Sunday 24 October 2021

Big family

Our Father in heaven ! Matthew 6.9

“The day I realized that God is our Father and that we are all his children, I was filled with joy !" Confides this friend, her face lit up by her smile. “Think about it! I, who am an only child, have so many brothers and sisters ? It was happiness !"

Yes, God wants to form a great united family around him. With, in the center, his Son Jesus Christ. The Bible also uses the image of a body (see suggested reading) where everything works together harmoniously. This is why it is often the custom of Christians to call each other brothers and sisters. This is a language that is already used by the apostles (James, Peter, Paul, John) in their various letters, which are part of the New Testament. Christians are urged not to differentiate between rich and poor, slave or free, to disregard appearance... etc.

A message that is still relevant today in our time when everyone is increasingly expressing the need to be respected for their difference.

The churches are far from perfect in this area, but they are trying to put this teaching into practice. And each time the “Our Father” is pronounced, the family of God is proclaimed ! By faith in Jesus, you too can be part of this family.

Sylvie Dugand

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Proposed reading : 1st Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 12, verses 12 to 27.

12:12 For as the body is one and has many members, and as all the members of the body, despite their number, are one body, so also is Christ.

12:13 For we have all been baptized with one Spirit into one body, whether Jews or Greeks or slaves or free, and we have all been watered with one Spirit.

12:14 So the body is not one member, but is made up of many members.

12:15 If the foot said : Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body - would it not be of the body for that ?

12:16 And if the ear said : Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body, would it not be of the body for that ?

12:17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be ? If he was all ears, where would the smell be ?

12:18 Now God has placed each of the limbs in the body as he willed.

12:19 If all were one member, where would the body be ?

12:20 Now therefore there are many members, and one body.

12:21 The eye cannot say to the hand, I do not need you; nor head to toe say : I don't need you.

12:22 Rather, the members of the body which appear to be weaker are needed ;

12:23 and those whom we consider to be the least honorable in the body, we surround them with greater honor. So our less honest members receive the most honor,

12:24 while those who are honest don't need it. God arranged the body in such a way as to give more honor to what was lacking,

12:25 so that there is no division in the body, but that the members also take care of one another.

12:26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all members rejoice with it.

12:27 Ye are the body of Christ, and you are his members, each for his own part.

Source (Live Today)