[Podcast] The Family Unit

BlogForward04

Christians have taken hits in recent decades in standing for “traditional family values.”  It seems that the culture is losing interest in the traditional family.  Now, there are all flavors of families, and it seems we have no right to say that one is better than another.  Is God really concerned with this relationship? If so, why? What does the family unit have to do with the gospel, and what does that mean for my family?

Life group discussion questions after the jump!

If you’re the discussion leader for your group, have everyone open this page on their mobile device and take turns reading and asking questions.

Who remembers this speech and the media firestorm that ensued? (18 second video)

In Week 1 of this series, I described the “1950’s normal” family unit of the last century. I heard someone else describe it as “shiny, happy people.” Is that the way families in the Bible are portrayed?

In fact, can you think of a Biblical family that is “shiny, happy?”  Why do you think that is?

Paul, the writer of Romans, describes our condition without God.  He discusses God’s anger against people who “know the truth about God,” but “wouldn’t worship him.”

Romans 1:28-32
Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. 

This passage clearly shows why “shiny happy people” are hard to find.

Who, exactly, is this passage describing?  (Romans 3:10 gives a pretty clear hint)

In their brokenness, as described above, the religious rulers came to Jesus with a big family unit question themselves.

Matthew 19:3
Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife for just any reason?” 

As always, Jesus was quick to respond, and pointed right back to the big issue.

Matthew 19:4-6
“Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. (that’s right… He just asked the religious elite if they hadn’t read the Scriptures!)  “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” 

This is beautiful.  Jesus COULD have gotten caught up in the reasons for divorce… He COULD have gotten caught up in the issues of the death kingdom.  Instead, he pointed right back to the beginning of the family unit itself, the one moment of the REAL Kingdom fully in force here in this world.

Jesus wasn’t swayed by the little issues of this kingdom.  Why do we so easily get swayed?

What are our marriages supposed to paint a picture of?

How can we be better at that?

 

The letter of Ephesians describes for us what Christ has done for us on the cross, and who we are now becoming… It describes the gospel for us.  Specifically, Ephesians 5 describes how the gospel works out in our marriages, and in our families.  Spend a moment reading Ephesians 5:15-6:4 to see the gospel implication in our home lives.