Mark 3: Real Family

The words of Jesus in Mark 3 provide a profound redefinition of our real family as followers of Jesus. Verses 31-35 read:

³¹ Then Jesus’ mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. ³² A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.”

³³ “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked.

³⁴ Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! ³⁵ Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”

In Christ’s words, those who do God’s will are part of his family. Further, Jesus expands our view of family to include anyone who follows him.

My true family does not stop at my wife, children, parents, brother, or sister. If you follow Jesus, you are my brother, my sister, or mother. I’m taking some extra time this morning to thank God for you, my spiritual family, who I will spend eternity with in heaven.

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UPDATE: A couple of notes for those following this blog. First, thank you for your prayers and encouragement. Though I’m still blogging one chapter per day throughout 2011, I’m currently handwriting in the Book of Acts. Believe it or not, once Acts is completed, I will be past the halfway mark, though there will be 22 books to go.

Second, I’ve had a few people share stories of other people who have or are in the process of handwriting the New Testament. One is the story of an Indian man who wrote out every verse of the New Testament in about four months, writing one verse per page. He may have just broken both records for fastest copy of the New Testament and the longest handwritten book in the world. His story is available here.

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Dillon Burroughs has written, co-written, or edited over 60 books, including the upcoming devotional work Thirst No More (October 2011). He served as an associate editor for The Apologetics Study Bible for Students and is a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary. Find out more at DillonBurroughs.org.