The Family of God

Ephesians 2:19-22
That's plain enough, isn't it? You're no longer wandering exiles. This kingdom of faith is now your home country. You're no longer strangers or outsiders. You belong here, with as much right to the name Christian as anyone. God is building a home. He's using us all—irrespective of how we got here—in what he is building. He used the apostles and prophets for the foundation. Now he's using you, fitting you in brick by brick, stone by stone, with Christ Jesus as the cornerstone that holds all the parts together. We see it taking shape day after day—a holy temple built by God, all of us built into it, a temple in which God is quite at home.

Are you living up to that name?

Acts 2:44- And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.
BELIEVERS- describes people who have convictions regarding the Word of God, the nature of God and Christ. Believers trust God in all ways. They are mountain movers, people of the Word.

Acts 6:3- And so, brothers, select seven men who are well respected and are full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will give them this responsibility.
BROTHERS- the company that we keep. Ministering to people as family. We have a common father... our father in Heaven.
1 John 3:10- (NLT) So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers[a] does not belong to God.
1 John 4:20-21- (NLT) If someone says, “I love God,” but hates a Christian brother or sister, [a] that person is a liar; for if we don’t love people we can see, how can we love God, whom we cannot see? 21 And he has given us this command: Those who love God must also love their Christian brothers and sisters.[b]

1 John 2:15-17 Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.

1 Peter 3:11- Turn away from evil and do good. Search for peace, and work to maintain it.

Ephesians 4:1-3 In light of all this, here's what I want you to do. While I'm locked up here, a prisoner for the Master, I want you to get out there and walk—better yet, run!—on the road God called you to travel. I don't want any of you sitting around on your hands. I don't want anyone strolling off, down some path that goes nowhere. And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.

The FAMILY OF GOD is about genuinely loving one another as God would love them and even as you would endeavor to love your self. Any other definition is not God's definition according to His Word of which He watches over to perform.