Gospel Family Theology

"What is desperately needed, and seldom found in the Church, is an adequate theology of the family of faith.  Paul believes that being brothers and sisters in Christ and sons and daughters of God transcends all other loyalties and should transform all other social relationships.  Blood should not be thicker than the baptismal waters in the Church. Rather Paul calls for a "relativized" view of all this-worldly institutions, including marriage. His idea of a family "church" is actualized where God's people treat each other as their primary family, not just as some secondary social gathering that happens once a week and that promotes the agenda of the nuclear family.  This is not to say that Paul is against the physical family.  He does, however, believe that in the eternal scheme of things one's loyalty to Christ comes above and before one's loyalty to any other group or entity and that therefore one's loyalty to the body of Christ should likewise be at the top of one's priorities."

-- Ben Witherington -- excerpt from his Bible commentary entitled Conflict & Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (page 180)

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Friends, family (both blood and water!) and visitors,
For further understanding of this idea I commend to you two books, and three blog posts you can find on Cruciform Mirth, and then one Scripture passage to meditate on.
- Paul’s Idea of Community by Robert Banks
- When the Church was a Family by Joseph Hellerman
- Church as Family (link)
- House Church Values & Practices: Proposal Two (link)
- Family Life as Temples (link)
- "While Jesus was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. Then one said to Him, “Look, your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.” But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”  (Matthew 12.46-50)

Tootles,
Corey