If you have ever moved from one country to another, one of the first things you quickly notice is that you must learn the modus operandi of the system you now belong to. Things like filing taxes, understanding credit and debit systems, navigating formal banking structures, and even something as simple as how phone bills or airtime work must be learned. It is the same thing for anyone who becomes saved.

When you received the life of Christ, you were not upgraded or improved. You were made new. You have entered into a new system. You now belong to a new kingdom. In this kingdom, there is a modus operandi: family structure.

From the earliest pages of Scripture, we see that God is a relational being.
In Genesis 1, we see God the Father, the Spirit of God hovering over the waters, and the Word by which all things were created. John gives context:

John 1:1-3
‭New King James Version‬‬
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

From the very beginning, there was a relationship within the Godhead. Before creation began, the Father, the Son (the Word), and the Spirit existed in perfect fellowship. Relationship and fellowship are intrinsic to God’s nature. God did not create relationships as a concept because of man. He is and has always been a relational being. When He created man, He extended that reality.

Genesis 1:26
‭New King James Version‬‬
26 Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness’

The first thing God established was not ministry, priesthood or purposeful assignment. It was a structure that reflects a relationship. Man was created in the image and likeness of a relational God. This means man was designed for relationships and shared life.

Psalm 68:6
‭New King James Version‬‬
6 God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity; But the rebellious dwell in a dry land.

This is not just a poetic expression. It is a revelation of how God operates. God’s deliberate design is to take a man out of isolation and place him into relationship and shared life.

This idea runs through the entire Old Testament. God worked through clans and families. He walked with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and eventually formed a nation, Israel, as a prototype of His family. But that was not the final expression. In Christ, we see the fullness of this reality.

Ephesians 2:19-22
‭New King James Version‬‬
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone,
21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

Paul had spent a good portion of his writing explaining how you were made alive in Christ, saved by grace, and brought into newness of life. In that same train of thought, he says you are now a member of God’s household. Essential to your salvation is a design for relationship and family. You were not just redeemed from sin. You were redeemed into a family.

The word used here for “building” is oikodomē. It refers to the laying of one part upon another to form a structure. It paints the picture of something being intentionally built. Paul uses that to describe your spiritual growth. This means your growth in God happens within the context of this household of God. There is no other structure set for your growth outside of this family of God. God’s idea of growth is not isolated spirituality or independent development. God’s idea of growth is “being built together” with others under His divine structure.

God’s idea has always been family and the New Testament Church is the expression of this reality. The Church is not an organisation you attend weekly. It is a family you belong to. It is a living, breathing expression of God’s nature. There is a bond. There is shared life. There is a union that transcends attendance and mere activity: the Bible calls you a member of God’s household.

You are not just a participant in ministry activities. You are one with other people in this household. There is a divine connection that exists among believers and the Church only functions effectively when every member understands that they are not independent. You are not independent of the body of Christ. You are one with other believers.

1 Corinthians 12:12
‭New King James Version‬‬
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.

This is your reality. There must be a family mindset in the way you live your life. Your reverence for the Head of the family, who is Christ, must translate into how you relate with the other members of that family. 

Your experience in God is tied to your connection with others who have this same eternal life. You cannot afford to live your Christian life as a loner or as an independent person. You cannot pick and choose when to engage with this family. You cannot decide to commit today and withdraw tomorrow. Family does not work like that, especially not in God.

If God, who loved you enough to die for you, has determined that the structure of family and household is what you need, trust that He knows what is best for you.

This week, we will explore more deeply what it means to function within this family. But for now, settle this in your heart: Family is God’s structure, and He knows what is best for you.

Prayer Point
Thank you Father, for the family you have called me into. Today, I develop a family mindset in the way I live my life and I am better for it.