Kingdom Family by Tabitha Morales

 I am grateful to welcome my friend Tabitha Morales to Kindling. Tabitha is a wise thinker, a compassionate leader, and able to do many things well. In this post she reminds us that we are Family—the Family of God, and calls us, as we move into a new (and hopefully better) year, to live out our family relationships in such a way that we help create that better world.

We’ve all heard it said before that the family is the cornerstone of our society. Interestingly, while I think many of us believe this to be true, I don’t believe we fully comprehend the entirety of this concept.

WHAT IS “FAMILY”?

For those of us who have been born and raised with western influence, the “family” is often considered the core unit. Biblically speaking however, the reference to “family” is typically plural and includes a community larger than the immediate core unit.  Additionally, the concept of Christians being part of the “family of God” is mentioned in Scripture a lot more than our churches seem to discuss.  

I wonder if this contributes or correlates to the world around us falling apart at the seams as the family of God lives so divided. The family is, at the least, at odds with each other and in some cases don’t seem to even recognize one another. Scripture reminds us that family is a grand communal reality that transcends time through bloodlines and lineages as we are connected by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We know from the Old and New Testaments that Scripture highly values family, bloodlines, heritage and culture. We also know that the Scripture was written in a middle eastern context, from the cultural perspective of a communal society. Keeping this in mind is vital as we read and study the word of God because nearly every time “family” is mentioned, it translates into “kind” or “lineage” or “nation”.

WE ARE SOLDIERS OF A KINGDOM

I was privileged to grow up in a Christian home with parents who actively seek Jesus. I remember attending Sunday school at church, Friday night Bible studies, and a week-long Vacation Bible School every summer. One song we learned with hand movements and church-appropriate dance moves was a song that referred to being a “soldier in the army of the Lord”.

Throughout my Christian life, I can recount many sermons or Bible studies that spoke to a Christian’s identity as a “solider in the army of the Lord”.  I, myself, gave one of these talks at a statewide Cru Campus Ministry gathering in New Jersey. I remember using a song that spoke of the Christian’s three enemies: the evil one, the world, and the flesh. Paul speaks in Ephesians 6 to this same reality and urges believers of Jesus to guard themselves with the sword of truth and the shield of faith.

It’s is extremely important for every believer to be aware that when we said “yes” to Jesus, we were transferred from being in the kingdom of the evil one to being part of the kingdom of God. Doing this makes us a target for the evil one, who has to fight against our own flesh, and live as a stranger in the world.

THE GOSPEL TRUTH

Too soon after we were created, we the children of God, began to quarrel and divide. First and many times after, we believed the lies of the enemy (Genesis 3), separating ourselves from the truth of the Father. Then we fell into the temptations of the flesh, holding pride, jealousy and selfishness (Genesis 4). Finally, too often, we’ve allowed the world to shade our perspective of God and His creation and we’ve even let the world give us our talking points on such things (Read Genesis).

From the Scriptures, we know that Jesus is in fact the Messiah and through his death has purchased our freedom from the evil one with his blood (read Luke). When we confess our deprived, arrogant selfish ways and believe Jesus to be the perfect Son of God who took our punishment, the Scriptures say we are then adopted into the family of God (Romans 8:15).

We can see in Acts that the way the church family (mentioned 52 time in Acts) treated one another was often directly related to the number of new people being added to the church. Paul wrote several letters to different church families urging them to love one another.  Jesus prayed that we would be one as He and His Father are one. Jesus also tells us that the two greatest commandments are to love God and love people. God’s desire all along has been for us to be a loving family together for all eternity with Him as the Father SO THAT many others may desire to submit to His Lordship and be part of this family.

WHAT’S THE PROBLEM? 

So then, why are people more likely to leave the church than desire to join God’s family? Could we have mixed up our identities as children of God and as soldiers of God? Are we behaving in a way (as children) that is causing others not to feel welcomed into this new family? Could we have misconstrued who our enemy is and pointed our weapons in the wrong direction?

Scripture never says our neighbor who isn’t yet a Christian is our enemy. The world’s influences and lies are our enemy, but the “world” doesn’t refer to the individual person who was made in God’s image. (Read Ephesians 2:2) The more we treat people who are not-yet believers as enemies, the more likely they will not want to join the family of God. Consider how Jesus treated all the people brought to him as sinners.

Scripture also doesn’t say that our enemy is a Christian who believes differently about something on the persuasion or opinion level. As believers in Jesus, there are certain things that are convictions of our collective faith that we must not sway on. Being of a denomination or a political affiliation is not something relative to our salvation and must be held with open hands at the feet of Jesus.

Scripture also tells us not to show partiality based on one’s demographics and we see repeatedly that any person from any culture or ethnic heritage can come to the saving knowledge of Jesus.

WE ARE FAMILY

In my church, growing up, we referred to one another as brother so-in-so or sister so-in-so. It was a constant reminder of the reason we were even there and a reminder of who was the head of our household, our Father God. Even Pastors were occasionally called brother, not out of disrespect but out of love.

So, brothers and sisters, can we look at each other, our family, this season and tell the Lord that we have loved our brethren well? Have there been moments in which we may have mistaken our family members for the enemy because of a disagreement over something worldly and temporal? Every family has disagreements and often around the holidays it can be difficult to engage with the ones we love if all we think about and focus on is what’s different.

WHAT IF…

We have just come through a season where people are thinking about the birth of Jesus. The birth of Jesus made it possible for us to be family and made it possible for the kingdom of God to defeat the evil one. What if, as we focus on the birth of Jesus, we also recall the loving Father who adopted us into His family and out of respect for Him, seek to lift one another through our love for one another?

What if in thinking about how Jesus entered into our circumstances, we do the same for one another and for those not-yet part of the family of God? God took the initiative to send us a loving gift we don’t deserve. And now, as we enter into a new year, how can we do the same for others?

Let us pray that our Father will strengthen our family through the power of the Holy Spirit who is indwelling us, so that we may be one as we stand against the evil one, the world, and our flesh--and welcome others into the family of God.

Tabitha Morales was born and raised in The Bronx of NYC to Puerto Rican parents. In 1995, at the age of 10, she was healed of epilepsy, and soon after entered into a relationship with Jesus. 

After graduating with a bachelors in Deaf Education, she joined staff with Campus Crusade for Christ and worked for ten years in the Campus Ministry with the Jersey Metro team. In 2017, Tabitha joined the Cru Oneness & Diversity team and in 2018 she started working with the Leadership Development team where she helps develop staff in their leadership cultural identity. 

Tabitha is passionate about helping Christians steward their culture & ethnicity for the glory of God. Each of the teams she serves on has a focus directly connected to the vision that everyone can know someone who truly follows Jesus Christ.