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The Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck called the family “a microcosm, a little world of the various relationships that multiply through association with other families.” So it is not surprising that those who want to secularize society, voiding the standard of divine revelation and the influence of historic Christianity, are targeting the biblical family. In recent years, the definition of marriage has been perverted, and the assumption that a father and mother are the proper parental authorities is being undermined. The very notion of personhood is being challenged. The new understanding is that the individual, not the family, is the basic unit of society.
But the value that God assigns to families is plain from Scripture. The Puritan William Gouge noted that the family “existed before magistrate and subject, minister and people, which are the parts of a nation and a church.” He called the family “a little church and a little nation.” The state is simply the political expression of a group of families; a church is a worshiping body of families. Family is so important that Paul bows his “knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Eph. 3:14–15). Every family traces its lineage back to “Adam, the son of God” (Luke 3:38). Family is sacred.
Family is the primary way that God cares for His people. The “father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, . . . setteth the solitary in families” (Ps. 68:5–6, KJV). The family is meant to be a haven of safety, the seedbed from which God fills the earth, and the training ground for warriors who will fight the world’s evil. Family doesn’t always work like that. We live in a broken world. Spouses die. Parents desert their dependents. Children rebel. God leads some people through a life of singleness. Not all couple can have children. Because of the fall, none of us live in an ideal family. But the ideal is a noble goal. Being a good family member is, in fact, a key part of how you follow Jesus. So Gouge could write, “A bad husband, wife, parent, child . . . is no good Christian.”
One way that God “settles the solitary in a home” (Ps. 68:6) is by bringing us into the church, the family of God. Jesus had a natural family. Still, He insisted, “whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother’” (Mark 3:31–35). The Father offers His Son for our sins, accepting His sacrifice as the only ground for eternal union with God and entrance into His family. Believers are adopted in Christ, “members of the same body” (Eph. 3:6). Our membership in the church, in turn, equips God’s people to be the best members of the families that God has given to us.
Satan hates thriving families. So nothing will shine more brightly today than healthy natural and church families where Christ is all in all, where everyone does his or her part, and where no one is left out.