Love one another as I have loved you

–Jesus

God’s Family Provides The Framework For All We Do

Because of God’s grace we are adopted as children into His own family.

Family members learn to love and accept each other, despite their many flaws. So, with God’s help, we want to be the truest of friends, and to offer true friendship to others.

No Christian is an only child.
–Eugene Peterson

God’s grace is the overflow of His love for us in spite of our sin. So likewise, our love for each other must be a real and costly love, with deep feelings for the sins in spite of which we love each other. Jesus insisted that love for each other distinguish those who follow Him. As members of God’s family, our bond both to Jesus and, consequently, to our Christian brothers and sisters, supercedes all other allegiances. So, before a Christian is white or black, male or female, country boy or cosmopolitan, rich or poor, republican or democrat, educated or uneducated, American or Chinese, before anything else, and above all else, he or she is a Christian (Galatians 3:26-28; Ephesians 2:14-22).