Is Blood Thicker Than Water?

Blood is thicker than water. I’ve often hear that idiom used to describe the required commitment to family regardless of competing influences. The problem with this idea is that not all families have healthy ways of doing things.

Sometimes conflict arises when an individual tries to move beyond family expectations and try something new or different. People can get stuck or held back because their family of origin has a certain way of relating and doing things that are counterproductive to growth.

But as a Christian we become a new creation, 2 Corinthians 5:17 reads, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”

Scripture clearly shares that this isn’t always easy, “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.”

Jesus explained to his listeners in Matthew 12, “For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” Here we see that obedience to God, and his call, takes precedence over the demands or expectations of a family.

Of course there is room for fellowship and reconciliation between family members who might not be on the same page, but it cannot be at the expense of following Christ and all that he has for you.

PT/LT