People often say we’re all God’s children. Since He created us all and all human beings have infinite worth, I suppose we have a kinship. I know He doesn’t want anyone to be lost. And those who believe in Christ didn’t do anything to earn their salvation.
Yet if you look for the teaching that “we’re all God’s children” in the Bible you won’t find it. Every instance I could find only references those whose faith is in Christ. For example:
John 1:12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
Romans 9:8 In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring.
Galatians 3:26 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus
Mark 3:32-35 A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. 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.”
Now consider these verses which point out that before our salvation we were enemies of God and objects of wrath:
Romans 5:10 For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Colossians 1:21 Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
Ephesians 2:3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.”
If I am missing any Bible verses that teach otherwise, please correct me. I mentioned this once at church and got dirty looks. While I get no pleasure in communicating this, it seems to be the clear message of scripture: You will spend eternity as a friend of God or an enemy. Communicating the “we’re all God’s children” theme could give people a false sense of security.
Thanks be to God for the gift of his Son so that we could be reconciled to him and adopted by him!
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God’s children are those that accept Jesus as their own personal Lord and Savior. God’s children, however, are not religious pharisees that only want to bash all kinds of people upside their heads with their laws, rules and regulations. I know this sounds really harsh, but that’s the truth of the matter. Think about it, when Jesus was alive on this earth, and He had to deal with the pharisees who were ALWAYS trying to cause Him to fall, they were not doing it for God’s Kingdom. They were doing it to honor the laws and statutes they held so dear, the very same laws and statutes that shamed any person in their day that didn’t obey whatever laws existed at that time concerning the Sabbath Day. Does shame and guilt have ANYTHING to do with God? That’s a huge NO.
Niel,
I’ve heard it say that humans brothers in Adam, but only Christians are Brothers in Christ.
Edgar.
[...] people think that every person is a child of God, but that isn’t what the Bible teaches. Jesus loves everyone and wants them to have a saving relationship with him, but only those who [...]
You rightly note that there is a sense in which we’re all children of God in that we’re all God’s creation. We’re all beloved of God. God wants all of us to be together in the Kingdom.
And you can certainly make the case that some reject this kinship and are not children of God in a sense. Or, some who were children of God have been cut off and others who weren’t have been grafted in (Romans 11).
There’s also the Acts 17 passage that notes:
as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’ Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.
Where Paul is talking to the pagan Athenians (not “children of God” in the one sense, but certainly children of God in the other sense – God is our creator and Parent to us all.
In the end, it is an analogy either way. God is no one’s literal parent. But in the greater sense, God is creator of us all. And in the greater sense still, we can choose that kinship or reject it, but God’s desire is for us to accept the benefits of being part of God’s family.
Seems to me.
God is no one’s literal parent.>
Dan, what is your problem with God as Father?
[...] us as children. Some people say that everyone is a “child of God,” but as I explored here that is not the case. We should live in joy that God has adopted us and share that with [...]