Jesus Names His True Family in a Crowded HouseBible World
12:49Matthew 12:49
And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
While He was still teaching the crowd, word came that His earthly mother and brothers were outside unable to reach Him through the press and wanting to draw Him away from His work, and instead of leaving His work He stretched His hand toward His disciples and pointed to them as His mother and His brethren. By that gesture He set aside blood kinship as the ground of closeness to Him and declared that whoever receives Him by faith and does the will of His Father in heaven is His brother and sister and mother. That doing of the Father's will is the bond that joins believers to Christ in saving faith and makes them members of the heavenly family, adopted as brethren and sisters of the Lord. Receiving Him in this way can require putting loyalty to Him before even father and mother and closest relatives when they oppose His work. Those who share that obedience are therefore to be treated as nearer than earthly kindred, with the tenderness, compassion, honor, patience and care that belong to true family.
Setting and Gesture
Jesus was still teaching the people when His disciples brought word that His mother and His brothers were outside desiring to see Him and could not reach Him through the press. His earthly mother and brothers waited outside trying to draw Him away from His work because they thought Him beside Himself. The sons of Joseph were far from sympathy with Him, astonished by reports that He spent whole nights in prayer and days thronged by crowds without time even to eat. They thought He was wearing Himself out and feared His reason was unsettled.
They keenly felt reproach amid the tumult caused by His words and works and the Pharisees' charge that He cast out devils by Satan. They were alarmed at His bold statements and indignant at His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees. They could not understand the mission He had come to fulfill. They decided He must be persuaded or constrained to cease that manner of labor by inducing Mary to join them in hope His love for her would make Him more prudent.
Knowing what was in their hearts and absorbed in solemn warnings He wanted lodged in hearts, He could not be interrupted, so duty to relatives was secondary. Yet He showed no lack of respect and did not rebuke them. He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples and pointed to them as His mother and His brethren, raising the question who His brethren are.
True Family Defined
Stretching His hand toward His disciples He called them His mother and His brethren, extending the language of family to them and redefining kinship around doing the will of His Father in heaven rather than around blood or earthly kinship. Whoever does God's will is His brother and sister and mother, for spiritual kinship with Him belongs to those who obey God and is not limited to family by blood nor merely to natural family ties.
Those who receive Him by faith and receive His teaching and do His will are more closely related to Him than natural relatives who do not believe, their spiritual kinship with Him being closer than family ties. This kinship joins them to Him in saving faith.
Obedience to the will of the Father in heaven is the bond of union that makes followers members of the heavenly family, bound to Him as brother and sister and mother in a hallowed circle. Those born into that family are in a special sense His brethren, adopted into the family of God as brethren and sisters of the Lord. This truth gives assurance to all who follow His teachings and accept the word of truth, and comforts believers by showing how He regards them. In taking believers into true kinship with Himself as His mother and brethren He loves fallen humanity with a great love beyond His love for the heavenly beings around His throne, a love that cannot be understood but can be known as true in personal experience.
Living as Family
Following Him may require putting loyalty to Him before family ties, for His true family is identified by loyalty to God even when His own brothers could not understand the mission He had come to fulfill. His earthly mother and brothers waited outside trying to draw Him away from His work because they thought Him beside Himself and could not reach Him through the press, while He was absorbed in solemn warnings He wanted lodged in hearts and could not be interrupted, so duty to relatives was secondary, yet He showed no lack of respect and did not rebuke them. He seized the incident to fix attention and give His anxious relatives, His disciples, and the multitude a lesson for those who would receive Him and then face determined opposition from fathers and mothers and relatives. The gesture gives assurance to all who follow His teachings and accept the word of truth that obedience to the will of His Father in heaven is the bond of union that makes them members of the heavenly family, bound to Him as brother and sister and mother in a hallowed circle.
Belonging to His family is a bond grounded in following Him and serving God, for He counted His disciples as His mother and brothers and made spiritual kinship rest on that following and service. That belonging calls for faithful obedience and not merely belief, expressed in keeping the Father's commandments and taking up the cross in following Jesus.
Every soul striving to do God's will is to be treated as one's own relative, since spiritual kinship with Him is closer than family ties. He regards those who receive His teaching and do His Father's will as His mother and brothers, and counts those who do the will of His Father as His mother and brothers, more closely related to Him than family ties. That kinship is to be met with the compassion and love ordinarily shown to family rather than with coldness or favoritism. Those born into the heavenly family are in a special sense His brethren, and their loving care for one another reveals this divine relationship. He takes believers into true kinship with Himself as His mother and brethren, loving fallen humanity with a great love beyond His love for the heavenly beings around His throne, a love that cannot be understood but can be known as true in personal experience, and those who hold this kinship are adopted into the family of God as brethren and sisters of the Lord. This divine relationship requires tenderness toward one another, quick recognition of the claims of that relationship, and honor toward the Father and toward all kindred in God, and because believers are His family and His children they should treat one another with patience, kindness, and care, avoiding words or actions that hurt or irritate.
