Who is my brother? Who is my sister?

"Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. ³² And a multitude was sitting around Him; and they said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You.”
³³ But He answered them, saying, “Who is My mother, or My brothers?” ³⁴ And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! ³⁵ For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”
-- Mark 12:46-50 (NKJV)

A Heavenly family. This subject has always been intriguing to me. Jesus is seen saying here and elsewhere in Matthew and Luke that his brothers and sisters, his family are those that do the will of God. He even says that those who are his relatives by blood, the natural brothers in his life are not his relatives at all. Instead those who do the will of God, those who seek first the Father's will are his brothers and sisters. It is quite interesting for me that this passage does not speak about a "father" in such family imagery. Could that be because God the Father is seen as the only head of the family? Its just a speculation that cannot be proved entirely in this passage, but elsewhere in the Gospels we see Jesus always talking about the Father and doing his will first.

In this context we then see that other believers in Christ Jesus are our brothers and sisters and mothers. There is a misconception that I heard from one of my friends that he should care for the unbeliever because that person is his brother or sister in Christ. That is not entirely true. Only when that person comes to faith, that Jesus Christ is Lord, and seek the will of God in their life will he or she be our brother or sister.

One last thought. This passage is insanely ecumenical. It is calling for a unity of all believers to see them as equals. To see them as a part of a body, of a temple of the Holy Spirit, of a family that is related to one another because of their faith and desire to see the will of God come to pass in their lives. Maybe instead of wondering who's theology is correct, we should be more concerned for the well being of our brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus. Loving one another with the love of Christ that is brought to us by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor 13). This passage calls for us to turn away from individualism and towards a community as one family in Jesus Christ. All believers, not just those who we agree with Theologically.

Just for fun, here is a contrasting verse:

"Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, ²⁶ “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. ²⁷ And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."
-- Luke 14:25-27 (NKJV)

So wait! Are we suppose to hate the brothers and sisters that we have in Christ Jesus, disrupting the unity in the family of God? No. This usage of "hate" is in contrast to "love." Let me explain. When Jesus says "hate his father and mother," he does not mean be angry and in conflict with them. A better understanding can be to love your father and mother less than you love Jesus. That is to say that Jesus Christ should be the one we love the most. We must love Jesus even more than our own life! To bear our cross (martyrdom, death as a witness of Jesus). Jesus is saying that to be his disciple we must love him more than anything and even love him more than our own life. To be willing to die, as seen in this imagery, on a cross, the death of a criminal, of one so hated by all in the Roman Empire, essentially to die as a martyr. Why? Because we love him and God so loved us that he sent Jesus (The begotten Son) to die for us. To follow Jesus is to be willing to die for him. For what? For love.

Now, please understand me, I am saying that we must be willing to die a martyrs death because of our love for Christ Jesus. I am not saying that all will experience this, in fact only a few do. I am saying that we must not fear death, but openly accept martyrdom and persecution as it comes.

As Jesus said: "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. ¹⁹ If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." John 15:18-19

But there is the Hope. Christ within us the hope of glory. Death does not have the last say in our existence. Rather life does. Love endures forever. Also we will have resurrected bodies!!! Awesome!

So back to family. haha. We should love the one we see (Kierkegaard!). This is a command from Jesus (John 15:17, Matthew 22:37-40), in fact we should love all men because it is God's will for us as disciples and followers of Jesus. Love our brothers and sisters, love every person we see.

Life

I'm pretty busy this time of the semester, mid-terms, I have plenty of thoughts I want to get out on here in writing. Look for that in the near future, I hope to write on this at least once a week, maybe even twice, God is good and continues to speak, I love Him.

Ephesians 3:14-20 (NKJV)

"For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁵ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, ²¹ to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

Something New

“Now God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them.”

Acts 19:11-12 (NKJV)

God has been speaking to me and my friends that He is wanting to do something new, something that we have not seen. One of the examples of this is when God delivers Israel out of Egypt into the promise land. As they were leaving they ran into a dilemma, to say the least, the Red Sea sat in front of them and their way out, with Pharaoh and his armies closing in behind.

“Then the LORD said to Moses, "Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward. As for you, lift up your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, and the sons of Israel shall go through the midst of the sea on dry land.”

Exodus 14:15-16 (NASB)

Then this happened, God brought into Moses’ and all of Israel’s existence something new, something they never thought of, splitting open the Red Sea so they could cross over on dry land. Unreal, this was simply impossible for them to even comprehend, yet God brought something new to them that all of creation has never seen before. In a similar way, we see what God did with Paul in Ephesus where he performed “unusual” miracles, or in some translations “extraordinary” miracles. Something new that Paul has never seen, where he would even pray for a material object, a handkerchief, a piece of cloth, and that carried God’s anointing and power to heal the sick. The Holy Spirit rested on a piece of cloth! Something new and unheard of, but God brought it into existence in our present reality.

“Do not call to mind the former things,

Or ponder things of the past.

"Behold, I will do something new,

Now it will spring forth;

Will you not be aware of it?

I will even make a roadway in the wilderness,

Rivers in the desert.”

Isaiah 43:18-19 (NASB)

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”

John 14:12 (NKJV)

I am believing that what God has been speaking through Holy Spirit about a new thing that will come to pass and Jesus that can do exceedingly above and beyond anything we ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20), will bring it to reality for the glory of the Father. I know this will only be the ground work for the mighty move Holy Spirit wants to bring forth in APU and So-Cal. I really believe that a revival greater than Azusa Street will happen in the near future. All I pray is “God increase our faith!” And “He must increase and I must decrease” (John 3:30).

Checking

This is my first blog...what a weird word that is, blog. Welcome!