Acts 16:31-32-So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. NKJV
I’ve been reading through Genesis again. Something that stands out to even the casual reader of Genesis, are the people we encounter from Adam to Joseph. With Adam and Eve, God establishes the first family, long before He establishes a church, a government, or any other institution on the Earth. This tells me that families are on God’s heart! They are important to Him! Families matter!
Recently, I was conversing with a family member, and we were talking about family dynamics. Like a lot of families today, he doesn’t have a typical family, but he noted that his children’s lives would have been so much better had he raised them in a typical household. It was so close to the conversation that I had with a man on the job that it has had me pondering as to why? Both men were full of regrets for not having typical families, not being there to raise their kids as they should have been.
Now when I mention a “typical family”, I am referring to God’s plan for a family: a male husband, a female wife, then children. I say this, because with all the definitions of family we hear today, (and I get it), I just wanted to be clear about God’s definition. But if your family doesn’t fit this neat summation of a family, know that your family still matters to the Father.
God understands, better than us, that things happen in life to change our situations. Divorces, separation, death, affairs, abandonment, crime and a host of other dynamics have left their mark on the family portrait. And because of that, when we speak of God’s definition of a family, people can feel ashamed, condemnation, and even hopelessness. But that’s not God, and that certainly isn’t my intention today. Every family, regardless of what it looks like today, matters to God.
God chose Abraham with plans to bless him mightily. Abraham was all for God’s plans, but he wanted a son more than he wanted the wealth of the land. Before Abraham had a single child to his name, God spoke these words about him:
“Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing, since Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have known him, in order that he may command his children and his household after him, that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice, that the Lord may bring to Abraham what He has spoken to him.”
Genesis 18:17-19 NKJV
God saw in Abraham a person who would teach his children and all those around him to honor God, to conduct themselves in righteousness and to extend justice. Family mattered so much to God that He initiated His chosen people with a man who would honor Him with his family. Abraham instructed Isaac in such a manner, when they went to the mount to make a sacrifice, Isaac didn’t resist his father binding him as a sacrifice!
Abraham’s family wasn’t perfect! They had their issues! But today, God is still referred to as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob! God isn’t looking for perfect families, but He does expect us to honor Him within our families and to teach our children to honor Him. Hear the words that Moses spoke about our responsibility to our children:
“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9 NKJV
I believe it’s important to have a family structure that resembles God ideal family. But what’s more important, is how you treat the family that you do have! Whether it’s a single parent family, grandparents raising grandkids, an elder sibling raising younger siblings, or a foster home, the most important part of being a family is honoring God!
Eli was a priest of the Lord. However, he didn’t teach his children to honor God, although they were also priests. A real eye-opening statement was made about them:
Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord.
1 Samuel 2:12 NKJV
Here is Eli with his sons and they were evil men who did not know the Lord! Somewhere along the line of raising his sons, something went wrong because they didn’t fear God, nor did they honor Him with their actions. Eli tried to talk to them, but maybe it was a little too late:
So he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons! For it is not a good report that I hear. You make the Lord’s people transgress. If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?” Nevertheless they did not heed the voice of their father, because the Lord desired to kill them.
1 Samuel 2:23-25 NKJV
It doesn’t sound like he commanded them to stop it, he just tried to get them to see that what they were doing was wrong. Things had gotten so out of hand, that the judgment of God was already settled on their destruction. Our families matter to God, but it is our responsibility to train our children in righteousness, to teach them to honor and respect God and us! God won’t do that for us!
When I started this blog, I wanted to address the importance of leading our family to Christ. It’s not just enough for us to be saved, we must be concerned about the salvation of our family because God is a household salvation God!
I think about Rahab as an example in the Old Testament. When she helped the spies from Israel, she wanted a guarantee that she would be helped in return. But she wasn’t just concerned about herself.
Now therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord, since I have shown you kindness, that you also will show kindness to my father’s house, and give me a true token, and spare my father, my mother, my brothers, my sisters, and all that they have, and deliver our lives from death.”
Joshua 2:12-13 NKJV
God honored this concern of hers and delivered her and her family. Her family didn’t help her hide the spies, yet, she wanted them saved because of her kindness towards the spies. And it was done, because family matters to God! I don’t how or why she was a prostitute. Some scholars elude to the fact that her parents sold her into temple prostitution. I don’t know! But she cared enough about her family to want them to survive. And her compassion and faith saw her in the ancestry of the Savior!
When I think about the New Testament, I think of both Cornelius and the Philippian jailer. I’ll use the jailer for this blog because it’s time to close! A very familiar scripture on salvation is found in Acts 16:31:
So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
Acts 16:31 NKJV
Paul and Silas had been placed in jail. At midnight, they began to sing praises to God and God caused a shaking of the earth that loosed everybody’s chains! When the jailer ran to the cells and found the doors open, he was ready to commit suicide, but Paul stopped him. Paul then shared the gospel with the jailer and his entire household. They were all reported as believing on the Lord! The jailer could have been content with getting saved, but he got his whole family involved in hearing the gospel. Just like Cornelius did!
Our families matter to God, as much as we matter to Him! His heart is that when we get saved, salvation is brought to them, because they matter! Like Rahab, let us look beyond all the dysfunctional issues in our families and realize they need to be saved, and we have the hook up for getting them saved! This is for me as well as anyone else who needed to be reminded today that gaining the world and losing our families is not okay, because they matter to God and should matter to us! Wonderful Jesus!
Wonderful Jesus! 