The Household and Family of God
An In-Depth Study of the Church as God’s Family in the Epistles

Executive Summary

Introduction: Brought Into the Family

No Longer Strangers: Belonging as Family

The House of God: Living Under the Father’s Roof

Children of the Father: The Grace of Adoption

Brothers and Sisters: The Conduct of a Family

Discipline in the Household: The Accountability of a Family

What This Picture Adds to the Body of Christ

Summary: How the Family Shapes the Way a Believer Lives

A Note on Sources

Bibliography

Executive Summary

If the body speaks of union, the household speaks of belonging. The Scriptures picture the people of God as a family under one roof: God is the Father, believers are His children, and one another are brothers and sisters. This study follows that picture from its roots in the Old Testament, where Israel is God’s son (Exodus 4:22; Hosea 11:1) and the house of Israel is a covenant household, through the New Testament letters. The governing words are οἶκος, “house” or “household,” with the related οἰκεῖος, “a member of the household,” and οἰκονόμος, “household manager” or steward; the family words υἱοθεσία, “adoption as a son,” τέκνον, “child,” πατήρ, “father,” ἀββά, and ἀδελφός and ἀδελφή, “brother” and “sister.” The Hebrew background is בַּיִת, “house,” with בֵּן, “son,” אָב, “father,” and אָח, “brother.”

The study reaches seven conclusions.

1. The family image is about belonging. Those who were “strangers and foreigners” (ξένοι and πάροικοι) are now “members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19). The place at the table is settled, not probationary.
2. The image has deep Old Testament roots. God called Israel “My son, My firstborn” (Exodus 4:22), and the Old Testament speaks of the people as God’s house (Numbers 12:7). The New Testament does not invent the family of God; it shows its fulfillment in Christ.
3. The household has an order and a Head. Christ is “a Son over His own house” (Hebrews 3:6), and Paul writes so that Timothy may know how to conduct himself “in the house of God” (1 Timothy 3:15). Those who lead are stewards (οἰκονόμοι), not owners.
4. Adoption is the root of the family. The word υἱοθεσία names God’s gracious act by which strangers become sons and daughters and heirs (Ephesians 1:5; Galatians 4:5–7; Romans 8:15–17). The Roman background of adoption illuminates the word, but the gospel gives it its meaning.
5. Children of one Father are brothers and sisters. The New Testament reasons from kinship to conduct: honor, purity, gentleness, burden-bearing, and generosity that begins with the household of faith (1 Timothy 5:1–2; Galatians 6:10).
6. A family is also a place of accountability. A Father who loves His children disciplines them (Hebrews 12:5–11), and judgment begins “at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). The aim of family discipline is restoration (Galatians 6:1).
7. The picture complements the body. The body says that believers are joined to Christ and to one another; the household says that they are loved, named, and placed by a Father and are to treat each other as kin.

The study is arranged in five teaching sections, each with a statement of significance, key passages in the New King James Version, exegetical observations, implications for the local church, and questions for reflection and discussion. It ends with a note on what the picture adds to the body of Christ and a summary of how it shapes the believer’s life. It is Study 6 of the ten-study series on the church in the Epistles.

Introduction: Brought Into the Family

The New Testament letters repeatedly picture the church as a family gathered in a home. The governing term is οἶκος (G3624), which means both the house as a dwelling and the household as the family that lives in it. The related word οἰκεῖος (G3609) names a member of that household.[1] Believers are ἀδελφοί (G80), brothers and sisters, born into one Father’s family.[2]

The picture is not sentimental decoration. It defines status, relationships, conduct, and accountability. To be in the household of God is to have a settled place at the table, a Father to obey, siblings to love, and a family order to live within. This study works through five ways the Scriptures use the family image: belonging, the Father’s house, adoption, family conduct, and family discipline. After each, it asks what the truth requires a believer to align with or adjust.

Old Testament Roots

The family of God did not begin in the Epistles. When the LORD sent Moses to Pharaoh, He gave him this message:

Exodus 4:22–23 (NKJV): Then you shall say to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.’”

The nation is called בֵּן, “son,” and בְּכוֹר, “firstborn,” before it has a law, a land, or a tabernacle.[3] Hosea looks back on the exodus in the same terms:

Hosea 11:1 (NKJV): “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.”

Moses reminds the people of the same relationship when he forbids pagan mourning rites:

Deuteronomy 14:1 (NKJV): “You are the children of the LORD your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead.”

Sonship carried obligations. The Father who redeemed His son also trained him: “as a man chastens his son, so the LORD your God chastens you” (Deuteronomy 8:5). The Old Testament also speaks of God’s house, בַּיִת. Of Moses the LORD says:

Numbers 12:7 (NKJV): “Not so with My servant Moses; He is faithful in all My house.”

The Hebrew בַּיִת covers the building, but also the family and descendants who bear a name, so that “the house of Israel” is a family before it is a nation.[4] The family covenant with Abraham shows this plainly. God said, “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you” (Genesis 17:7). The sign of the covenant was given to the household, including those “born in your house or bought with money” (Genesis 17:12–13). The promise and its sign were family matters, not private ones. Paul’s letters build on this foundation when they say that Gentile believers, in Christ, are “Abraham’s seed” and heirs (Galatians 3:29). The family of God has one story, from Abraham to the church.

The Key Terms

These are the principal words, in script only, with their basic meaning and range. Counts are given only where noted and are to be confirmed in a concordance.

