A house is made a home when there is love in it. A good home is founded on love. The household of God is a house filled with love. God is the Father and He is love (1 John 4:8). We are the children of God (1 John 3:1). The house of God is filled with His love, so we ought also to love one another. “…for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7). Love is the basis for this household; it is the essence of this household; it is the bond of this household; it is the divine motive in this household. Without love there is no household of God.

A home is a place for instruction, a place for growing. The household of God provides a place to receive the instruction necessary to “grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 3:18). It is here that the children of the Father are furnished with the “sincere milk of the word,” the nutrition they need to grow to maturity. The church of the Lord has as one of its major missions the promulgation of the gospel message, not just for the world, but in order to edify itself, to build up the body (Eph. 4:11-13), to make the household stronger. I should not have to remind you that a home without love in it inevitably shrivels up and dies. Need I make an application to the church?

A good home must have discipline, lovingly administered, in order to function properly. A home where there is no penalty for disobedience will soon either deteriorate from internal putridity or it will implode, one or the other. We need to know how to “behave in the house of God” (1 Timothy 3:15). When each member of the family just “does his own thing,” sure chaos is the result. Discipline is necessary to order. Discipline is necessary to good health. The local church that does not practice legitimate and scriptural discipline is inviting disaster. The family is subject to the father. That’s God’s eternal plan. Discipline, properly and lovingly administered produces the highest sort of results (see 2 Cor. 7:9-11). “Children, obey your parents” (Eph. 6:1) is not a suggestion, it is an imperative. And to disobey it regarding your spiritual Father is the same as disregarding your physical father. Both are a sin. Discipline in the home—or in the local church—is necessary to orderliness, to the development and maintenance of unity.

Finally, a home is a retreat. It’s a place to go to get away from the pressures and intimidations of the so-called “daily grind.” It’s a place to which you escape, a place to rejuvenate, a place to rest from the arduous tasks, to retire from the constant pressures, to know peace and tranquility for a time. It’s amazing how some people see no need for assembling with the saints—being with other members of the family—when there is so much to be gained from it. It’s self-deprivation, that’s what it is. It makes no sense. “Let us consider one another to stir up love and good works” (Heb. 10:23). That’s what being with the family is all about. It’s about stirring up the good stuff. It’s about reciprocal encouragement, mutual comfort, deriving strength from knowing there are others who are battling the immoral rages, others who are seeking to overcome the decadence in the workaday world, others who are struggling with nagging health problems or temptations of some sort, all of whom are headed in the same direction, pressing toward the same goal, persevering to the same end, entertaining a common hope. How wonderful for the family to get together. The church is a spiritual haven in a turbulent time.

When you get right down to it, there’s no place like home.

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