What Does The Bible Say About Family?

What Does The Bible Say About Family? The first words that God speaks to humans in the Bible, precisely in Genesis 1, are the divine blessing “be fruitful and multiply.” Let’s further support this message by reading from Genesis 1:27-28 – “So God created human beings, making them to be like Himself. He created them male and female, blessed them, and said, ‘Have many children so that your descendants will live all over the earth and bring it under their control. I am putting you in charge of the fish, the birds, and all wild animals.”‘ Today, the father, mother, and children make up a unit which we refer to as the family. And behold, the principles of a successful family are all embedded in the Bible. That’s why we hereby write to reveal what the Bible says about family.

There are many verses in the Bible that actually talk about the family in the light of God’s ways. When these verses are read and adhered to, they produce a wonderful and God-fearing family that is destined for Eternal Life through Christ. Such a family is one that has Sincerely Repented from their sins and embarked on a journey of obeying the Key Teachings of Jesus Christ. God is pleased with such a family and He will locate them in His Mercy and Favor. Such a family will live to see God. God will always reach out to help them whenever they are in trouble, hardship, pains, and sickness. It is in this light that God has instructed every parent to teach His ways to their children in the morning, afternoon, evening, and at all times.

What Does The Bible Say About Family?

What the Scriptures say about Family?

Going through the Bible, we realize that the concept of family is very important in the eyes of God. Indeed, it is very important both in the physical and theological sense. The concept of family was introduced from the very beginning by God as we can read from Genesis 1:28. Brethren, let no one deceive you for God’s plan for creation was that men and women get married to have children who will occupy the whole earth. From the very beginning, a man and woman were destined to become “one-flesh” through the union of marriage. Let’s support this by reading from Genesis 2:24 – “That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united with his wife, and they become one.”

We also perceive in the early Biblical times that the family members were to look after and care for one another. Remember when God asked Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” Cain’s flippant answer, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” came as a result of the sinful path that he had taken by killing his brother, Abel. It is God’s will that we show love as well as cater for our family members. In the same light, we are all called by Jesus Christ, savior of the world, to care and love every human-being as we love and care for ourselves. It is even said in the Bible that anyone who does not love does not know God. This is because God is love in nature. He displayed the greatest level of love by sending His only beloved son, Jesus Christ, to be crucified on the cross for our sins.

How does God define Family?

Through the framework of the family, God guides us into understanding authority and His plan for humanity. In addition, the structure of the family is vital to many other principles, laws, and teachings in the Bible. By understanding God’s plan for the family, we can clearly understand His word. God instituted the family back in Genesis 2:18 – “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.” Having said this, God formed Eve from a rib of Adam as we can read from Genesis 2:21-24 – “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

God in His wisdom brought Adam and Eve together as Husband and Wife thereby establishing the basis for the family. God’s desire for the family is that it reproduce and multiply. God desires that husbands and Wives bring forth offspring. This makes up for the definition that God has for the family. Within a family, God has given each member a role and responsibility. Below are the main roles given by God to each member of the family. Note that each member can fill one or more of the following roles:

1. Husband

Colossians 3:19 – “Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.” Ephesians 5:25-28 – “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.”

It is a command from God that a husband loves his wife as his own flesh. Failing to love your wife as your own flesh is failing to honor God’s plan for marriage. As a husband, you’ve been invited by God to deeply love and support your wife. By so doing, you are calling on God’s favor and mercy in your family. Remember that there is no prerequisite mentioned as a condition for the wife to fulfill before her husband loves her.

2. Father

Colossians 3:21 – “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.” Ephesians 6:4 – “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” In simple terms, a father is a man who has begotten a child. God commands Fathers to bring up their children in His ways and not “provoke them to wrath.”

3. Wife

Ephesians 5:22, 23 – “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body.” It is God’s command for wives to submit to the authority of their husbands. Through submission to their husbands, they are showing a proper relationship to authority. Doing so will also help children to understand the importance of accepting and submitting to the authority over them. Note here that there is no prerequisite condition for the husband to fulfill before his wife submits to his authority.

4. Mother

Titus 2:4, 5 – “That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.” 1 Timothy 5:14 – “I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.”

The Old Women in the Church of Christ have as responsibility to teach the Young Women on bearing children, loving children, teaching them the ways of God, loving their husbands, taking care of their home, caring and submitting to their husbands.

5. Children

Ephesians 6:1-3 – “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.” Exodus 20:12 – “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.”

God commands children to obey and honor their parents. Children do not only need to obey but to obey in a respectful manner that adds value to the growth of the family unit under their father’s supervision. Although we do not know how long God has given us to live, the Bible tells us that those who obey their parents will live longer lives than they would if they were hateful, disrespectful, and disobedient to their father and mother.

ALSO READ Did The Catholic Church Change The Ten Commandments In Order To Worship Or Promote The Worship Of Graven Images And Statues?