• οἶκος: “house,” “household,” “family,” and “descendants.” Used of the building (Matthew 7:24–27), the family (Acts 16:31), and the people of God (1 Timothy 3:15; Hebrews 3:6; 1 Peter 4:17).
• οἰκεῖος: “belonging to the household,” used as a noun for a household member (Ephesians 2:19; Galatians 6:10; 1 Timothy 5:8).
• οἰκονόμος: “household manager” or “steward,” formed from οἶκος and a verb meaning “to manage” (1 Corinthians 4:1–2; Titus 1:7; 1 Peter 4:10).
• ξένος and πάροικος: “stranger” or “foreigner,” and “resident alien” or “one who lives near” without full rights. συμπολίτης: “fellow citizen” (Ephesians 2:19).
• υἱοθεσία: “adoption as a son,” a compound of υἱός, “son,” and a verb meaning “to place” (Galatians 4:5; Romans 8:15; Ephesians 1:5).
• τέκνον and υἱός: “child” and “son.” Paul often uses τέκνον to stress birth and kinship and υἱός to stress status and standing, though the two overlap.
• πατήρ and ἀββά: “father,” and the Aramaic word for “father” transmitted in Greek letters (Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).
• κληρονόμος: “heir” (Galatians 4:7; Romans 8:17).
• ἀδελφός and ἀδελφή: “brother” and “sister.” The plural ἀδελφοί often addresses a mixed group and may be rendered “brothers and sisters.”
• παιδεία: “upbringing,” “training,” and “discipline” (Hebrews 12:5–11; Ephesians 6:4).
• Hebrew: בַּיִת “house,” בֵּן “son,” אָב “father,” אָח “brother,” נַחֲלָה “inheritance,” מוּסָר “discipline.”

All of these definitions should be confirmed in BDAG, TDNT, NIDNTTE, HALOT, and BDB.[5]

Method and Sources

This study begins with the working notes of Dr. James King on the household image, whose five sections and key passages are kept in their order. They have been expanded with Old Testament background, key terms in the original languages, and exegetical observations. Scripture is quoted in the New King James Version (NKJV) from memory and should be verified against the printed text. Lexical definitions are summarized from standard works, but BDAG, TDNT, NIDNTTE, LSJ, HALOT, BDB, and TWOT were not available this session, and each footnote says where a point should be confirmed. Where the study draws on commentary opinion or historical background (for example, Roman adoption), the point is flagged as general knowledge.

One note for our own congregation. Family language comes easily in a church that has long called its members “brother” and “sister” and has spoken of the congregation as a brotherhood. It is a precious inheritance. It also needs gentleness. Some of us have homes that were not safe or happy, some have lost parents, spouses, or children, and some live alone. The Lord does not ask that the church replace the natural family (see Mark 3:33–35), but that it be a true household for everyone, where the lonely are set in families (Psalm 68:6).[6]

No Longer Strangers: Belonging as Family

Significance

The first use of the image marks a change of status. Those who were outsiders have been brought inside as family members. This is not an upgraded acquaintance but adoption into the household, a move from the doorstep to the dinner table.

How the Term Is Used in Scripture

Paul reminds Gentile believers of where they once stood:

Ephesians 2:12 (NKJV): that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Now he tells them that they belong as household members, using the word οἰκεῖος:

Ephesians 2:19 (NKJV): Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,

The bond is created by the new birth, so that faith makes a person a true child of God:

Galatians 3:26 (NKJV): For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

John 1:12–13 (NKJV): But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Galatians 3:26 (NKJV): For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.

Jesus Himself redrew the lines of the family around obedience to the Father:

Mark 3:34–35 (NKJV): And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother.”

And the family extends its first obligations inward, to those who share the household of faith:

Galatians 6:10 (NKJV): Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Exegetical Observations

1. The three nouns of Ephesians 2:19 form a staircase. Paul says that the Gentiles are no longer ξένοι, strangers with no tie to the place, and πάροικοι, resident aliens who live among a people without full rights. They are now συμπολῖται, fellow citizens, and οἰκεῖοι, members of the household. Citizenship is a legal and public status. Household membership is more intimate, for a citizen may be known only by name, but a household member sits at the table.[7]
2. The word οἰκεῖοι is built on οἶκος. The οἰκεῖοι were the people of the house: family, and in the ancient world often the dependants and servants as well. Paul chooses a word that speaks of familiarity and closeness. In Galatians 6:10 the same root appears in “the household of faith,” literally “those of the household of the faith.”[8]
3. The previous verses explain the change. The Gentiles were once “aliens from the commonwealth of Israel” (Ephesians 2:12), but Christ “has made both one” and “broken down the middle wall of separation” (2:14). The household is formed by reconciliation. It is not a club for those who think alike. Jews and Gentiles are made one family through the cross.
4. Faith is the door. Galatians 3:26 says that believers are “sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” Paul does not say “through works of the law,” and the next verses add that in Christ there is “neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female” (3:28). Here “sons” includes all the family, women and men alike, as heirs.[9]
5. The new birth is the Father’s act. John 1:13 insists that sonship is not of blood, will of the flesh, or will of man, “but of God.” The Greek word τέκνα, “children,” emphasizes birth. No one earns a place in the household or inherits it from a parent in the church.
6. Jesus relocates the family. In Mark 3 His natural mother and brothers stand outside, and He points to those seated around Him. This does not despise His family; elsewhere He provides for His mother (John 19:26–27). It means that the family of God is defined by doing the Father’s will, and that the doing of His will makes the disciple a brother, sister, and mother.
7. The first claim is inward. Galatians 6:10 does not limit good works to the church, for it says “to all.” It simply puts those of the household of faith first, as a family naturally cares for its own first. A church that has no care for those outside is not a family but a clique, and a church that neglects its own members has forgotten that charity begins at home.[10]

Implications for the Local Church

• Receive your place in the family as settled, not probationary. You are no longer a stranger or a guest but a household member (Ephesians 2:19). Align: stop relating to the church as an outsider hoping to be accepted, and take your seat as family.
• Treat fellow believers as kin, not clientele. Faith has made them your brothers and sisters (Galatians 3:26). Adjust: extend to them the loyalty and warmth you would give family, not the distance you give strangers.
• Give first care to the household of faith. While doing good to all, the family has a special claim (Galatians 6:10). Align: let your practical generosity begin, though not end, with your brothers and sisters in Christ.
• Welcome the newcomer as a new family member. The whole point of the image is that outsiders are brought in. Adjust: build the habit of drawing the stranger into the family rather than leaving them on the edge.
• Hold your family ties under the Father’s will. Jesus counts as His family those who do the will of God (Mark 3:35). Align: let obedience, not background or preference, mark who you receive as kin.

