Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Family”
Our Bible verse for today: “Do not rebuke and older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and with all propriety, the younger women as sisters.” 1 Timothy 5:1-2
Our thought for today: “The church is a family”
I love the imagery Paul used in 1 Timothy 5:1-2. The letter of 1 Timothy was written by Paul to his young protégé Timothy and was intended to provide instruction, guidance, and encouragement to him as he figured out how to be a good pastor.
In this passage Paul urges Timothy to think of the congregation as a family. And so he was to treat older men as fathers, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters. Jesus used very similar language in Matthew 12:49-50 when He described His own relationship to the family of believers, “And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, ‘Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven, that person is My brother and sister and mother.”
Earlier in this devotional series of messages I described how it is that the bond between brothers and sisters in Christ is actually deeper, longer lasting, and more important than the flesh and blood bond we have with our biological family. That’s because the spiritual bond connects people in a deeper and more profound way, and it lasts for eternity.
But that’s more than just a spiritual truth; it’s also a physical reality. There are practical, real life implications to this. Within your church family there are real people – real flesh and blood people with whom you have a spiritual bond. Because they are real flesh and blood people, and because you do have such a deep connection with them, you do in fact have multiple “fathers”, and “mothers”, and “sisters”, and “brothers”, just a Paul was describing to Timothy.
The implications of this are far reaching. That means that there are no orphans in the family of God. It means there are no single mothers, no widows left alone, no single adults without a close family. If your church family is functioning as the Lord intends, and if you enter into the full life of your church, then you do have fathers and mothers, sisters and brothers, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. You have a family!
The benefits of this to us now, in this lifetime, are obvious. You should never be without people who love you and care about you. You should always have people who are there for you, will help you, will lift you up and encourage you, and who will help to enrich your life. That’s what a good church family does for you.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 