What was home like for you? If you ask that question to everybody on Earth, you're going to get a different answer. Sure, there will be a lot of similarities among different types of people, but there will also be a lot of differences. Some people grew up in very good homes full of love, encouragement, and peace. Some people grew up in homes that felt more like a war zone than a place of refuge from the rest of the world. Some people grew up in homes where Jesus Christ was at the center of it, where not a day went by when prayers were not prayed, the Bible not read, and the Lord not magnified. Others went through their formative years having never heard the name of Jesus or the good news about what he has done for everyone.
Considering what my life could have been like, I would say my life was pretty good. There wasn't anything I needed I didn't have. And a lot of stuff I wanted, I got. That's not to say I grew up in what Americans would consider a rich family. I didn't. In my earliest memories, I remember growing up in a house where my grandmother and both of her parents lived. Then, before my great-grandfather passed away, my dad moved in with us from 1990-1998 (ages 7-15 approximately for me). I didn't get everything I wanted, but I got a lot of things I wanted and everything I needed. And I got to do a lot of things many people never get to do. We had season passes to Kings Island in Ohio every year. And I got to go to Disney World four times before my cousin started working there in 1998. Then we started going a lot more often. So as I think back on it, I had a much better life than I was even going to say when I started typing this. And for that, I am thankful to the Lord because everything could have been so much different for me. One or two decisions made differently and my entire life story could have been drastically changed for the negative. Thank God it worked out like it did. The one thing that was not central to my early years was rearing in the things of the Lord. However, God took care of that too, saving me at age 17 through the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B Jenkins.
God created three institutions. The Church Age began in Acts 2 on the day of Pentecost. The institution of human government was created in Genesis 9:1-7 after the Flood. But before both of those, the first institution God created was the family (Genesis 2:18-24). In 2020, there were 128.45 million households in the United States. This is a significant increase from 1960 when there were 52.8 million households in the U.S. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a household is considered to be all persons living within one housing unit. This includes apartments, houses, or single rooms, and consists of both related and unrelated people living together. For example, two roommates who share living space but are not related would be considered a household in the eyes of the Census. It should be noted that group living quarters, such as college dorms, are not counted as households in the Census. While the population of the United States has been increasing, the average size of households in the U.S. has decreased since 1960. In 1960, there was an average of 3.33 people per household, but in 2020, this figure had decreased to 2.53 people per household. Additionally, two-person households make up the majority of American households, followed closely by single-person households (Statista).
The family tree of Jesus is found in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38.
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The roles, responsibilities, and structure of the family are laid out in several places in Scripture. Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged (Colossians 3:18-21 NIV). Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord (Ephesians 5:21-6:4 NIV). Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear. Husbands, in the same way, be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life so that nothing will hinder your prayers (1 Peter 3:1-7 NIV).
But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God (1 Corinthians 11:3 NIV).
The structure of the family was not given arbitrarily any more than the institution of the family was created for no reason. It was given to be a model, a reflection of God's relationship to the church. The church submits herself to Christ. Likewise, each individual within the church is to be as obedient to Christ as we are obedient to our Father in Heaven. Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does" (John 5:19 NIV). Whether we have families of our own or living on our own, let us serve each other, following the example of Christ and the instructions God has laid out for us in the Bible.
