A Reflection On The Body Of Believers

When I need to value my spiritual family

“Blood is thicker than water,” the saying goes. The assumption is that our deepest human loyalties lie with our blood relatives. But this is not so in the Kingdom of God. The Spirit is thicker than blood in the Kingdom. The covenant of the Kingdom ties us together in ways that genetics never will.

There is a wonderful illustration of this in the Old Testament. In marriage, man and woman leave father and mother and cleave to one another. In God’s plan, the bonds of covenant take priority over the bonds of blood kinship.

Over and over again, Jesus calls His disciples to place their relationships in the Spirit above their relationships in the flesh. Our ties to Christian brothers and sisters are infinitely more substantial than those to our blood relatives. We gain hundreds of brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and children in the Spirit because the Spirit is thicker than blood. We are bound together with Christ, and through Christ to one another. May we glory in the family that is now ours.

Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!

Matthew 12:50