C’EST UNE AFFAIRE DE FAMILLE ! – Ps Teddy NGBANDA-IT’S A FAMILY MATTER! – Ps Teddy NGBANDA

It’s a family matter!

There’s a mystery that many believers still haven’t grasped. A powerful principle, an unshakable foundation that underlies everything God does on this earth: God is a God of family! He doesn’t build organizations; He builds households. He’s not looking for anonymous servants but for sons and daughters rooted in His love. Yet many still walk like mercenaries in the Father’s house, forgetting that they are heirs and members of a great spiritual family.

Look at what Paul says to the Ephesians:

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. (Ephesians 2:19)

You are of God’s household! But are you truly living with that mindset?

Today, the Lord wants to break orphaned, mercenary, and individualistic mindsets in His Church. He is calling us to live as a family, to support one another, to love one another and walk together. Because if we don’t understand this principle, we risk becoming like the older son in the parable of the prodigal son: present in the Father’s house, but completely foreign to His heart.

The older brother: in the house, but not in the family

Look at this heart-wrenching scene in Luke 15. The younger son—the one who squandered his inheritance in reckless living—returns home, and the father decides to celebrate his return with a great feast. Everyone rejoices… except for one person: his very own brother!

When he hears the music and the sounds of celebration, he doesn’t rejoice. He questions it. He demands an explanation. And when he realizes that his younger brother has returned and been welcomed back with honor, he becomes angry!

How is it that instead of celebrating his brother’s return, he shuts down, gets offended, and refuses to enter into his father’s joy? This passage reveals a deep issue: some are in the Father’s house, but they are not walking in the spirit of family.

The older son defines himself first by his labor:

“Look, these many years I have served you…” (Luke 15:29)

He functions like a slave, not like a son. His entire relationship with his father is based on performance, and not on the simple truth that he is his child. He never took hold of his inheritance! Otherwise, he would have realized that:

“All that is mine is yours.” (Luke 15:31)

How many believers today live like this older son? They serve, they work, they strive to be “good Christians”… but without walking in love and the spirit of family. They become irritated when new souls are honored. They judge who deserves what. They have forgotten that the Church is not a merit-based organization, but a family where everyone receives by the grace of the Father.

If you’re in the Father’s house but still walking with a servant’s mindset instead of a son’s, then rise up and renew your mind. God is not looking for workers—He is looking for sons and daughters who know they belong to Him!

Belonging to a family, not just a group

Many attend church meetings without truly belonging to the spiritual family. Paul says:

We are members of God’s household. (Ephesians 2:19)

This is not a theological concept—it’s a living reality! When God saved you, He didn’t leave you alone. He gave you brothers and sisters.

But how are you living out this reality? If church is just a pitstop for you, a platform where you come to consume a message and then leave, then you’ve missed God’s purpose.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord!” (Psalm 122:1)

Do you still have that joy to go to your Father’s house, surrounded by your brothers and sisters? Or do you come just to check a religious box?

When the Church functions as a true family, God’s love becomes visible on earth. In a family, we don’t just cross paths once a week—we live together, we support one another, we take care of each other. That’s why the Lord is calling us to build impactful families, small groups where we learn to grow together in love and mutual service.

It’s time to break out of consumerist attitudes and step into a true dynamic of family. In Christ, we are bound by something stronger than human blood: the blood of Jesus!

Supporting your brother instead of condemning him

One of the devil’s greatest traps is the division of the body of Christ. Satan knows that when believers love one another and walk in unity, nothing can stop them. That’s why he persistently sows rejection, suspicion, bitterness, and mistrust among God’s people.

Look at the older son’s attitude. He no longer sees his brother as his brother. He says to his father:

“This son of yours.” (Luke 15:30)

He has totally detached himself. He forgets that no matter what his younger brother has done, he is still his brother.

How many times have we done the same? How many times have we abandoned a fallen brother instead of reaching out to lift him up? How many believers today suffer silently, isolated, because no one stood up and said: “No, I will not let my brother die in this situation—he belongs to our spiritual family.”

Bear with one another and forgive each other. (Colossians 3:12-15)

Walking as a family means choosing to love even when it’s hard. It means carrying one another’s burdens. It means refusing to judge those who have fallen and instead lifting them up with grace and truth.