For Reflection and Discussion

Worldview Questions

1. If I am a full member of God’s household — not a guest — how should that change the way I relate to the church and its people?
2. What does it mean for my sense of identity that faith has made other believers my actual brothers and sisters?
3. Galatians 6:10 gives the family a special claim on my care. How does that reorder my sense of obligation?

Discussion Questions

1. Where does our congregation still make people feel like guests or outsiders rather than family, and how could that change?
2. What would it look like, practically, to “do good… especially to those who are of the household of faith”?
3. Who around us is still standing “on the doorstep,” and how might we bring them in?

Analysis Questions

1. Paul moves from “strangers and foreigners” to “fellow citizens” to “members of the household” (Ephesians 2:19). Trace the progression — what does each step add?
2. Galatians 3:26 grounds family membership in “faith in Christ Jesus.” Why is the basis of belonging important to get right?
3. How does the household image differ from mere friendship or association? What does “family” claim that “fellowship” alone does not?

Personal Evaluation

Do I live as a settled member of God’s family, or still as a cautious guest — and toward whom am I keeping the distance of a stranger rather than the nearness of a brother or sister?

The House of God: Living Under the Father’s Roof

Significance

The second use turns from status to conduct. Because the church is God’s house, there is a way to behave in it. A household has an order, a name to honor, and a head whose authority shapes the home. To belong is also to submit to the order of the Father’s house.

How the Term Is Used in Scripture

Paul’s stated reason for writing to Timothy is to shape conduct within God’s household:

1 Timothy 3:15 (NKJV): but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

The letter to the Hebrews sets Moses beside Christ and names believers as the house:

Hebrews 3:5–6 (NKJV): And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.

Those who lead the household are managers of another’s property:

1 Corinthians 4:1–2 (NKJV): Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful.

1 Peter 4:10 (NKJV): As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

Jesus Himself speaks of the Father’s house as a place prepared for His own:

John 14:2 (NKJV): “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”

Exegetical Observations

1. The purpose of 1 Timothy is stated in 3:15. Paul writes “so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself” in God’s house. The verb is ἀναστρέφεσθαι, “to conduct oneself, to behave.” It is a letter of household management: how to treat the old and the young, widows, elders, slaves, and the wealthy. The Pastoral letters assume that church order is family order.[11]
2. The same letter links the home to the church. An overseer must be one who “rules his own house well,” for “if a man does not know how to rule his own house, how will he take care of the church of God?” (1 Timothy 3:4–5). The church is no lesser household than the home; the same values of reverence, faithfulness, and gentle authority apply in both.
3. “Pillar and ground of the truth” describes the household’s task. The Greek στῦλος and ἑδραίωμα, pillar and foundation (or buttress), are commonly read as describing the church as supporter and guardian of the truth rather than its source. Scholars debate whether the phrase attaches to “the church” or to the following confession of 3:16, but the common reading is that the household is entrusted with the truth.[12]
4. Hebrews 3 depends on Numbers 12:7. The LORD said of Moses, “He is faithful in all My house.” Moses was a faithful θεράπων, a servant, in the house. Christ is faithful as υἱός, a Son, over the house. The difference is not merely rank; the Son is heir of the house and the household belongs to Him (compare Hebrews 1:2). The author then makes the surprising claim that “we” are His house.[13]
5. The conditional “if we hold fast” is a family warning. The phrase “whose house we are if we hold fast” does not say that perseverance earns a place. It says that those who persevere show that they are the house. Evangelicals have read this passage with different emphases on whether a true believer can fall away; in every reading, it calls the family to endurance and points to the Father who gives it.[14]
6. Leaders are οἰκονόμοι, stewards. The οἰκονόμος was the household manager, often a trusted servant or freedman who ran an estate for the master. Paul uses the word of apostles (“stewards of the mysteries of God,” 1 Corinthians 4:1), of overseers (Titus 1:7), and, in 1 Peter 4:10, of every believer who has a gift. The test of a steward is faithfulness, since the property belongs to another. Titles in the church are household tasks, not ownership.[15]
7. The Father’s house in John 14 is a place with room. The word translated “mansions” in the NKJV means “dwelling places” or “rooms,” and many modern versions render it so. The promise is that the Father’s house has a place for each child, and that Christ Himself goes ahead to prepare it. The household of God is both present (1 Timothy 3:15) and future (John 14:2).

Implications for the Local Church

• Learn the manners of the Father’s house. Membership carries a way “to conduct yourself in the house of God” (1 Timothy 3:15). Align: let the character of the home, including truthfulness, reverence, order, and love, govern how you act among the family.
• Honor the household’s calling to guard the truth. God’s house is “the pillar and ground of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). Adjust: treat sound doctrine as a family trust to be upheld, not an optional preference.
• Live under Christ as Son over the house. The home belongs to Him, and we are His house (Hebrews 3:6). Align: submit your conduct to the Head of the household rather than to your own preferences.
• Lead as a steward, not an owner. Those who serve are required to be “found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2). Adjust: hold every office, gift, and building as the Father’s property entrusted to you.
• Hold fast to the end. Belonging to the house is confirmed by perseverance in “confidence and… hope” (Hebrews 3:6). Adjust: let endurance, not merely a past decision, mark you as part of the household.

For Reflection and Discussion

Worldview Questions

1. If the church is my Father’s house, how should reverence for Him shape the way I behave in it?
2. What does it mean that God’s household is “the pillar and ground of the truth,” and how does that shape my responsibility?
3. Hebrews 3:6 ties belonging to holding fast. How does that reframe perseverance as a family matter rather than a private struggle?

