God’s Family Plan
The understanding of God’s plan – and the place of His law in that plan and purpose – stands the present-day approach to human living on its head. The way of the world and the way of God are clearly at odds. Nowhere is it more apparent than in the approach to family.
By God’s design, the family is the fundamental structure for society. It is the model that was provided in the garden of Eden. The family structure is as old as man himself. It remains current and will carry on into the future. Through it God reveals the true nature of His government.
From the creation of the marriage union, God always had a great purpose in mind. It is more than just social bonding. God was Israel’s father – a type that plays out throughout the Bible.
“Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel in My son, My firstborn” (Exodus 4:22). “You are the children of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 14:1).
The family foreshadows God’s greater spiritual purpose that He has for human beings.
“For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God … because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:19, 21).
God clearly desires to have a family.
“But as many as received Him, [Christ] to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12,13).
Our physical families should mirror the greater spiritual family. Through Christ we have come to understand the Father’s role. Christ role as Son is the standard for our families – Father, Son, husband, wife.
“Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?” (John 14:10).
This structure is critical for the Church.
“For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:30-33).
It is this deep spiritual purpose of the family that is the central target for Satan’s attempts to destroy. Whether we perceive it or not, the state is increasingly being promoted as important in the family role. Parental authority is being subjugated to the authority of local and state control.
God has given you, the parent, the authority within your family to prepare a godly seed for the family of God.
Don’t let that authority be taken from you. Use it with genuine humility to foster the true family structure as God intended.
Brian Orchard
