“Who’s your daddy?” the billboard shouted to me alongside a highway in downtown Kansas City. As if it were yesterday, I remember my surprise at the sight. I wondered how many calls the paternity testing service received from the ad. I mused over how much uncertainty existed over the issues of paternity. After all, I knew without a doubt my daddy’s identity. Now, nearly a decade later, paternity questions can be settled for $17.99 by purchasing a take-home kit at your local drugstore.
Settling doubts regarding fatherhood is important from a human identity perspective. However, because it is commonplace to hear the words “We are all God’s children”, I wonder how many people, especially those from the Millennial generation, concern themselves with their spiritual ancestry. All people are not God’s children, and as Christians, it is important that we know how to articulate what the Bible says regarding this statement.
Two spiritual families exist in the world—the devil’s family and God’s family. As descendants of Adam, we are automatically born into the devil’s family (John 8:44). The method by which one becomes a “child of God” is through a personal relationship with Jesus, resulting in being “born again” in a spiritual sense. (John 1:12-13, John 3:3).
All Christians are “born again”. This new “birth” puts us into God’s family in exactly the same way as our physical birth puts us into our father’s family. As members of God’s family, we are heirs to eternal life in heaven. Without this relationship, our “inheritance” is hell.
I’m glad I know my identity without a shadow of a doubt. I desire to erase doubts in others’ minds as well, but I will not refer them to a drugstore paternity test. More is at stake than earthly fortune. Instead of asking “Who’s your daddy?” let’s ask “Are you a child of God?”. God wants more in His family.
With whom can you share the Truth?
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