Discussion Questions

1. What are the “house rules” of God’s household — the manners that should mark how we treat one another?
2. Where might our conduct in the church fall short of the reverence due the “house of the living God”?
3. How can a congregation guard the truth (1 Timothy 3:15) without becoming harsh or quarrelsome?

Analysis Questions

1. Paul frames his whole letter around conduct “in the house of God” (1 Timothy 3:15). Why anchor Christian behavior in the household image specifically?
2. Hebrews 3:6 calls Christ a “Son over His own house” and us that house. How do those two truths fit together?
3. What is the connection between being God’s house and being “the pillar and ground of the truth”?

Personal Evaluation

Does my conduct in the church reflect the reverence and order due the house of the living God — and where is the Father asking me to bring my behavior into line with the manners of His home?

Children of the Father: The Grace of Adoption

Significance

The third use goes to the root of the family: how did outsiders become children? The answer is adoption, a legal and relational act by which God makes strangers His own sons and daughters, with the Spirit as the seal of the new relationship and heirship as its inheritance.

How the Term Is Used in Scripture

Adoption is God’s deliberate purpose, set in love before the world began:

Ephesians 1:5 (NKJV): having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

It is accomplished by the Son and sealed by the Spirit, who gives the child the very language of a child, “Abba, Father”:

Galatians 4:5–7 (NKJV): to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

The Spirit Himself confirms the relationship to the believer’s own heart:

Romans 8:15–17 (NKJV): For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.

Jesus Himself prayed with the same word in Gethsemane:

Mark 14:36 (NKJV): And He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for You. Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will.”

John marvels at the love behind it:

1 John 3:1 (NKJV): Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Exegetical Observations

1. υἱοθεσία is a Pauline word. It is formed from υἱός, “son,” and a verb meaning “to place” or “to set,” and so means “placing as a son.” In the New Testament it occurs only in Paul’s letters (Romans 8:15, 23; 9:4; Galatians 4:5; Ephesians 1:5), where the idea is closely tied to the blessings of salvation. The word is rare in earlier Greek, and its Roman legal setting is widely discussed.[16]
2. The Roman background is helpful but not decisive. In the Roman world, a man without a natural heir could adopt a son, who then took the family name, came under the father’s authority (patria potestas), and became a full heir; the adopted son’s former debts and ties were cancelled. This is general knowledge of Roman law, and the Greek and Jewish background should be weighed with it. Paul writes to churches in Roman cities, and these associations would have been natural, but the Old Testament idea of Israel’s sonship (Exodus 4:22; Romans 9:4) is also close at hand.[17]
3. Galatians 4 moves from slave to son. Paul uses the picture of a minor heir who, though lord of all, is no better than a slave until the date set by the father (4:1–2). God sent His Son “to redeem those under the law” so that “we might receive the adoption as sons.” The purpose clause tells us that adoption is the goal of redemption, not an addition to it.
4. The Spirit makes the child cry. The verb κράζω (“crying out”) is strong. The Spirit of the Son cries in our hearts “Abba, Father,” the Aramaic ἀββά followed by the Greek πατήρ. The same double cry stands in Mark 14:36 and Romans 8:15, and suggests that it was familiar in Greek-speaking churches. Many commentators trace the word to Jesus’ own intimate address of God, though scholars caution against reading it as only “Daddy.”[18]
5. Sons and children. In Romans 8 Paul moves between υἱοί (8:14), “sons,” and τέκνα (8:16), “children.” The first speaks of status and the second of birth. Together they say that the believer’s sonship is both a gift of standing and a new life. “Sons” in the first century was the term for legal heirs, so that women as well as men are included in the inheritance in Christ (Galatians 3:28–29).
6. The inheritance is Christ’s. A κληρονόμος is an “heir.” The believer is “an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7) and a “joint heir” (συγκληρονόμος) with Christ (Romans 8:17). The Old Testament word נַחֲלָה, “inheritance,” was used of the land given to Israel and of the LORD Himself as the portion of His people. The New Testament widens this to a share in all that is Christ’s. The inheritance, however, is by way of suffering with Him (8:17).[19]
7. Assurance comes from the Spirit, not from performance. Romans 8:16 says that the Spirit “bears witness with our spirit.” The testimony is the Spirit’s. The believer who is afraid of losing his place has not understood that the Father, not the child, secured the adoption.

Implications for the Local Church

• Relate to God as Father, not as a fearful slave. The Spirit of adoption replaces the spirit of bondage and fear (Romans 8:15). Align: approach God with the confidence of a child, not the dread of a servant.
• Rest your identity on adoption, not performance. You are a son by God’s own choice and act (Ephesians 1:5). Adjust: stop trying to earn a standing you have already been given.
• See fellow believers as your Father’s other children. If God is Father to them too, they are your siblings by the same grace. Align: let shared adoption soften rivalry into family love.
• Live as heirs, not slaves. Adoption makes you “an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:7). Adjust: carry yourself with the dignity and hope of an heir, and treat other heirs accordingly.
• Expect to share in Christ’s suffering. Heirs are “joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him” (Romans 8:17). Align: do not treat hardship as a sign that the Father has left the household.

For Reflection and Discussion

Worldview Questions

1. If I am God’s adopted child by His own choice, how should that reshape the way I see my worth and my security?
2. The Spirit lets me cry “Abba, Father.” How does relating to God as Father change the way I relate to His other children?
3. What is the difference, in daily life, between living as a fearful slave and living as a beloved heir?

Discussion Questions

1. Where do we still relate to God — and to church — out of fear and performance rather than adopted sonship?
2. How does knowing that other believers share our adoption change the way we handle conflict and comparison with them?
3. What would it look like for our congregation to treat one another visibly as children of one Father?

Analysis Questions

1. Trace the roles of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in adoption across Ephesians 1:5, Galatians 4:5–7, and Romans 8:15–16.
2. Why does Paul contrast “slave” and “son” (Galatians 4:7)? What is at stake in the distinction?
3. Romans 8:16 speaks of the Spirit’s inner witness. How does assurance of adoption relate to living as family in the church?

