Significance of family

God created the family

Psalm 68:6 NKJV

God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

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God cares for the families of those who honour him

Genesis 7:1 NKJV

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.

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God judges families who disobey him

Exodus 20:4–5 NKJV

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

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Families in Israel

The extended family was the basic social unit

Nehemiah 7:5 NKJV

Then my God put it into my heart to gather the nobles, the rulers, and the people, that they might be registered by genealogy. And I found a register of the genealogy of those who had come up in the first return, and found written in it:

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Family heads were community leaders

Numbers 36:1 NKJV

Now the chief fathers of the families of the children of Gilead the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of the sons of Joseph, came near and spoke before Moses and before the leaders, the chief fathers of the children of Israel.

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Families had religious obligations

Deuteronomy 12:7 NKJV

And there you shall eat before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice in all to which you have put your hand, you and your households, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

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Families were to teach their children God’s law

Psalm 78:5–7 NKJV

For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children, That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments;

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The relationship between God and his people described in family metaphors

They are his family

Galatians 6:10 NKJV

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

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They are his children

John 1:12–13 NKJV

But as many as received Him, 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.

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They are brothers and sisters in God’s family

Hebrews 2:11 NKJV

For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one, for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren,

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The salvation of families

Acts 16:34 NKJV

Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.

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Good family management as a qualification for church office

1 Timothy 3:4–5 NKJV

one who rules his own house well, having his children in submission with all reverence (for if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?);

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Christians are to support their families

1 Timothy 5:8 NKJV

But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

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The urgent demands of the kingdom of God should take priority over family responsibilities

Luke 9:59–60 NKJV

Then He said to another, “Follow Me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.”

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