The Bible has an incredibly high view of the family. At the very beginning of time itself, God created Adam and Eve in His own image and brought them together in the world’s first marriage (Genesis 2:24). The purpose of this marriage was intimacy, co-dependence and procreation.
This is highly significant. Marriage and family are creation ordinances. This means they form part of God’s plan and purpose for this world and for humanity. Even after the Fall, the significance of family does not disappear. When Noah and his family come out of the Ark, the mandate of Genesis 1:28 is repeated, with the call to exercise a dominion and to procreate to fill the earth.
As you read through Genesis, from chapter 12 onwards, you are really reading the story of just one family! We see God at work through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and from them, the nation of Israel is eventually born. When God rescues Israel from slavery, He then gives them His law. And in the Mosaic law, we learn again how important the family is.
For example, the fifth commandment is this: “Honour your father and mother.” At its most basic, here is a command from God that as children, we are to love, respect, care and give due regard to our parents. Within Old Testament Israel, your family was your safety net. Both young children and older relatives would be cared for within the same community.
In the Psalms, we read that children are a blessing from the Lord (Psalm 127:3). In the wisdom literature, we read an entire book from two parents to their son – the book of Proverbs! We discover that listening to wisdom from parents is key to living well. The primary responsibility for the education of children lay with parents. Under the law of Moses, parents were to recite the law of God to their children: “Take to heart these words that I give you today. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you’re at home or away, when you lie down or get up” (Deuteronomy 6:6).
In the New Testament, Jesus radically re-interprets who the true family is (without denigrating the biological family): in a famous episode, Jesus is told his mother and brothers and sisters are waiting for him. In response, Jesus points to his disciples and says: “here are my mother and brothers and sisters” (Matthew 12:49). If we follow Jesus, we enter into a family relationship with Him, and we are joined as brothers and sisters with all other Christians.
The early church was a real family! All gave sacrificially to ensure those in the church most in need were cared for. In 1 Timothy 5, Paul teaches us that older people are first to be looked after by their own, biological (or adopted!) family. If that is not possible, they are to be put on an official list to be looked after by the church. The church plays a vital role in providing community in this world. For single people, the church provides friendship, fellowship and the opportunity to be a spiritual brother or sister to those around us. Therefore, we should also care deeply about policies that protect the freedom of churches to meet and to be the church.
There is a strong correlation between family breakdown and negative outcomes for children who experience it, including in areas such as economic prosperity, education and crime. We want to encourage governments to promote and support strong family units, as part of God’s good plan for human flourishing.
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17If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’