Personal Evaluation

Am I living as a secure, adopted child of the Father — or still as a fearful slave trying to earn my place — and how does that show up in the way I treat His other children?

Brothers and Sisters: The Conduct of a Family

Significance

The fourth use draws out the horizontal relationships of the household. Believers are not merely fellow members but siblings, and the New Testament reasons directly from that kinship to how they must treat one another, with the honor, purity, and burden-bearing that family owes.

How the Term Is Used in Scripture

Paul instructs Timothy to relate to every age and both sexes as family:

1 Timothy 5:1–2 (NKJV): Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity.

The family bond extends first to the household of faith in every good deed:

Galatians 6:10 (NKJV): Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Jesus taught that the family has one Teacher and no ranks of honor among its members:

Matthew 23:8 (NKJV): “But you, do not be called ‘Rabbi’; for One is your Teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren.”

Paul asks Philemon to receive a runaway slave in the new relationship that faith has made:

Philemon 15–16 (NKJV): For perhaps he departed for a while for this purpose, that you might receive him forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother, especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

And John names the family’s costliest duty:

1 John 3:16 (NKJV): By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Exegetical Observations

1. The family frame changes the verb. In 1 Timothy 5:1 Paul says not to ἐπιπλήσσω, “rebuke sharply,” an older man, but to παρακαλέω, “exhort” or “appeal to,” him as a father. The Greek verb for rebuke is unusually strong and occurs only here in the New Testament. A young pastor must correct, but he is to do it as a son would speak to his father.[20]
2. The list is complete and balanced. Paul runs through four relations: fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters. It covers the whole congregation, and each category gets its own posture, from respectful appeal to the older to pure friendship with the younger. The phrase “with all purity” (ἐν πάσῃ ἁγνείᾳ) is attached to the younger women, where family closeness could be abused, and shows that the family image carries a built-in boundary against exploitation.
3. ἀδελφός is the usual word for a fellow believer. The word appears again and again in the letters as a form of address and a description. The plural ἀδελφοί frequently addresses the whole congregation, men and women, which is why many modern versions say “brothers and sisters.” The NKJV keeps the older “brethren.” The feminine ἀδελφή appears when women are named, as when Paul commends “Phoebe our sister” (Romans 16:1).[21]
4. Jesus abolishes ranks within the family. In Matthew 23:8 the disciples are forbidden to seek titles because they are “all brethren” under one Teacher. The Anabaptist tradition has long taken this seriously, and many Mennonite congregations have preferred plain forms of address and the equal standing of all members. The text does not abolish gifts or leaders (1 Corinthians 12:28; Ephesians 4:11), but it forbids the ranking of persons.
5. The Philemon letter tests the image. Paul does not demand the legal release of Onesimus in so many words, but he insists that the relationship has changed: he is now “a beloved brother,” “both in the flesh and in the Lord.” The family of God cuts across the social divisions of the Roman household, and a master must receive his slave as a brother. Paul’s argument is from kinship in Christ, and the letter shows how far family love reaches.[22]
6. Family love is costly. In 1 John 3:16 the pattern is Christ’s own death, and the duty is to “lay down our lives for the brethren.” John goes on at once to the practical case: one who sees a brother in need and shuts up his heart has no love of God in him (3:17). Family love is measured at the point of sacrifice, not of sentiment. The brotherly love word φιλαδελφία is treated more fully in the companion study “Love in the New Testament.”
7. Peter treats the church as a ἀδελφότης. “Love the brotherhood” (1 Peter 2:17) uses a noun that means the whole company of brothers. It stands beside “fear God” and “honor the king,” and it suggests that the corporate family, not only the individual sibling, is the object of love.

Implications for the Local Church

• Treat one another by family roles. Older men as fathers, younger as brothers, older women as mothers, younger as sisters (1 Timothy 5:1–2). Align: let those categories shape your tone, honoring the older, embracing the younger, and guarding purity throughout.
• Correct as family, not as adversaries. Exhort rather than rebuke; deal with a brother as a brother (1 Timothy 5:1). Adjust: handle disagreement with the gentleness owed to kin, not the sharpness reserved for opponents.
• Guard purity in family relationships. Paul adds “with all purity” precisely where family closeness could be abused (1 Timothy 5:2). Align: keep the warmth of family from ever sliding into what dishonors it.
• Let faith redraw the lines of rank. “You are all brethren” (Matthew 23:8), and a slave can be “a beloved brother” (Philemon 16). Adjust: refuse to let wealth, education, or position decide who is honored in the congregation.
• Make the family your first field of good works. “Especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10). Adjust: let your practical love land on your brothers and sisters, not only on distant causes, even to the point of sacrifice (1 John 3:16).

For Reflection and Discussion

Worldview Questions

1. If I am to treat older believers as parents and younger ones as siblings, how does that reorder the way I speak to and about them?
2. What does “with all purity” (1 Timothy 5:2) guard, and why is it essential to family closeness in the church?
3. How would seeing correction as a family matter change the way I give and receive it?

Discussion Questions

1. Where do we treat fellow members more like acquaintances or opponents than like family?
2. How can our congregation combine genuine family warmth with the purity Paul insists on?
3. What would it look like to make “the household of faith” the first place our good works land?

Analysis Questions

1. Paul assigns family roles by age and sex in 1 Timothy 5:1–2. What does this reveal about how the church’s relationships are meant to work?
2. Why does Paul move from “rebuke” to “exhort” when dealing with an older man? What difference does the family frame make?
3. How does Galatians 6:10 balance love “to all” with special love to the household? What keeps that from being partiality?

Personal Evaluation

Which brother or sister am I currently treating more like a stranger or an opponent than like family — and what would it take to relate to them as Paul instructs?

Discipline in the Household: The Accountability of a Family

Significance

The final use adds a sober note: a family under one Father lives by that Father’s order, and love in a household includes correction. Belonging to God’s house is not only privilege but accountability, and God’s own discipline begins with His own children.

