Daily Devo - Tuesday, April 8, 2008

…Timothy our brother…Apphia our sister…
Philemon 1b, 2 (ESV)

Some time ago I was talking with a woman about the importance of family. Certainly the nuclear family is a precious institution. Organizations such as Focus on the Family valiantly seek to defend and strengthen Christian families. This important institution goes back to Creation itself, as Adam and Eve joined together as man and wife. During our conversation, this woman made a statement which surprised me. She said, “The Bible says that family comes first”. She was right, but not in the way she thought.

As important as the physical family is, Scripture places greater emphasis on our spiritual family. “Brother” (which in the New Testament includes both genders) was one of the first ways believers referred to one another in the Bible (see Acts 1:15, 16). In Matthew 12:348-50 Jesus himself demonstrated that the church (i.e. his disciples) was ultimately more important than his physical family.¹ In another section of the gospel, he also teaches us that physical families are only temporary, and that husband/wife relationships were never intended to be permanent or eternal. In Philemon 1 Timothy is called “brother” (adelphos) and in verse 2 Apphia is called “sister” (adelphe). As Christians, all share a common bond in Christ. Adelphos and adelphe signify the new reality of who we are. This is not simply figurative. When we confess faith in Jesus Christ, we are born into the family of God (2 Cor 5:17), and we become brother or sister to all who also confess Christ as Lord (1 Peter 2:17). This is a relationship that will span all eternity, and therefore it is this spiritual family that should be our chief priority.

This spiritual brotherhood is important to Paul and the other Apostles. He tells the Philippian brethren that they are “beloved and longed-for” (Phil 4:1). Elsewhere he tells the Thessalonians that he is “endeavoring eagerly to see your face with great desire” (1 Thess 2:17). In fact, this brotherhood was taken so seriously that to hate one’s brother (i.e. to hate one’s fellow believer) was taken as evidence that one did not love God and was not truly part of God’s family (1 John 5:19-21).

The church isn’t a social club. It isn’t a place where we take our families. Instead, the church is family—an eternal family where Jesus is our chief brother and God is our sovereign father. Paul is reminding Philemon that the slave Onesimus (the subject of the letter) is first and foremost a brother. Despite their falling out, or the difference in status between them, they were brothers called to love and cherish one another. Family does come first—a truth of which Philemon needed to be reminded, as do we.

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¹ However, the great importance that Jesus places on marriage and children demonstrates that it is not God’s intent to degrade the family. The family remains an important and vital institution that was created by God. It is to be honored and cherished.