The younger son disinherited himself by withdrawing his portion of goods, along with his enthusiasm and support from his family’s estate.
He then moved away from sonship and family, to orphancy in a far-off place where he wasted his resources with his prodigal lifestyle. Being alienated from family and fatherly oversight, he was cut off from a sustainable source and found himself trying to survive by feeding swine in a field.
In that fallen state, he remembered that he did not have to continue ‘playing orphan’ because he had a family and a true father who was a great provider and the source of all blessings.
He realised that he could change his destiny with a simple change of mind. This is called repentance when one stops doing the wrong things and starts doing the right things.
Upon his return, his father welcomed him with the best robe, a ring, and shoes–first-class treatment. Sonship cannot be earned; it is a privilege sovereignly imputed to us by a loving, compassionate father within the context of family.
A simple change of mind and a recognition of family led to a changed life. That day, he discovered that family truly matters.