How the Term Is Used in Scripture

Peter locates the beginning of God’s judgment within His household:

1 Peter 4:17 (NKJV): For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

The author of Hebrews quotes the Proverbs and applies them to the family:

Hebrews 12:5–6 (NKJV): And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”

Hebrews 12:7–8 (NKJV): If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.

And the family treats its erring members as members still:

Galatians 6:1 (NKJV): Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted.

2 Thessalonians 3:15 (NKJV): Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.

Exegetical Observations

1. Judgment begins “at the house of God.” Peter says literally that the judgment (κρίμα) begins “from” the house (ἀπὸ τοῦ οἴκου τοῦ θεοῦ). The context is the fiery trial of the suffering church (1 Peter 4:12). Peter does not say that the family suffers because it is worse than the world, but that God’s dealing with sin starts where His name is named. The household is first held to account because it has the most light.[23]
2. The Old Testament background is Ezekiel and Proverbs. Many commentators hear in Peter’s words an echo of Ezekiel 9:6 (“Begin at My sanctuary”) and of the Old Testament teaching that the LORD begins His reckoning with His own people (compare Amos 3:2). This is a widely held view and is general knowledge here.[24]
3. Peter’s question presses the point. “What will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” is a rhetorical question that argues from the lesser to the greater: if the family is not exempt, those outside will not be. It is a warning to the unbeliever, and it is meant to encourage the suffering believer, who may be tempted to envy the world.
4. παιδεία is the training of a child. The noun in Hebrews 12:5–11, and the verb παιδεύω, belong to the world of the παῖς, “child.” The words speak of upbringing, instruction, and correction, and sometimes of a firm hand. They are not words for the punishment of an enemy. Ephesians 6:4 uses the same root when it tells fathers to bring up their children “in the training and admonition of the Lord.” The English “chastening” has hardened, and “training” is often closer to the sense.[25]
5. Hebrews 12 reads suffering as evidence of sonship. The readers are tempted to lose heart under persecution, and the author says that the discipline of the Father is a sign that they are His children: “for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?” The stern word is “illegitimate” (νόθοι), a child with no legal standing in the household. The author does not say that every hardship is God’s punishment for a particular sin. He says that God uses what is hard to train His children for “the peaceable fruit of righteousness” (12:11).
6. Discipline in the church is a family act. Paul tells those who are “spiritual” to “restore” (καταρτίζετε, a word used for mending a net or setting a bone) a person overtaken in trespass, “in a spirit of gentleness” (Galatians 6:1). Even where a church must withdraw from one who persists in disobedience, Paul says, “do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother” (2 Thessalonians 3:15). The aim is to keep the child, not to lose him.[26]
7. The Anabaptist tradition has made household discipline a mark of the church. Many Mennonites have held that the steps of Matthew 18:15–17, taken in love, are part of what it means to be a gathered body of believers, and that to neglect them is to abandon a brother or sister. This must be said gently, since the practice has sometimes been misused and has left wounds. But the biblical aim, restoration within the family, has not changed.

Implications for the Local Church

• Accept that belonging includes accountability. God’s dealing begins “at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17). Align: welcome the Father’s correction as a mark of true sonship, not a threat to it.
• Take sin in the family seriously. If judgment begins with us, the household cannot treat its own wrongdoing lightly. Adjust: neither ignore sin among the family nor handle it without love.
• Let discipline be restorative, aimed at the family’s good. Correction in a household seeks to keep the child, not lose him (Galatians 6:1; 2 Thessalonians 3:15). Align: practice any correction with the goal of restoration, in gentleness, and with an eye to your own weakness.
• Read hardship as training, not abandonment. The Father disciplines “every son whom He receives” (Hebrews 12:6). Adjust: ask what the Father is teaching before asking why He has left.
• Live in reverent seriousness. The verse presses a solemn “what then?” upon the family (1 Peter 4:17). Adjust: let the privilege of belonging produce reverence, not presumption.

For Reflection and Discussion

Worldview Questions

1. If God’s discipline begins with His own household, how should I regard His correction in my life?
2. What does it say about the church’s love when it refuses to address sin among its own?
3. How can accountability be received as a sign of belonging rather than a threat to it?

Discussion Questions

1. Where does our congregation tend to err — ignoring sin in the family, or addressing it without love?
2. What would healthy, restorative family discipline look like among us?
3. How do we hold together the privilege of belonging and the seriousness of accountability?

Analysis Questions

1. Why does judgment begin “at the house of God” (1 Peter 4:17)? What does that reveal about God’s relationship to His family?
2. How does Peter’s rhetorical question (“what will be the end…?”) press the point on the household?
3. How does family discipline differ in aim and tone from mere punishment?

Personal Evaluation

Am I receiving the Father’s correction as a beloved child — and am I willing, in love, to be part of a church that takes the family’s holiness seriously?

What This Picture Adds to the Body of Christ

The body of Christ is the great image of union. It says that believers are joined to the living Head and to one another by one Spirit, that each member has a gift, and that no member can say to another, “I have no need of you” (1 Corinthians 12:21). It is an image of function and interdependence. The household and family of God adds something the body, taken alone, does not say: it speaks of origin, affection, and authority.

Origin. A body is joined, but a family is born and adopted. The household image tells us where the unity comes from. It is not a union of like-minded people who chose each other; it is the fruit of the Father’s decision (Ephesians 1:5), the Son’s redemption (Galatians 4:5), and the Spirit’s new birth and witness (Romans 8:16). The body explains how we belong together. The family explains why we were brought together in the first place: because One Father has named us His own.

Affection. Bodies work, but families love, quarrel, forgive, and sit down to eat. The household image gives the church its warmth. It tells us that a stranger can become a person known by name, a person with a place at the table. It also gives the church its tenderness: older men are fathers, older women are mothers, and young men and women are brothers and sisters, with all purity (1 Timothy 5:1–2). Paul’s instruction to Philemon shows that this affection can cross the deepest social lines.