6. Siblings

I Timothy 5:1-3 – “Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father; and the younger men as brethren; The elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity. Honour widows that are widows indeed.” Apostle Paul through his teachings is calling on all of us to hold tight to the fact that a family unit behaves with respect and love towards one another. In God’s church, we are to honor, love, and respect one another as we would do to our brothers, sisters, mother, and father.

Family, Church and God’s Authority

Upon understanding the family framework in the light of God, we get a better grasp of how God wants us to interact with one another and with His Sovereign authority as the Father of Creation. The family unit portrays another establishment made by God – the Church of Christ. In this establishment, Jesus Christ is the head. That is, He is the head of the Church (an assembly of God’s people). The Church as a whole is His bride. It operates under His authority. We as individuals in the Church of Christ are His children, and siblings. Hence, having a proper family unit will guide your children into having a better understanding of God, His Church, and His authority. Note that children are more likely to fear and respect God whom they do not see if they are taught to respect and honor their parents whom they dwell with.

What The Bible Says About Family

Proverbs 6:20 – “My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”

Acts 16:31 – They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.”

1 Corinthians 1:10 – “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.”

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 – “These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.”

Ephesians 6:4 – “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”

Isaiah 49:15-16 – “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne?Though she may forget,I will not forget you!See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;your walls are ever before me.”

1 John 4:20 – “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”

Psalm 133:1 – “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!”

Group 1 – What The Bible Says About Family

Exodus 20:12 – “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.”

1 Timothy 5:8 – “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

Proverbs 22:6 – “Start children off on the way they should go,and even when they are old they will not turn from it.”

Psalm 103:17-18 – “But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,and his righteousness with their children’s children—with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.”

Luke 11:13 – “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Proverbs 17:6 – “Children’s children are a crown to the aged,and parents are the pride of their children.”

1 Kings 8:57 – “May the Lord our God be with us as he was with our ancestors; may he never leave us nor forsake us.”

Proverbs 18:24 – “One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin,but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

Proverbs 17:17 – “A friend loves at all times,and a brother is born for a time of adversity.”

Group 2 – What The Bible Says About Family

Matthew 19:19 – “‘Honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Joshua 24:15 – “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

1 John 3:2-3 – “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”

Proverbs 23:15 – “My son, if your heart is wise,then my heart will be glad indeed.”

Proverbs 27:10 – “Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family,and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you—better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.“

Matthew 19:18b-19 – “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’”

Proverbs 10:1 – “A wise son brings joy to his father,but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.”

Proverbs 23:24 – “The father of a righteous child has great joy;a man who fathers a wise son rejoices in him.”

Group 3 – What The Bible Says About Family

Ephesians 6:4 – “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger by the way you treat them. Rather, bring them up with the discipline and instruction that comes from the Lord.”

Proverbs 15:27 – “A greedy man brings trouble to his family, but he who hates bribes will live.”

Colossians 3:20 – “Children, always obey your parents, for this pleases the Lord.”

Proverbs 31:15-17 – “She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls. She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings, she plants a vineyard. She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.”

Proverbs 11:29 – “He who brings trouble on his family will inherit only wind, and the fool will be a servant to the wise.”

Acts 18:8 – “Crispus, the leader of the synagogue, and everyone in his household believed in the Lord. Many others in Corinth also heard Paul, became believers, and were baptized.”

Mark 3:23-25 – “Jesus called them over and responded with an illustration. “How can Satan cast out Satan?” he asked. “A kingdom divided by civil war will collapse. Similarly, a family splintered by feuding will fall apart.””

1 Timothy 5:8 – “But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”

Proverbs 22:6 – “Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.”

Group 4 – What The Bible Says About Family

Ephesians 6:1-2 – “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” – which is the first commandment with a promise.”

Colossians 3:20 – “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”

Proverbs 15:20 – “A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish man despises his mother.”

Matthew 15:4 – “For God said, “Honor your father and mother” and “Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.””

Romans 8:15 – “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!””

Proverbs 6:20 – “My son, keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”

Proverbs 1:8 – “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”

Ephesians 3:14-15 – “For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.”

Ephesians 1:5 – “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.”

Ephesians 2:19 – “So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.”

ALSO READ Can Jehovah's Witnesses Join Sororities?

Group 5 – What The Bible Says About Family

Proverbs 31:28-29 – “Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.””

Acts 10:2 – “He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.”

Exodus 20:12 – “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”

Psalm 103:17 – “But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children.”

Deuteronomy 5:16 – “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”

Group 6 – What Does The Bible Say About Family?

Proverbs 6:20 – “My son, keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”

Proverbs 1:8 – “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”

Colossians 3:20 – “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”

Genesis 30:22-24 – “Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. She conceived and bore a son and said, “God has taken away my reproach.” And she called his name Joseph, saying, “May the LORD add to me another son!””

Ephesians 6:1-2 – “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”–which is the first commandment with a promise.”

