Section Eight

Gospels

Here are some verses from the Gospels that use the word ‘children’ to describe the ability to belong to God’s family. 1. The beatitudes in Matthew’s gospel are a set of nine statements, each of which starts with ‘blessed are…’. One of these statements says that peacemakers are blessed because they will be called children of God. 2. Matthew’s gospel has Jesus teaching that loving your enemies and praying for those that persecute you will result in being ‘children of your Father in heaven’. 3. The equivalent of point 2, Luke’s gospel has Jesus teaching about loving your enemy. Doing this will result in a great reward and, alongside this, the privilege of being ‘children of the Most High’. 4. Jesus compares the people of that generation to children. He says that they are like children who call out to each other and complain that their actions do not get the expected response (i.e. childish behaviour). Some verses from John’s gospel that use the word ‘children’ in a non-literal sense. 5. To those who received Jesus, those who believed in his name, he gives the right to those people to be called ‘children of God’. 6. The people claim that they are children of Abraham, but Jesus says that if they were properly claiming that this means that they would not be trying to kill him. Jesus says that for God to be their father, they have to love him. 7. Jesus died for the Jewish nation, but not only for the Jewish nation. He also died for the ‘scattered children of God’.