Paul reminds us in this prayer for the Ephesian church of who we are and how things are in God’s eyes. He uses the phrase the whole family. At the crux of salvation is family. Jesus came to raise the family of Adam out its hopeless condition.
Ephesians 3: 14For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
Try to understand the truth and reality of this. I’m more than a preacher—that’s how I serve the Lord in what he called me to do. We each have duties as servants. It’s bigger than we can imagine. We forget that. We are members of something greater than our minds can comprehend. We are family members of God’s family if we’re saved.
As saved, we are the church, the assembly. As saved, we are the gathering—gathered out of the wilderness of sin into the sheepfold. Here in this house of God or out there through the week, we are his church. I’m a citizen of America, but I have a greater citizenship in heaven. We are the kingdom of God. We are the army of God, soldiers fighting the good fight of faith. First and foremost we are family. Being born again is a prerequisite for heaven. He did not say become part of a church or enlist in an army or sign up for citizenship. Jesus said ye must be born again. When a person undergoes the new birth through faith and repentance, he is born into something else.
A child is conceived and born into a family. He gets a first and last name. You and I as saved people became the family of God when we were born again. We were once strangers far away from God. We are now drawn nigh through Jesus Christ and part of the household of God. We’re born again members living for the Lord, doing what he wants, and taking instructions to heart. Children obey their father. That’s what we’re supposed to do with our heavenly Father. We’re no longer children of the devil but children of God, children of Light.
The aim of God was to have a family. He sent his only begotten son so that we could be saved, born again members of the family. How we need to feel the family! We need to feel the closeness of God and his Son. We need to feel the citizenship. There is no feeling like belonging to a family. I feel my mom and dad even though they’ve been gone for years. We have a connection still. As the family of God, we have the same Father. There is a unity of relationship. We’re brothers and sisters to each other in the Lord. Stay connected to the family.
The family is divided into two segments. Some live away and some live at home. It’s just like our natural family. We don’t all live together, but they still exist though hundreds of miles away. Paul said there is a family of God in heaven and a there is a family on earth. The family in heaven is the part that is home. We are the ones away from home. The home place of God is not of this world. Jesus told the disciples he was going away to prepare a place for us so that we could be there also. We get it turned around. They are away from us, away from the earthly home, but they are at home with the Lord. They serve the Lord on a higher plane than we do. The whole family of God is those in heaven and those of us here. He loves us all the same. He’s with us all just as much. We’re still in these bodies, and we fail. We’re not yet made perfect. They rest in God in their perfection. They are beyond the devil now. We’re the ones away from home. Since we’ve been saved, we just can’t be at home in the world anymore. We’re getting closer every day. One day we’ll look up and see the lights of home.
Paul said whether away from home on earth or at home in heaven, we are a whole family in God’s eyes. Don’t look on the temporal things; look on the eternal. We’re not divided. It’s not two families. We’re still part of a whole family made possible because of the cross. Body-wise, natural-wise, death separates us, but remember the spiritual. Some are home. We’re still away. The family is not cracked or broken because of that. It doesn’t take away from the wholeness.
Through Jesus Christ you and I are part of the whole family. Let that be your victory. Let this encourage you to keep on until we’re all together with the Lord.
Adwolfe Freewill Baptist Church 