God Loves the Family

In a day when the traditional (and biblical) form of the family is despised, the Church cannot say enough about the good of the family. You may think that the word “despised” is a strong word, and you’re right; it is. But it is also an accurate word. When a culture redefines words like “family” and “marriage” to mean what we want rather than what God says, it is only honest to say the culture has lost respect for God and His gifts.

 

In one sense, the redefinition of marriage is a new problem, since things that are not marriage are now being labeled as if they were. But in another sense, we’ve been redefining marriage for a long time. Marriage is redefined when it is made into a temporary relationship rather than the life-long union God has designed. Marriage is redefined when it is viewed as a possible outcome of intimacy rather than the one estate for which God has reserved it (plans and desires of the heart are included). This speaks to the single and the married alike (1 Corinthians 7:1-9).

 

The term family is redefined when the members of the family do not fulfill their God-given roles: when wives do not submit to husbands as the head of the family, and husbands do not love wives and care for them with the same self-sacrificing love as Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33). Family is redefined when children are seen not as a blessing that God desires and loves but as a hindrance that just has to be dealt with when it arrives.

 

The fact is, our attitude toward marriage and family is not some abstract value, limited to the world of ideals. Our attitude toward these gifts is felt and it is shown. It is evident in our thoughts, our words, and our actions. It is shown in the way we carry out (or fail to carry out) our role as a husband, a wife, a single, or a child.

 

Now if the high horse has departed and left us all on the ground alike, we should consider the attitude that God has toward marriage and family. We have despised these things, but God has honored them highly. In this world of sinners, no family is perfect, and each individual member is flawed just as the whole. Yet the Son of God so highly honored the human family that he descended to our world and put himself into one. He sanctified the family; he showed it to be a holy thing by allowing a virgin named Mary to be his mother and a carpenter named Joseph to be his foster father.

 

Last Thursday was St. Joseph’s Day, and today is the Annunciation to Mary. It is a proper time for us to consider the blessing God granted these two people, humble and frail as they were. Mary was allowed to nurture the one who gives food to all life (Psalm 104:27-28). Joseph was permitted to guard and guide to safety the one who guards Israel (Psalm 121). Certainly neither the carpenter nor his wife were perfect parents, but the Ruler of heaven and earth submitted himself in obedience to them (Luke 2:51).

 

He was a perfect child, and he is a perfect husband for his bride, the Church. He sacrificed his life to save Mary and Joseph and all of us. He baptized us and our families in the washing of water with the Word, so that sin and shame are removed, and a radiant Church remains (Ephesians 5:25-27).

 

Christ did not see the family as too lowly for him to join, but he came into the house of sinners so that he could purify it. Look at the family in the way that Christ does. He sees a Christian family as a blessed gathering of those whom God has placed together and whom he has washed with his own blood. Christ loves the family, and as family members help and care for each other, he declares himself the beneficiary (Matthew 25:40).

 

The blessings of the family are not granted to all alike. Many families in our world lack one component or another, whether by someone’s sin or by events and realities beyond our control. Many lonely individuals long for familial companionship. Scripture neither lessens the blessedness of the family (Proverbs 18:22; Psalm 127) nor does it rob the dignity of those who live without. In fact, God calls himself a “Father of the fatherless and defender of widows.” He says that he “settles the solitary in a home,” (Psalm 68:5-6). He gives himself to all who lack, and he knows best how to provide.

 

Even in our day, may God bless society and the Church with faithful Christian families. All praise be to him for giving his Son who became a Son of Man to bless us with his presence.

     Rev. Michael Willitz

     Lord of Love Lutheran Church (WELS)

     De Forest, WI