The Family of God

[glen smith]

Ephesians 3:14-15 NASB
¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

Comment: The location of the family of God is both in heaven, those who have died, and those on earth, those who are alive.

What does the family of God mean?
We are all children of God.
We are children of the Father.
The children include all those in the New Testament and each generation since up to the present time.
As children of the Family of God we all share in the collective relationship with the Father.
Obviously, each child has a different relationship with the Father, but we better understand the Father through the collective experience of the Children of God.
Being exposed to how our brothers and sisters understand the Father is an aspect of being a member of the Family of God.
We do this in a variety of ways which include literature, preaching, testimony, and historical documents

As a member of the Family of God, Christians do not enter the Christian life without the influence of those siblings who have preceded us. We can say we invented the wheel but cannot deny not knowing what a wheel is. It behooves us to know what our brothers and sisters have experienced before us and what those living today are experiencing. No one reads the Bible or tries to live the Christian life without somewhat of a worldview. Knowing what the brothers and sisters before us have thought and experienced is essential if we do not want to start over in the first century and make all the same mistakes again and miss all the valuable spiritual things they learned. We can start again by designing the wheel but that design will likely encompass all the flaws that our brother and sisters have previously made.

We ought to value this history, both ancient and contemporary, unless we know we are spiritual superior to all the brothers and sisters before us.

[Steve Hollander]

Makes sense to me. I hope to be part of the family eternally.

[Lou Newton]

Ephesians 3:14-15 NASB
¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name,

Comment: The location of the family of God is both in heaven, those who have died, and those on earth, those who are alive.

What does the family of God mean?
We are all children of God.
We are children of the Father.
The children include all those in the New Testament and each generation since up to the present time.
As children of the Family of God we all share in the collective relationship with the Father.
Obviously, each child has a different relationship with the Father, but we better understand the Father through the collective experience of the Children of God.
Being exposed to how our brothers and sisters understand the Father is an aspect of being a member of the Family of God.
We do this in a variety of ways which include literature, preaching, testimony, and historical documents

As a member of the Family of God, Christians do not enter the Christian life without the influence of those siblings who have preceded us. We can say we invented the wheel but cannot deny not knowing what a wheel is. It behooves us to know what our brothers and sisters have experienced before us and what those living today are experiencing. No one reads the Bible or tries to live the Christian life without somewhat of a worldview. Knowing what the brothers and sisters before us have thought and experienced is essential if we do not want to start over in the first century and make all the same mistakes again and miss all the valuable spiritual things they learned. We can start again by designing the wheel but that design will likely encompass all the flaws that our brother and sisters have previously made.

We ought to value this history, both ancient and contemporary, unless we know we are spiritual superior to all the brothers and sisters before us.

The children include all those in the New Testament and each generation since up to the present time.

Glen are you actually stating that all of the OT saints are not in the family of God? Are you saying that Enoch is not included ? What about Noah ? Abraham is the father of our faith, and yet is not included in the family of God !

Many men of the OT are listed in Hebrews:
Hebrews 11 New International Version (NIV)

Faith in Action


11 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. ² This is what the ancients were commended for.

³ By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

⁴ By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

⁵ By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”^[a] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

⁷ By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised landlike a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. ¹¹ And by faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she^[b] considered him faithful who had made the promise. ¹² And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

¹³ All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. ¹⁴ People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵ If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶ Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

¹⁷ By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice.He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, ¹⁸ even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.”^[c]19 Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.

²⁰ By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future.

²¹ By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

²² By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.

²³ By faith Moses’ parents hid him for three months after he was born,because they saw he was no ordinary child, and they were not afraid of the king’s edict.

²⁴ By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. ²⁵ He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. ²⁶ He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. ²⁷ By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible. ²⁸ By faith he kept the Passover and the application of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel.

²⁹ By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

³⁰ By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the army had marched around them for seven days.

³¹ By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.<sup>[d]

32</sup> And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon,Barak, Samson and Jephthah, about David and Samuel and the prophets, ³³ who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions,³⁴ quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword;whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. ³⁵ Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. ³⁶ Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. ³⁷ They were put to death by stoning;^[e] they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins,destitute, persecuted and mistreated— ³⁸ the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.

³⁹These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, ⁴⁰ since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Are you saying these men who walked and talked with God are not part of His family ?

I have never met one man who has walked in the power of His Holy Spirit like many of these men did. If they are not part of the Family of God then what hope have we of being part of it ?

We do this in a variety of ways which include literature, preaching, testimony, and historical documents

I read the Holy Scriptures and many other books written by people who knew God. But my knowledge of Him and the fact that I am His son comes from my personal relationship with Him. The Lord Jesus walks with me and talks with me and He calls me "son". Nothing that I can get from any book compares to His voice and His touch.

[glen smith]

My error. Did not intentionally exclude the OT saints.

Where I posted "The children include all those in the New Testament and each generation since up to the present time" the statement is inclusive rather than exclusive as you see it.

My emphasis is that the family of God includes all the saints after the recording of the canon about A.D. 70. This means Tozer and Andrew Murray as well as the Apostolic Fathers: Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, and Papias of Hierapolis and all who follow them - Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, and the Reformers. Because of our ignorance, we ought to be sure to know the whole story before we start excluding some.

[Lou Newton]

My error. Did not intentionally exclude the OT saints.

Where I posted "The children include all those in the New Testament and each generation since up to the present time" the statement is inclusive rather than exclusive as you see it.

My emphasis is that the family of God includes all the saints after the recording of the canon about A.D. 70. This means Tozer and Andrew Murray as well as the Apostolic Fathers: Clement of Rome, Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp of Smyrna, and Papias of Hierapolis and all who follow them - Justin Martyr, Irenaeus of Lyons, Clement of Alexandria, Origen of Alexandria, and the Reformers. Because of our ignorance, we ought to be sure to know the whole story before we start excluding some.

Yes, and the family of God certainly includes all of the people in the OT, who trusted in God alone to save them, too.