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By: Robert E. Zink
February 3, 2025
At a conference I attended, a speaker briefly defined a parable as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. The church, too, is something earthly with a heavenly meaning. It offers itself as an interesting parallel because, though it exists physically on Earth, it is a picture of a heavenly reality. The church and its people on Earth articulate a picture of what takes place in heaven, though that articulation is certainly flawed because of the influence of our fallen natures on Earth. What makes this so incredible is that the church and its people, then, are a means to reach unbelievers. We do this by showcasing to unbelievers the beautiful relationships that individuals may have with God and another as He intended them to be. As a reflection of a heavenly reality, the church has been given a call to look very different than the world.
Directives that urge believers not to be conformed to the ways of this world but rather conform to holiness express the distinction between the world and the church (Romans 12:2;1 Peter 1:14-16). Probably the most radical contrasts, though, are seen in concepts such as loving others, including one’s own enemies (Matthew 5:43-44; John13:34-35); finding unity in diversity (Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 4:3) andsuffering joyfully (Matthew 5:10; Philippians 4:4-7; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18; 1Peter 4:12-14). These are all ways the church lives out its heavenly calling on Earth and demarcates itself as something very different from the world and what it has to offer. Each characteristic is a powerful means by which the Lord shows His glory, wisdom, and truth to the world by utilizing the church.
There exists another distinctive mark of the church that manifests the glory, wisdom, and truth of the Lord that’s worth thinking about more deeply:
While the world takes family and makes them strangers, the church takes strangers and makes them family.
Now, I have no intention of getting into a point-by-point review of the culture’s sins. We should have full expectations that the world is going to look like . . . well, the world. Scripture tells us as much. Hence, the warning from Romans 12:2 to not be conformed to the ways of the world. What is worth noting though, is the dismantling of family that has taken place. Movements like the sexual revolution and the acceptability of divorce have the effect of taking families and making them strangers. This is not merely a modern issue, but evidence of this familial disruption in the United States can be traced earlier to prominent educators like Ellwood Cubberly, who suggested that children belonged more and more to the state, or Parents magazine, whose early editor said, “Parents weren’t to be trusted to know how to raise children” (1).
Being distinctive from the world, the church shows its divergence from the world by taking strangers and making them family. Scripture utilizes the term adoption, saying that those who believe have been adopted into the same family as sons and daughters of God(John 1:12-13; Romans 8:14-17; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Galatians 4:4-7; Ephesians1:5; 1 John 3:1-2). The work of Christ has taken those who would not normally associate with one another and, indeed, may even be enemies at times and unites them as family (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:13; Galatians 5:6; Colossians 3:11).
Clearly, it’s not the church that makes this possible. It is God who adopts, which He does on the basis of His Son’s work on the cross and after the cross. Therefore, I want to be clear that I am not imposing a role on the church that belongs only to the work of God. Yet, neither should we forget the role of the church in this adoption initiative. Believers have the opportunity to participate in this great task of making strangers family by being utilized in God’s work as ones who lead people towards God through Christ. How do we do that? Through our obedience to the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). The world has its methods for making families strangers, but the Lord has prescribed our methods for making strangers families. We share His truth, directing people towards reconciliation with God through Christ, and see them unite with fellow believers who have received the same truth and reconciliation.
The church is an earthly picture of a heavenly reality in which people who were once distant and distinct are adopted together into the same family. We may lament the effect of cultural ideologies that take family and make them strangers. Yet, the Lord has made provision for that so that strangers may become family, and he has prescribed the means for how the church can participate in that and picture that heavenly reality . . . through the evangelism and discipleship of the Great Commission. We have before us an opportunity to be part of the unique work of God. Let us not join the world in making family strangers, but rather join with God in making strangers family.
(1)https://albertmohler.com/2022/04/13/briefing-4-13-22/.
