Is blood thicker than water?

"Blood is thicker than water"

This old saying has been used over and over to make a point about blood relatives being #1 in your life. 

I come from a Hispanic background where this is the main mantra. Family members would go so far as to cover up illegal or dangerous behavior for the sake of 'familia'. Stupid, right? Not to them. If you really believe that the unity of blood relatives should precede all others, why not lie for them, steal for them, compromise morals for them?

This is something many Americans deem to be true as well. How dare you cut your parents out or stop talking to your crazy uncle Joe for the protection of your own children? Family forever!

Now, before I get carried away, let me clarify. The Bible does uphold the nuclear family as being VERY important. We are to honor our father and mother and love our children and teach them to fear the Lord. We are to forsake all others, leave our father and mother, and cleave to our spouse. Husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church and wives should submit to husbands. There is bold instruction in regards to certain family dynamics. But there is NOWHERE in scripture, a command to be your blood brother's best friend or bend over backwards for your aunt and uncle in the name of "family". Nope.

What the Bible does say is that we are to love our neighbor. We are to love and keep peace between everyone so long as the ball is in our court. (Romans 12:18) We are also told to love and pray for our enemies. Almost all of us have a family member or two who appear to be an enemy... and therefore, we are called to love and pray for them. So there's that. We are not told to hate our blood relatives. They too are our neighbors. We are to love them!

BUT... Does the Bible uphold blood? Didn't Jesus come to abolish carnal importance? He did, indeed. Before Christ came, the carnal flesh was regarded as very important. Whether you were a Jew or Gentile mattered. Who you descended from mattered. But Christ came and died for us and then it was made clear that, "...there is no difference between Jew and Gentile for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him." (Romans 10:12)

Gill's commentary says,

"For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek.... Some reasons are here assigned, confirming the apostle's sense of the prophet's words, that everyone that believes in Christ shall be saved; for there is no distinction of nations, no superiority on account of carnal descent, or fleshly privileges, no preeminence on the score of the laws and ordinances of the former dispensation, all which are now abolished; nor is there any difference in their state God-ward, all being under sin, and without a righteousness, and all standing in need of the righteousness of Christ, and salvation by him; to which is added another reason."

Jesus tells us that truth will divide. He says we must be prepared for the inevitable division that will occur when family members are offended by his Truth AND we have to be willing to stick to Truth. We have to choose Him over family, always. Matthew 10:34-37 says,

 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn
“‘a man against his father,
    a daughter against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

In fact, Jesus himself tells us who we are to regard as family.  Matthew 12: 46-50 says,

While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him. Someone told him, “Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.”
He replied to him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

We are called to put our church family above extended relatives. The Bible is clear that just because someone is related to us by blood does not make them true family. Eric and I have learned this since moving away from all of our blood relatives. Though we love our blood relatives, we truly have gained family members out here. Our church is filled with those who, because they have love for the Lord, they love and care for us as their own. Blood is not upheld. It is irrelevant. We have brothers and sisters here in Oklahoma and all over the world, for that matter. The Church is our true family. We've been graciously adopted because of the blood of Jesus. That is the only blood that matters. His blood!

I found this excerpt from another blog... her name is Robyn Wilde and I honestly have no idea who she is but this was just too brilliant not to share:

"Everyone I know who protests the point I’m trying to make here is someone from a very close-knit family that understands the way God meant that social unit to operate. If that’s you, then praise God, because He has blessed you in ways that a lot of the world will never understand. I’m not here to rend asunder what God has put together.

But for everyone else— the ones who come from broken homes, the ones who could never confide in their father or brother, the ones who never knew their birth parents, the ones who are alienated from their families: you are not alone. God is “A father of the fatherless, a defender of widows…[He] sets the solitary in families” (Psalm 68:5-6.) Before the world was created, He “predestined us to adoption as sons” (Ephesians 1:5,) and “loved [us] with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3.) God knows full well how broken human families are. But He is a perfect Father. And your adopted Brother? He took on mortal flesh just so that He could die to save you. He didn’t just pull some strings from on high, no, He walked willingly to the whip, and the thorns, and the nails, and the spear, and shed His blood to make you a part of His family so that you need never be alone again.

The blood of the covenant made in Christ is by far thicker than the water of the sinful human womb."

xoxo, A Law Student's Wife