Authority. The body has a Head, and the household has a Father and a Son over the house. This makes the church’s life a matter of obedience as well as of cooperation. It also gives the church an order to live within and a way to speak of correction. Discipline in a body sounds like surgery, but discipline in a family sounds like a father who cannot bear to lose a child (Hebrews 12:5–11). Both pictures are true, and each needs the other.

How the pictures fit together. The body says, “You belong to Christ and to each other.” The household says, “You belong to a Father who has loved you and has made you heirs.” The Flock of God tells us that we are known, led, and protected by a Shepherd; the household adds that we are also at home. The Temple and Building of God describes the same house as a dwelling of God’s presence, built of living stones, and the family image reminds us that those stones are persons with names. The Bride of Christ speaks of the Son’s love for His church, and the household reminds us that the same church is the Father’s family. The Vine and the Branches shows the source of life, and the household shows the life as shared by siblings. The Royal Priesthood declares that the family is also a people with a task before God and the world.

There are some cautions. The family image must not be turned into a reason for closed circles or for excusing sin among relatives. The natural family and the church family also should not be set against one another, since Scripture honors both (Ephesians 6:1–4). And the Father’s household is not a replacement for individual faith; each child must be born of God (John 1:12–13).

For a congregation like ours, the family image invites us to let the language of “brother” and “sister” be true. It asks whether the person who arrived alone last Sunday is going home with a sense of having been placed in a family. It asks whether the one who is aging, grieving, or struggling is held as kin. And it asks whether the church that so carefully teaches the doctrine of the body also practices the habits of a household: shared meals, gentle correction, visits, and open doors.

Summary: How the Family Shapes the Way a Believer Lives

The household image is not finally a comfort to be admired but a family to be lived in. Gathered up, its uses describe a whole way of belonging.

1. Belonging. Because we are no longer strangers but members of the household, we take our settled place as family, treat other Christians as kin rather than clientele, and draw the newcomer in.
2. Conduct. Because the church is the Father’s house, we learn the manners of the home and guard its trust of truth.
3. Headship. Because Christ is the Son over the house, we live under His rule and hold every office as stewards of the Father’s property.
4. Adoption. Because we are adopted children, we relate to God without a slave’s fear and rest our identity on grace, not performance.
5. Siblings. Because believers are brothers and sisters, we honor the older, embrace the younger, keep purity, and make the family our first field of love.
6. Accountability. Because the household lives under the Father’s discipline, we receive correction as a mark of sonship and restore the fallen in gentleness.
7. Inheritance. Because we are heirs with Christ, we carry ourselves with hope, and share in His suffering as well as His glory.

The whole can be caught in one question of alignment: Am I living as a true member of God’s family, a settled child of the Father, a loving brother or sister to His people, at home under His roof and His order? Where the answer is no, this study has named the adjustment. The believer who takes it seriously will relate to God not as a fearful outsider but as a beloved child, and to the church not as a building he visits but as the home where his Father and his family are.

A Note on Sources

Scripture is quoted from the New King James Version, with each reference given in full. Greek terms appear in the original script; the Strong’s number in parentheses is a lookup aid only, never the source of a definition. Lexical glosses are drawn from standard reference works — Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon and Vine’s Expository Dictionary — and are cited by word (s.v.) rather than page. Definitions or renderings that would benefit from confirmation in BDAG or TDNT are marked accordingly and should be verified against those works before the material is taught. No citation, quotation, or reference in this study has been invented; where a source could not be independently confirmed, the point rests on the biblical text itself.

Bibliography

Directly Retrieved/Verified This Session

King, James B. Working notes on the household and family of God (Markdown conversion of the author’s Word file, “house”). The five sections, the New King James Version passages quoted in them, and their implications and questions are from this file. No lexicon, commentary, or other outside work was retrieved or verified this session.

Located Only Through Secondary Summary

None. The glosses taken from Thayer’s lexicon and Vine’s dictionary in the author’s original notes were not re-verified this session.

Not Directly Consulted This Session

Danker, Frederick W., ed. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (BDAG). 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

Kittel, Gerhard, and Gerhard Friedrich, eds. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–1976. The articles on οἶκος, υἱοθεσία, ἀδελφός, and παιδεία.

Silva, Moisés, ed. New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and Exegesis. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2014.

Liddell, Henry George, and Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. Rev. Henry Stuart Jones. 9th ed. Oxford: Clarendon, 1940.

Koehler, Ludwig, and Walter Baumgartner. The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (HALOT). 5 vols. Leiden: Brill, 1994–2000.

Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (BDB). Oxford: Clarendon, 1907.

Harris, R. Laird, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, eds. Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (TWOT). Chicago: Moody, 1980.

Thayer, Joseph Henry. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament. New York: American Book Company, 1889.

Vine, W. E. Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words.

Lincoln, Andrew T. Ephesians. Word Biblical Commentary 42. Dallas: Word, 1990.

Hoehner, Harold W. Ephesians: An Exegetical Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2002.

O’Brien, Peter T. The Letter to the Ephesians. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999.

Towner, Philip H. The Letters to Timothy and Titus. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006.

Lane, William L. Hebrews. Word Biblical Commentary 47A–47B. Dallas: Word, 1991.

Ellingworth, Paul. The Epistle to the Hebrews. New International Greek Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1993.

Moo, Douglas J. The Epistle to the Romans. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996.

Longenecker, Richard N. Galatians. Word Biblical Commentary 41. Dallas: Word, 1990.

Davids, Peter H. The First Epistle of Peter. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.

Scott, James M. Adoption as Sons of God. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 2/48. Mohr Siebeck, 1992.

Burke, Trevor J. Adopted into God’s Family: Exploring a Pauline Metaphor. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2006.

Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The quotations were supplied from memory and should be verified against the printed text before use in teaching.

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[1] The glosses for οἶκος (“house; household, family”) and οἰκεῖος (“belonging to a household; a member of a household”) follow the sense given in Thayer’s lexicon and in the author’s original notes, which are not independently retrieved this session. Thayer predates the papyri; confirm in BDAG and TDNT.

