Beyond the original twelve, Jesus would invite women to be his disciples. He would give the disciples the charge to reach non-Jewish people. In the book of Acts, the Holy Spirit led the church to see this vision realized as a new family was forged—not based on ethnic or gender identity but through the death and resurrection of Jesus. In the New Testament, familial language is used throughout. Men and women are seen as brothers and sisters. Those who belong to Jesus have God not as distant creator but as Abba (“father”). We are all given a new family inheritance. This is language of the new
...more
