“But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the Living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of the all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better WORD than the blood of Abel."(NIV) Hebrew 12: 22-24
Most of us are so rooted to our families and countries. There is nothing wrong with being patriotic for God admires that. However in our marriages and relationships, most of us don’t want to cross boundaries too. We don’t want to be associated with certain race, ethnic group etc. Brothers and sisters, this mind-set belongs to people of the world, not Christians.
God loves every one. Every single one of God’s creations is His priority, and that means we are not more important than the one who hails from a different land other than ours. When we were born again as Christians, we took on a unique family. We became a part of what the Bible calls “an assembly, spirits of righteous men” and God is our Judge. Jesus is our big brother, the first born and perfect mediator on our behalf. How awesome! Having someone defend us before another is great but not as great as having our Big brother defend us before our Father. It’s the best of judgements because justice is tempered with GRACE.
It is therefore important and necessary that we acknowledge the new family that God has put us in and do all that we can to protect it as we help and share in the suffering of each other. It is the only way to survive in this world. However, we can’t completely commit to this new family if we are still tied to the various earthly origins.
We must disconnect ourselves from the mind-set of the world on what family is and look beyond to the glorious inheritance God has for us ALL, irrespective of our race, tribe, and nationality. This is because in God, there is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free… we are all one. The sooner we discover this truth, the better our chances of living the full life in Christ, promised by God, with our family members – the church – here on earth.