Family Resemblance

Matt 12:50 "For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother."

This is going all the way back to when Jesus taught his guys how to pray: "Our Father in heaven…Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Jesus is coming back to a central theme, His Father in heaven getting His will done on earth. And the cool thing about this is He is identifying heritage. He is identifying DNA. He is identifying those who belong in His family. How can you tell who is in the family of God? Those who do the will of God. Those who do what God wants, who fulfill His purposes. These are the ones who are in the family of God. On the flip side. Those who ignore God, those who avoid Him, those who are not fulfilling His purposes but their own purposes and who are living lives in opposition to His word are not in His family.

Kind of interesting. Yesterday you could tell what a person was like inside by what came out of their mouths. Today, you can tell a person's spiritual family heritage by what they do. I have to ask myself the question: How am I living? Is it all about me, or am I fulfilling God's purpose on this earth? The answer says a lot about who I really am.

The other thing about this verse that I find amazing is this: If I am doing God's will then I am Jesus' brother. Pretty cool. Jesus was the Son of God. If He is my brother, then I must also be a son of God. There is a verse in Hebrews that talks about this: "Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers." Heb. 2:11 I think that is pretty wild. The One who makes us holy (Jesus) and those who are being made holy (us) all belong to the same family. Since this is the case Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers, and sisters and mother. Jesus is not embarrassed by us because we are doing the will of God here on earth.

Do I bear a family resemblance? Do people see Jesus in me? When people look at me do they say: "Wow, you look an awful lot like Jesus"? I wish. If I am doing His will on earth, that should be people's reaction…not just at church…that is the easy place to look like you are a part of the family. No, I want people in our culture to see me and see something different. I want people to take note that I am part of the family of God. I must be about my Father's business.

So I ask myself: What is that? Is it anything different than I am doing now? Is there something else I should be doing? Stay open.