While He was still teaching the crowd, word came that His earthly mother and brothers were outside unable to reach Him through the press and wanting to draw Him away from His work, and instead of leaving His work He stretched His hand toward His disciples and pointed to them as His mother and His brethren. By that gesture He set aside blood kinship as the ground of closeness to Him and declared that whoever receives Him by faith and does the will of His Father in heaven is His brother and sister and mother. That doing of the Father's will is the bond that joins believers to Christ in saving faith and makes them members of the heavenly family, adopted as brethren and sisters of the Lord. Receiving Him in this way can require putting loyalty to Him before even father and mother and closest relatives when they oppose His work. Those who share that obedience are therefore to be treated as nearer than earthly kindred, with the tenderness, compassion, honor, patience and care that belong to true family.
Setting and Gesture
Jesus was still teaching the people when His disciples brought word that His mother and His brothers were outside desiring to see Him and could not reach Him through the press. His earthly mother and brothers waited outside trying to draw Him away from His work because they thought Him beside Himself. The sons of Joseph were far from sympathy with Him, astonished by reports that He spent whole nights in prayer and days thronged by crowds without time even to eat. They thought He was wearing Himself out and feared His reason was unsettled.
They keenly felt reproach amid the tumult caused by His words and works and the Pharisees' charge that He cast out devils by Satan. They were alarmed at His bold statements and indignant at His denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees. They could not understand the mission He had come to fulfill. They decided He must be persuaded or constrained to cease that manner of labor by inducing Mary to join them in hope His love for her would make Him more prudent.
Knowing what was in their hearts and absorbed in solemn warnings He wanted lodged in hearts, He could not be interrupted, so duty to relatives was secondary. Yet He showed no lack of respect and did not rebuke them. He stretched forth His hand toward His disciples and pointed to them as His mother and His brethren, raising the question who His brethren are.
True Family Defined
Stretching His hand toward His disciples He called them His mother and His brethren, extending the language of family to them and redefining kinship around doing the will of His Father in heaven rather than around blood or earthly kinship. Whoever does God's will is His brother and sister and mother, for spiritual kinship with Him belongs to those who obey God and is not limited to family by blood nor merely to natural family ties.
Those who receive Him by faith and receive His teaching and do His will are more closely related to Him than natural relatives who do not believe, their spiritual kinship with Him being closer than family ties. This kinship joins them to Him in saving faith.
Obedience to the will of the Father in heaven is the bond of union that makes followers members of the heavenly family, bound to Him as brother and sister and mother in a hallowed circle. Those born into that family are in a special sense His brethren, adopted into the family of God as brethren and sisters of the Lord. This truth gives assurance to all who follow His teachings and accept the word of truth, and comforts believers by showing how He regards them. In taking believers into true kinship with Himself as His mother and brethren He loves fallen humanity with a great love beyond His love for the heavenly beings around His throne, a love that cannot be understood but can be known as true in personal experience.
Living as Family
Following Him may require putting loyalty to Him before family ties, for His true family is identified by loyalty to God even when His own brothers could not understand the mission He had come to fulfill. His earthly mother and brothers waited outside trying to draw Him away from His work because they thought Him beside Himself and could not reach Him through the press, while He was absorbed in solemn warnings He wanted lodged in hearts and could not be interrupted, so duty to relatives was secondary, yet He showed no lack of respect and did not rebuke them. He seized the incident to fix attention and give His anxious relatives, His disciples, and the multitude a lesson for those who would receive Him and then face determined opposition from fathers and mothers and relatives. The gesture gives assurance to all who follow His teachings and accept the word of truth that obedience to the will of His Father in heaven is the bond of union that makes them members of the heavenly family, bound to Him as brother and sister and mother in a hallowed circle.
Belonging to His family is a bond grounded in following Him and serving God, for He counted His disciples as His mother and brothers and made spiritual kinship rest on that following and service. That belonging calls for faithful obedience and not merely belief, expressed in keeping the Father's commandments and taking up the cross in following Jesus.
Every soul striving to do God's will is to be treated as one's own relative, since spiritual kinship with Him is closer than family ties. He regards those who receive His teaching and do His Father's will as His mother and brothers, and counts those who do the will of His Father as His mother and brothers, more closely related to Him than family ties. That kinship is to be met with the compassion and love ordinarily shown to family rather than with coldness or favoritism. Those born into the heavenly family are in a special sense His brethren, and their loving care for one another reveals this divine relationship. He takes believers into true kinship with Himself as His mother and brethren, loving fallen humanity with a great love beyond His love for the heavenly beings around His throne, a love that cannot be understood but can be known as true in personal experience, and those who hold this kinship are adopted into the family of God as brethren and sisters of the Lord. This divine relationship requires tenderness toward one another, quick recognition of the claims of that relationship, and honor toward the Father and toward all kindred in God, and because believers are His family and His children they should treat one another with patience, kindness, and care, avoiding words or actions that hurt or irritate.