[2] Vine’s Expository Dictionary, s.v. “Brother,” as cited in the author’s original notes, not re-verified this session. The adoption noun is υἱοθεσία. Confirm in BDAG and TDNT.

[3] The reading of Exodus 4:22 as the first declaration of Israel’s national sonship is a widely held position in Old Testament commentary, from general knowledge. No commentary was consulted. The Hebrew terms בֵּן and בְּכוֹר should be confirmed in HALOT and BDB.

[4] The range of בַּיִת (“house, household, family, dynasty”) is given from general knowledge and should be confirmed in HALOT, BDB, and TWOT. The connection of Genesis 17 with the household nature of the covenant sign is a common observation and not drawn from any specific work. Mennonite and other believer-church traditions differ from paedobaptist traditions on how the sign of the covenant carries into the New Testament; this study takes no position on that question.

[5] All glosses in this list are from general knowledge of New Testament vocabulary and the author’s original notes, and are not verified in a lexicon this session. Word counts are not given. Confirm each entry in BDAG, TDNT, NIDNTTE, HALOT, and BDB.

[6] Psalm 68:6 in the NKJV reads, “God sets the solitary in families.” The quotation is from memory and should be verified. The paraphrase in the text is the author’s.

[7] The progression from ξένοι and πάροικοι to συμπολῖται and οἰκεῖοι is a common observation in commentary on Ephesians (for example, Lincoln, Hoehner, and O’Brien). This is from general knowledge and the Greek text of Ephesians 2:19; none of these commentaries was consulted this session, and no page numbers are given.

[8] The point that the οἰκεῖοι could include servants and dependants as well as blood relatives is from general knowledge of ancient household structure and should be confirmed in BDAG and LSJ.

[9] The reading of “sons” in Galatians 3:26 as inclusive of all believers, with the note on heirship in verses 28 and 29, is a widely held position, from general knowledge of commentary on Galatians (for example, Longenecker). No commentary was consulted.

[10] The reading of Galatians 6:10 as a priority and not an exclusion is the common reading, from general knowledge. The Greek wording (“those of the household of the faith”) is from memory and should be checked in a Greek New Testament.

[11] The observation that 1 Timothy 3:15 states the purpose of the letter, and that the verb ἀναστρέφεσθαι means “to conduct oneself,” is common in commentary on the Pastoral Epistles (for example, Towner). This is from general knowledge, and BDAG should be consulted for the verb.

[12] The debate over whether “pillar and ground of the truth” refers to the church or attaches to the confession in 3:16 is noted in many commentaries on the Pastoral Epistles. This is from general knowledge, and the meaning of στῦλος and ἑδραίωμα should be confirmed in BDAG.

[13] The contrast between Moses as θεράπων in the house and Christ as υἱός over the house is a common observation in commentary on Hebrews (for example, Lane and Ellingworth), from general knowledge. The use of θεράπων for Moses in the Greek translation of Numbers 12:7 is from general knowledge and should be confirmed in a Septuagint text. No commentary was consulted.

[14] The range of evangelical interpretations of the conditional in Hebrews 3:6 is from general knowledge of the commentary literature. This study takes no position on the question of perseverance beyond the text itself.

[15] The sense of οἰκονόμος as a household manager, often a slave or freedman, is from general knowledge of ancient household practice and should be confirmed in BDAG and TDNT.

[16] The occurrences of υἱοθεσία in Romans 8:15, 8:23, 9:4, Galatians 4:5, and Ephesians 1:5 are from memory and should be confirmed in a concordance. The remark that the word is rare before Paul is from general knowledge and should be confirmed in BDAG and TDNT.

[17] The description of Roman adoption (adoptio and adrogatio, the transfer of patria potestas, the new heir’s rights, and the severing of old ties) is general knowledge of Roman law and not drawn from a source consulted this session. For the scholarly discussion of the background of υἱοθεσία, see James M. Scott, Adoption as Sons of God, and Trevor J. Burke, Adopted into God’s Family, neither of which was consulted this session. Scholars disagree on how much weight to give the Roman, Greek, and Old Testament backgrounds.

[18] The association of ἀββά with Jesus’ own address of God is widely associated with the work of Joachim Jeremias, and the caution against reading it as only “Daddy” is also widely made. Both are from general knowledge; no work was consulted. See Moo’s commentary on Romans for a standard discussion.

[19] The Old Testament use of נַחֲלָה both for the land and for the LORD as Israel’s portion is from general knowledge and should be confirmed in HALOT, BDB, and TWOT.

[20] That ἐπιπλήσσω occurs only in 1 Timothy 5:1 in the New Testament is from general knowledge and should be confirmed in a concordance. The sense “rebuke sharply” should be confirmed in BDAG.

[21] The point that ἀδελφοί often includes both men and women is widely made in lexicons and commentaries (including BDAG), from general knowledge, and should be confirmed there. The NKJV’s “brethren” in many places is rendered “brothers and sisters” in several modern versions.

[22] The reading of Philemon as an appeal from kinship in Christ, with the legal question left open, is a common view in commentary on the letter. This is from general knowledge, and no commentary was consulted.

[23] The reading of 1 Peter 4:17 in its context of the fiery trial is common in commentary on 1 Peter (for example, Davids). This is from general knowledge, and no commentary was consulted.

[24] The echo of Ezekiel 9:6 in 1 Peter 4:17 is mentioned in many commentaries. It is from general knowledge, and the quotation of Ezekiel 9:6 should be verified against the printed NKJV.

[25] The association of παιδεία and παιδεύω with the upbringing of a child (παῖς) is standard in lexicons. This is from general knowledge, and BDAG, TDNT, and LSJ should be consulted.

[26] The use of καταρτίζω for mending nets (Matthew 4:21) and its sense of “restore” or “put in order” are from general knowledge and should be confirmed in BDAG.