Psalm 103:17 – “But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children.”

Joshua 24:15 – “But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Deuteronomy 5:16 – “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.”

Group 7 – What Does The Bible Say About Family?

Leviticus 19:17-18 – “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour, and not suffer sin upon him.“

Proverbs 3:5 – “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

Matthew 15:4 – For God said, “Honor your father and mother” and “Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.”

1 Timothy 3:4 – “One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity…”

Proverbs 15:27 – “A greedy man brings trouble to his family, but he who hates bribes will live.”

Proverbs 15:20 – “A wise son brings joy to his father, but a foolish man despises his mother.”

John 3:1-36 – “There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.”

Acts 2:39 – “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, [even] as many as the Lord our God shall call.”

1 Corinthians 7:10-11 – “And unto the married I command, [yet] not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from [her] husband.”

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 – “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become [as] sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.”

Ephesians 3:14-15 – “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Group 8 – What Does The Bible Say About Family?

Acts 2:47 – “Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

1 Corinthians 1:2 – “Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called [to be] saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours.”

Romans 10:9-10 – “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

1 Corinthians 15:22 – “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”

John 17:21 – “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”

John 8:1-59 – “Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.”

Acts 2:41 – “Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added [unto them] about three thousand souls.”

Acts 2:38 – “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”

Proverbs 30:18-19 – “There be three [things which] are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:”

Group 9 – What Does The Bible Say About Family? – What Does The Bible Say About Family?

Genesis 2:24 – “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

Ephesians 5:21 – “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”

Ephesians 6:4 – “And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

Hebrews 11:1-40 – “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Proverbs 3:6 – “In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

1 Peter 1:1-25 – “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,”

Luke 16:18 – “Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from [her] husband committeth adultery.”

Psalms 1:1-6 – “Blessed [is] the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

Psalms 127:1 – “(A Song of degrees for Solomon) Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh [but] in vain.”

Matthew 7:21-23 – “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”

Group 10 – What Does The Bible Say About Family?

Genesis 2:15 – “And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.”

Proverbs 1:1-127 – “The proverbs of Solomon the son of David, king of Israel;”

Joshua 24:15 – “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.“

ALSO READ Examples of Suicide in the Bible

John 10:10 – “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I have come that they might have life and that they might have [it] more abundantly.”

Proverbs 16:1-33 – “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, [is] from the LORD.”

Proverbs 1:8 – “My son, hear the instruction of thy father and forsake not the law of thy mother.”

Jeremiah 33:3 – “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

Group 11 – What Does The Bible Say About Family?

Romans 8:1 – “[There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.“

Proverbs 13:22 – “A good [man] leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner [is] laid up for the just.”

Psalms 23:1-6 – “(A Psalm of David.) The LORD [is] my shepherd; I shall not want.”

Proverbs 22:7 – “The rich ruleth over the poor, and the borrower [is] servant to the lender.”

Proverbs 21:20 – “[There is] treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spendeth it up.”

Luke 14:28 – “For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have [sufficient] to finish [it]?”

2 Thessalonians 3:6 – “Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly, and not after the tradition which he received of us.”

Genesis 1:26-27 – “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.“

Group 12 – What Does The Bible Say About Family?

Ephesians 6:1-4 – “Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.”

Matthew 5:4 – “Blessed [are] they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.“

Psalms 127:1-5 – “(A Song of degrees for Solomon) Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh [but] in vain.”

Luke 12:51-53 – “Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather, division.”

Joshua 24:15 – “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Group 13 – What Does The Bible Say About Family?

Proverbs 22:6 – “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”

1 Corinthians 13:13 – “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Proverbs 6:20 – “My son, keep your father’s commands and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”

Colossians 3:20 – “Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.”

Proverbs 1:8 – “Listen, my son, to your father’s instruction and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.”

Proverbs 13:24 – “He who spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.”

Hebrews 13:4 – “Marriage should be honoured by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”

2 Corinthians 6:18 – “And I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

Genesis 2:24 – “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”

Philippians 4:13 – “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

Group 14 – What Does The Bible Say About Family?

Psalm 127:3 – “Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.”

Ephesians 5:24 – “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”

Proverbs 22:6 – “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

Ephesians 6:1-2 – “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honour your father and mother – which is the first commandment with a promise.”

Ephesians 5:25 – “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”

Group 15 – What Does The Bible Say About Family?

Proverbs 18:24 – “A man [that hath] friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend [that] sticketh closer than a brother.”

Genesis 2:24 – “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

Psalms 127:3-5 – “Lo, children [are] a heritage of the LORD: [and] the fruit of the womb [is his] reward.”

Ephesians 5:22-33 – “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.“

Genesis 1:28 – “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”

Psalms 127:1 – “(A Song of degrees for Solomon.) Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh [but] in vain.”

Matthew 12:48-50 – “But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? And who are my brethren?”