If I were to ask you to tell me about your family, what would you say? Would you gush with excitement as you explain how awesome your family is and what a blessing they are in your life? Would you proceed with caution as you attempt to describe the people you love most but that have caused you the most pain? Maybe your answer falls somewhere between these two ends of the spectrum. Or maybe you’ve been estranged from your biological family for most of your life and have found new people to call your kin. Whatever the case may be, the holidays have a way of directing our thoughts towards some of our most intimate relationships.

The changing concept of American family

Currently, the concept of family is undergoing big changes in America. “It’s a mistake to think this is the endpoint of enormous change. We are still very much in the midst of it,” notes Andrew J. Cherlin, a professor of public policy at Johns Hopkins University.

The article points out several shifts taking place in the American family and are having an impact on what we define as family in the first place. The first shift relates to the increasing amount of babies born out of wedlock, a number that has quadrupled since 1970 to 41 percent.

A second shift among American families is the increasing popularity of the cohabiting couple, a trend which has increased in practice from 2.9 million couples in 1996 to 7.8 million in 2012 according to Cherlin.

America’s divorce rate, estimated to be between 30 and 40 percent, is higher than any other country and has been another shift in the American concept of family

The American family is also seeing a change regarding the sexual orientation of parents. According to the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles the number of gay couples raising children has doubled in the past decade. Some estimates put the number of children living with gay parents at two million.

Resulting challenges for biblical families

As a result of these changes, the biblical concept of marriage is losing its place as a societal norm. Biblical commands pertaining to marriage were once considered to be givens, but this is no longer true. This means the biblical concept of marriage is becoming increasingly different from the cultural concept of marriage.

Therefore, we need to keep three resulting implications in mind. First, we must love others even if their beliefs about marriage are different from our own. We need a heap of discernment here. In 1 Corinthians 5 Paul says we’ve got no business judging those outside the church, but instructs the Corinthians not to associate with those who are living in sexual immorality and call themselves Christians.

Second, we must be attentive to our own perspective on marriage and family. How much is it shaped by the Bible and how much is it shaped by the latest TV show? Lastly, we have to see the gospel opportunities created by following the Bible rather than the culture when it comes to raising families. So many people in our nation — and at Biola for that matter — are growing up experiencing the pain of broken families. As a result, there is a huge opportunity for Christ centered families to display the good news of the Gospel.