Sabbath Thought – Family

After God created Eve, the first act He did after bringing her to Adam was to marry them (Genesis 2:20-24) establishing the very first family. The family unit is the primary building block of any successful society – but the family unit as God designed it is an institution under constant attack. It is a sad statistic that now more people live together without being married than married couples living together – in spite of the evidence that shows that living together outside of marriage is fraught with problems, and that children raised in a stable two parent home do better in school, weather difficulties better and have better marriages themselves in the future.

Family is what God is all about, creating mankind with the potential to be in His family (Hebrews 2:10). To help us understand now what His family is like, He gave us the model of marriage. The Apostle Paul wrote of this in Ephesians 5, elaborating on the example of marriage and how that reflects the relationship of Christ and the Church (a type of husband and wife – Ephesians 5:32). How well do our marriages in the Church reflect the marriage relationship God instituted in Genesis 2 and spoken of by Paul in Ephesians 5? Our marriages should be a positive example to the world around us – in fact I believe that our marriages are to reflect the Kingdom of God. Why do I say that?  Here is a very brief look at how our marriages are to function:

• The husband is to love his wife (Ephesians 5:25) as Christ loves the Church (dying for it/us). 1 Corinthians 13 is very clear that this is Godly love (not just human love) putting the needs of others first. Christ did this for us, dying for us while we were dead in our sins (Romans 5:8). The wife is to respect the husband – and together they are to make a tight-knit unit not easily broken (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).
• “Fathers, don’t provoke your children,” (Colossians 3:21). This is not to say “don’t correct them,” for even God chastens those whom He loves (Revelation 3:19). What this means is to not constantly berate or belittle. Children need a safe, loving environment to thrive – and if they know they are loved, they can be “chastened” in the appropriate circumstances for their continued good. God doesn’t provoke us so we shouldn’t provoke one another in our families. We must model God’s way of life properly to our children so they will want to be in His family.
• Love one another (John 15:12) – as Christ loves us. While God can and does correct us, He spends far more time being patient, forgiving, merciful and loving – we would be crushed (physically and spiritually) if God did not deal with us this way, so we need to be loving and patient in our families.
• Bear with one another (Galatians 6:2). Patient families give room for mistakes, for bad days, for emotions to settle down and for each to see how they can behave better. If we can’t bear with one another now, why would God want us in His family for eternity?
• “Dwell together in knowledge that your prayers be not hindered,” (1 Peter 3:7). Dwell together in the knowledge of what God says our marriages and families should be. If we will not do our part to make our marriages Godly marriages, then God tells us that hinders His ability to listen to our prayers. If we won’t listen to each other, then why should God listen to us? 

No matter how the world around us choses to define what a marriage is, our standard is to be what God tells us. He alone is able to tell us what a marriage should be because He alone made marriage to be a gift for our benefit.

Have a wonderful Sabbath,

Dan Dowd

19 July, 2025