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Our Offerings to Our Families

Colossians 3:12-15; I Timothy 5:1-4,8

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against an­other, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

Do not rebuke an older man but exhort him as you would a father; treat younger men like brothers, older women like mothers, younger women like sisters, in all purity. Honor wid­ows who are real widows. If a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn their religious duty to their own family and make some return to their parents, for this is ac­ceptable in the sight of God... If any one does not provide for his relatives and especially for his own family, he has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever

Reflections on the Text

The goal of our life in Christ is to be what God wants us to be and to do what God wants us to do. He wants us to be in communion with Him—”to escape from the corruption that is in the world.. .and become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4). Our relationship with God is achieved by obeying the will of God—offering and committing our whole lives to “doing the truth.” Through relationships with others our union with God is realized.

Our relationship with God and in turn all our relations with others are rooted in love and are expressed in love. “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8). Genuine love for the other, even those who are our enemies, is self-emptying, it manifests the love of God and that of His Son, Jesus—who for our salvation “emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant.. .humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” The an­tithesis of this genuine love has been expressed as self-love—”the mother of all evils and the “original sin.” Self-love is that which is directed not towards God but towards self-preservation.

The first circle of relationships a we usually experience is within the family: child-parent, par­ent-child, mother-father, brother-sister. Therefore, within the family the spiritual life of love should be sought and lived as fully, as possible. Throughout scripture there are numerous pas­sages concerning relations within the family (Ex. 20:12, Dt. 6:4-7; Pr. 22:6; 23:15-16,22-26; Eph. 5:21-6:4; Pr. 31:10-31), each of which is based upon genuine love. Every member of the family should live for the good of the other in all circumstances—”servants of one another” through love bearing one another’s burdens. It is in and through these familial relationships that we must discern the will of God for ourselves and for those to whom we are responsible.

Relating the Bible to Our Lives

In what ways do we offer our self and our gifts in our family? Try and be specific.

1. How do we and can we nurture an atmosphere of giving and offering in our family’

2. Recalling our discussion in the last session, what are some of the examples of times we gave/offered something in the wrong spirit? What were the results?
Jesus had two hard sayings in regard to how our relationship to our family compares to our relationship with Him.
“For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:35-3 7).
“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26).

3. How can we handle times when there seems to be a con­flict between offering ourselves to God and to our family? Offer examples.

4. How can our desire to give to our family hinder our offer­ing ourselves and our gifts in the way God calls us?

5. Is Christ and His Church asking us to neglect our family?

6. How does this compare to Saint John Chrysostom’s de­scription of the family as a “little church”