We like to think of our church as a "family". But this is not just because we like the idea of it. Rather, Ps Bec and I are convinced that this is something that is close to God's heart, in particular for Lift Church.
Ephesians 2:19 tells us, "So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God"
And also in 1 Timothy 3:14-15, "I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth."
So the concept of being the household of God is entrenched in Scripture. What we need to note though, is that the concept of "household" in the Bible looks very little like our modern, Australian "household". In Biblical times, a household would likely include a few generations living together (no surprise), AND staff, slaves and sojourners. These would all live under the same roof and be considered of one household. There would rarely (if at all) be a single-person household which takes up 1/3 of the households in our local city.
Of particular interest are the sojourners, or to my understanding people we would call pilgrims or refugees. These are people who are in the country for religious reasons, or because they were displaced. God so cared for and loved this group of people that He entrenched into the Mosaic covenant the requirement for the Israelites to provide households for them.
Deuteronomy 10:18-19, "[God] executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt."
When we think about this though, the Israelites wouldn't be classified as sojourners in Egypt, would they? They were slaves! Oppressed and degraded in that land. Why would God call them sojourners?
I believe it is because God didn't see their identity based only in that moment of time. He had promised that they would be settled in the Promised Land, and Egypt was simply a temporary stop in the grand journey God had for Israel.
For us today, we are also to see ourselves as sojourners. We are not citizens of this world, but of the Kingdom. 1 Peter 2:11 states, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul."
We are a household of sojourners. God as the Father takes us in, under his protection and provision, and prepares a greater house for us to be a part of in eternity.
As a household of sojourners, there is only ONE son, that is Jesus. Yet Jesus doesn't lord His position as the firstborn over us. Instead he calls us all co-heirs with Him. And then he calls each and every one of us to love one another, as he has loved us (John 15).
Church, we are using the language of family because that's how God sees us. And as His sons and daughters, under his protection and provision, we are called to love one another deeply and fully. We don't look the same, we have different backgrounds and experiences. Yet we find kindredness in the fact that God loves us and calls us his own.
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