What should be the order of priorities in our family? | GotQuestions.org

Hi there, many others like you have asked, what should be the order of priorities in our family? Let's find out, shall we? You can also discover more on GotQuestions .org. The Bible does not lay out a step-by-step order for family relationship priorities.

God Comes First in Family Priorities

However, we can look to Scripture and find general principles for prioritizing our family relationships. God obviously comes first. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and with all your strength.

All of one's heart, soul, and strength is to be committed to loving God, making Him the first priority. Church membership and regular church attendance will be one way a family shows that God is first in their lives.

Spouses, Children, and the Marriage Relationship

If you are married, your spouse comes next. A married man is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. Christ's first priority after obeying and glorifying the Father was the church. A husband should prioritize God first, then his wife.

In the same way, wives are to submit to their husbands as to the Lord. A woman's husband is second priority only to God. If husbands and wives are second only to God in our priorities, and since a husband and wife are one flesh, it stands to reason that the result of marriage relationship, children, should be the next priority.

Parents are to raise godly children who will be the next generation of those who love the Lord with all their hearts, showing once again that God comes first. All other family relationships should reflect that.

Honoring Parents and Extended Family

Deuteronomy 5 .16 tells us to honor our parents so that we may live long and so things will go well with us. Note, no age limit is specified, which means as long as our parents are alive, we should honor them.

Of course, once a child reaches adulthood, he is no longer obligated to obey them, but there is no age limit to honoring them. We can conclude from this that parents are next in the list of priorities after God, our spouses, and our children.

After parents comes the rest of one's family, following one's extended family in the list of priorities, our fellow believers. Romans 14 tells us not to judge or look down upon our brothers, or do anything to cause a fellow Christian to stumble or fall spiritually.

Much of 1 Corinthians is Paul's instructions on how the church should live together in harmony, loving one another. Many other exhortations referring to our brothers and sisters in Christ are scattered through the New Testament.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Then the World

Finally, comes the rest of the world, to whom we should bring the gospel, making disciples.

Of Christ.

In conclusion, the scriptural order of priorities is God, spouse, children, parents, extended family, brothers and sisters in Christ, and then the rest of the world. While sometimes decisions may be made to focus on one person over another, the goal is to not be neglecting any of our relationships.

The biblical balance is allowing God to empower us to meet our relationship priorities, inside and outside our families. Alright, that answers your question, what should be the order of priorities in our family?

On our website, GotQuestions .org, you'll find an in-depth article with citations and resource suggestions. If this helped you as much as it did others, like this video and subscribe to the GotQuestions channel.

Meanwhile, if you'd like to study more, as always, just keep asking.