Bible Studies
“Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.’”
These words spoken by Jesus in Mark 3:34-35 (NIV) most surely evoke curious thoughts. What did Jesus mean by those words, and how do they apply to us as Christians?
In examining His first declaration, “Here are my mother and my brothers,” we get an understanding of one very important principle: the spiritual family is much larger than the biological family. The Lord’s believers are very dear to Him, and while He certainly did not neglect His mother or any of His other blood relations, we realize in this passage that He prefers spiritual kindred before the natural.
His second statement, “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother,” is a reminder that we as believers become spiritual children by doing God’s will, and therefore become related to Jesus Himself.
Obeying God and diligently seeking His will is of fundamental importance for the Christian believer. James 1:25 says that “But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does” (NKJV, emphasis added).
1 John 2:17 reminds us that “the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (NKJV, emphasis added). This is another passage that exhorts us to be continually obeying God, although the world and everything in it is, even now, fading away and perishing.
Man will be judged not only by their words, but also by their principles and conduct, and the obedience to God which will only come from the heart – this is the true test in doing the known will of God. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21 NKJV, emphasis added).
We can also be certain that whatever we petition of God, in the consciousness of obeying Him, He will answer, even if it may not be in the way in which we ask it. “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22 NKJV, emphasis added).
“If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority” (John 7:17 NKJV). Jesus teaches us in this passage that love and obedience to God the Father is our only preparation for understanding and discerning the words of His only Son and mankind’s Savior, Jesus Christ. Any man who has God’s word, the Bible, will know whether its doctrines are true only because of his obedience to God.
With these passages from Scripture, we can therefore understand Jesus’ words of Mark 3:34-35 – that spiritual regeneration as Christians brings men into a far more honorable and desirable relationship to Christ than natural generation ever did. "Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother..."
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