The word “house” in some verses of Scripture refers to “family” and, hence, equates to “the family of God” – “God’s family.” “But if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15 NKJV). The house of God or the family of God, in our time, pertains to the church of the Bible – “the churches of Christ” (Romans 16:16) or “the church of God” (1 Corinthians 1:2). Jesus Christ is the “High Priest over the house of God” (Hebrews 10:21); our Lord is the older Brother to Christian brothers and sisters, and to Him we turn for guidance. The apostle Peter also referred to “the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17).
Sometimes other figures represent the church or the house of God – God’s family. “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 1:22-23). “And He is the head of the body, the church…” (Colossians 1:18). Several additional figurative expressions also equate to God’s family, though we will not consider them presently.
One becomes a member of God’s family through the process of adoption. All we who genuinely are Christians have become brothers and sisters to our older Brother and natural Son – Jesus Christ. God determined before creation to adopt as sons and daughters obedient souls (Romans 8:14-17; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5).
Christians are those who have participated in their own adoption by obeying the Gospel (Romans 6:17), versus those who have not obeyed the Gospel (2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 1:17). The Gospel directive includes faith, repentance and baptism (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38). Through immersion, one acts out the Gospel charge by imitating the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.
Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection. (Romans 6:3-5)
Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you – unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
Unfortunately, Christians falter from time to time and may even become wayward (i.e., unfaithful Christians). One might think that since the word “Christian” means “Christ-like” that the phrase “unfaithful Christians” is an oxymoron or a self-contradictory statement. Just as bad boys and girls or errant adult children are no less family members, erring Christians are no less a part of God’s family. Consider the numerous doctrinal errors within the Corinthian church, about which the divinely inspired apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians. Despite sinfulness among members of that congregation, Paul still addressed “the church of God which is at Corinth…” (1 Corinthians 1:2). Think about five of the seven churches of Asia that Jesus rebuked in Revelation 2-3. Notice that a sinning member is still a member of the church or of the family of God. “And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother” (2 Thessalonians 3:14-15).
We are not suggesting for a moment that simply because one is in God’s family that he or she has a free pass from the consequences of sin. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Unfaithful Christians neither have a sustained fellowship with God nor with the children of God. “That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3). Christians enjoy fellowship with Almighty God and with every other child of God who has fellowship with God. Faltering Christians who are out of fellowship with God cannot rightfully anticipate fellowship with Christians who experience fellowship with God.
Earthly families occasionally disown rebellious and unruly family members, perhaps also disinheriting them. In the spiritual realm, even children of God – once faithful members of God’s family – can be disowned and disinherited. A Christian can sin so as to be lost if he or she dies in that condition or if our Lord’s Second Coming happens prior to repentance and prayer (Acts 8:22).
For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.” (2 Peter 2:20-22)
Being a member of God’s family alone is not enough to be certain of spending eternity in Heaven with God. Bad boys and girls or the naughty in God’s family are nevertheless still members in God’s family, but they will be disowned and disinherited unless they repent. If not a member of God’s family, you need to obey the Gospel. If a wayward member of God’s family, repent and pray. If a faithful child of God, stay the course. “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).
