Mark 3:31-35 – Familia
31 There came then his brethren and his mother, and, standing without, sent unto him, calling him.
32 And the multitude sat about him, and they said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren without seek for thee.
33 And he answered them, saying, Who is my mother, or my brethren?
34 And he looked round about on them which sat about him, and said, Behold my mother and my brethren!
35 For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and my sister, and mother.
Today, we are looking at a passage that sometimes really stumps people about what in the world Jesus was talking about! After all, The Bible does tell us to honor our parents, so why would Jesus so blatantly turn away His own family? Jesus was making a point to all the people listening to Him. Jesus was showing them that those who follow Him were closer than His physical family because they were part of His spiritual family.
Family is a very interesting thing for Jesus to connect Him and His followers with. Families sometimes fight, they get mad at each other, they don’t always get along, but they are family, and that is what Christians are to Jesus. Jesus’ connection does not just apply to those people who were following Him back then. Jesus never put a time stamp on His statement! Anyone, even today, that does “the will of God” is part of Jesus’ family! But what does that mean? The first part of doing God’s will is to accept His gift of salvation and forgiveness of our sins. So, if you have taken that first step into Jesus’ family, you are like a brother or sister to Him! Of course, there is still a responsibility to get to know Him better (you don’t want to be one of those crazy cousins that nobody knows, after all), but John 1:12 tells us that if we receive Jesus, we enter into God’s family.
This idea of family has a very important application for us. If every Christian is part of God’s family, that means that, spiritually, every Christian is related. Just think about that for a second next time you are in church. Many of those people sitting there are your spiritual brothers or sisters, regardless of their age, race, looks, background, nationality, or anything. All it takes to be a part of this family is belief in Jesus Christ! That would also mean that we have a responsibility to do right by our brothers and sisters in Christ. Why people would gossip about, lie to, or not be their for their brothers and sisters just makes no sense. We, as Christians, are God’s family, and we ought to act like it!
Life Step: Think about it…
Why is it so amazing that God would let us into His family?
In what kind of ways do people mistreat those in the spiritual family?
How should we treat our spiritual brothers and sisters?
Study the Scriptures with Ben Jennings 
There’s a verse in the bible that says we are the sons and daughters of Christ. Isn’t that amazing? We are the children of Christ, part of His family! And family would do almost anything for each other right? Jesus took that seriously when He died on the cross for us. I like what Cody said about how we treat our spiritual family too. Good stuff!