Relationships and Responsibilities

How to View Your Family

The Bible places great emphasis on the family. In the very beginning of time when God created Adam and Eve, He established the family as the unit in which mankind was to live and function. All of us, whether as parents or children, have great responsibilities to our families but our highest loyalty must be to God and our relationship to Him in the church, the family of God (1 Timothy 3:15). Jesus said, in Matthew 10:37, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.” This does not mean that you are not to be a responsible family member. The Bible clearly states the responsibilities of spouses, parents, and children in the home. Husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Ephesians 5:25) and to treat them with honor and respect (1 Peter 3:7). 1 Timothy 5:8 says that “if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” Wives are to submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22) and to love their husbands and their children (Titus 2:4). Children are instructed to “obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother, which is the first commandment with promise” (Ephesians 6:1-2). Parents are to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

How to View the Government

Civil governments have been established by God so that we might live orderly lives (Romans 13:1). Therefore, Christians must be subject to governing authorities including such things as paying one’s taxes (Matthew 22:21). To resist them is to resist God (Romans 13:2). The only time a Christian can lawfully disobey the governments of men is when obedience to their laws would cause him to sin against God. The law of God always takes precedence over the laws of men. The apostle Peter, along with the other apostles, said, “We ought to obey God rather than men.”

How to View Brethren in Christ

When one obeys the gospel, he is added to the church (Acts 2:47). As a member of the church, he is a child of God (Galatians 3:26-27). He, therefore, sustains a relationship to all others who are in Christ. When you were baptized you gained a new family. As a child of God you have brothers and sisters all over the world. Several passages in Scripture reveal what your attitude toward your brothers and sisters in Christ ought to be.

• 1 Peter 1:22: “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart.”
• 1 John 3:17-18: “But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.”
• James 2:14-17: “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith, and I have works.’ Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
• 1 John 4:20: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”

How to View Enemies and Those Who Misuse You

The Christian’s attitude toward others is to be different from the attitude of the worldly. He is not to hate, misuse or take advantage of others. Rather, he is to view them and act toward them as God does. In Matthew 5:43-48, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.” You should never seek vengeance against anyone for vengeance belongs to the Lord” (Romans 12:19).