Building Blocks to Successful Relationships: Our Spiritual Family

As we seek to develop godly relationships with others, we must realize that we are all part of a spiritual family. 

Romans 12:4-5,

“For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.”

Everyone born into the body of Christ is a member of God’s family. Family relationships are permanent. They are eternal. Even if we never speak to certain family members, our blood kinship cannot be severed. The same is with the body of Christ. We are unified by the blood of Jesus Christ that purchased us and made us part of His spiritual family.

John Phillips writes,

“Nothing could be more beautifully coordinated than a body with each member fitted to its proper place and carrying out its rightful function. There is no rivalry between the members of a body, only mutual respect and harmony. There is also the closest intimacy between members of a body, each one depending for certain things upon every other member. Then, too, each member is controlled by the head and seeks no independent action. All this illustrates the relationship the believer must have to his brethren in the church….”[1]

Every Believer Plays a Vital Role within Our Spiritual Family

Every person in God’s family has a significant role to fulfill. Some people may simply be a little toe, but they still have a purpose. Even those people that don’t dress nice or smell good still serve a purpose. Their purpose may be to simply help us learn how to love the unlovely.

God is not a respecter of persons. And if we are going to have right relationships with others, neither should we. While we may always have our preferred group of friends, we must look beyond and see the people to whom God would have us reach out and minister.

Verses 6-8 in this passage outline the different spiritual gifts. When a person is saved, she receives one of more of these gifts.

It is important to discover our gifts and use them for the building up of the body of Christ. But we also must recognize the gifts of others and the value they add. Our gifts should not be used for our own advantage but for the glory of God and the edification of the saints.

Debi Pryde says,

“[O]ur personalities, experiences, inborn traits, talents, and aspirations are all as numerous and different as the snowflakes that fall from the sky. God, Who is the master of variety, delights to make us different for reasons that are sometimes known to Him, not to us. It is He who is the architect of our lives and who determines the factors that make us unique.”[2]

It has been said you can pick your friends, but you can’t pick your family. The same is true with the body of Christ. We can’t pick our sisters-in-Christ. You may be able to pick those whom you are closer to, but you have to realize we are all related. We must learn to accept all of the members God has placed in our family and love them even when it may be difficult.

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How is your relationship with your fellow sisters-in-Christ? Are you demonstrating to them the unconditional love of Christ?

May we all be challenged to accept each individual God has placed within our spiritual family with unconditional grace and acceptance!

Please join me for the next several weeks as we look at the Building Blocks to Successful Relationships!

 

 

 

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Previous post in this series: The Foundation

Next post in this series: The Framework

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[1] Phillips, John. Exploring Romans. p. 193

[2] Pryde, Debi. Parenting with Wisdom. p. 64.

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