The God and His Family Series consists of 16 episodes. In the New Testament, one of the most common descriptions of God and his people is that of a family. This series is designed to talk about that relationship in detail.
Jesus introduced the concept that God is three spirits in one – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. From that terminology, God is a family.
Jesus and the New Testament writers often use family terms to describe the relationship between God and his people. They draw on relationships such as: father, children, sons and daughters, and adopted sons and daughters. These relationships not only imbue privileges, but also confer responsibilities.
It’s hard to see in English but Jesus sometimes refers to God as his Father and sometimes as “Daddy.” Part of the Good News of Jesus is that God can also be our Father and Daddy.
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Some of the most commonly known words in the Bible are the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father in Heaven” or “Our Father who art in Heaven.” Jesus begins this teaching to his disciples by instructing them that God is his father and their father. All of them are children of God. They are an intimate family, with God as the father.
That may have sounded a bit odd to the disciples. The Old Testament doesn’t emphasize this aspect of a relationship with God. When Jesus emphasized this aspect of his relationship with God, the Jewish leaders regarded it as blasphemy.
Since all of the disciples are God’s children, then they are all brothers and sisters. John said in 1 John 4:10, “This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.”
For some of the early Christians this would have had interesting connotations. Some were poor, some rich; some came from Rome, others from small towns; some had been Jews, other not.
