“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you…. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:18).

This passage is part of a special message from Jesus to his disciples. It is called the Olivet Discourse, and it was given shortly before Jesus was taken away to be tried and crucified. These words represent some of his last words to his disciples. What makes it especially special is that toward the end of this discourse, Jesus also prayed for you and me:

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:20-23).

During our Tuesday Bible Study we are walking through the Bible, and we are now in Acts studying the growth of the church. There are many metaphors for the church: body, household, building, temple, army, bride, etc. Paul speaks of the church as family in 2 Corinthians 6:18: “and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” Paul is apparently referring to 2 Samuel 7:14 which is itself a reference to the “house” or dynasty that God will build for David rather than the literal “house” David wants to build for God.

In all these metaphors, we see unity. Even as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one as the Trinity (see the references to “we” in the above verses), we are invited to be one with Him as family, as a unified structure, built and maintained in love. It is abundantly clear that God sees us living out our faith in relationship, just as he is in relationship as The Trinity. God ordained the family as the primary earthly relationship, and commanded us to show compassion for the fatherless and the widow because they were otherwise without family. And then when God sent His Son as our Redeemer, he put in place the church where we as believers in His Son would become the family of God.

This means that we are never alone. As an “older” person, this is especially significant. My parents have both passed, as have my grandparents and many of my aunts and uncles. I have even been referred to as the “matriarch” of my family. (Please! I am not ready for that!!) And even though I am blessed with family, it is emotional to see so many of my friends aging and passing on, even as I have hope of seeing them one day in Heaven. I have friends who have virtually no family left.

But brothers and sisters in Christ, you will never be alone. Jesus has promised that we will never be orphans. “Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—” (John 1:12).

He promises to come to us. And As sons and daughters of God, we are brothers and sisters with all believers. There is the family you are born with, and the family you are reborn into, adopted into. You have no choice in the former, but you do have a choice with the latter, with your brothers and sisters In Christ. You have a choice to love each other, and to “encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Hebrews 3:13).

And knowing this, our love for each other is our greatest testimony. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” John 13:35).

“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land” (Psalm 68:5-6).

In Christ,

Judy