In God's plan of salvation, believers are welcomed into His family as children, receiving all the rights and privileges of sons and daughters. According to Ephesians, this adoption is a predestined purpose, ordained before the foundation of the world. As seen in Matthew and Acts, caring for the vulnerable, especially children, is a key aspect of living out this familial relationship. Through faith, as described in John, believers become children of God, and James emphasizes the importance of caring for orphans as a fundamental expression of pure religion.
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He predestined us for adoption as His sons through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of His will,
Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
When he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son.
But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God—
And Mordecai had brought up Hadassah (that is, Esther), the daughter of his uncle, because she did not have a father or mother. The young woman was lovely in form and appearance, and when her father and mother had died, Mordecai had taken her in as his own daughter.
And the King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’
A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in His holy habitation. God settles the lonely in families; He leads the prisoners out to prosperity, but the rebellious dwell in a sun-scorched land.
to redeem those under the law, that we might receive our adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, you are also an heir through God.
For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing.
So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring.
Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
Learn to do right; seek justice and correct the oppressor. Defend the fatherless and plead the case of the widow.”
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery that returns you to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him. I consider that our present sufferings are not comparable to the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the revelation of the sons of God.
But those who wait upon the LORD will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint.
Beloved, we are now children of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when Christ appears, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is.
But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God.
The LORD protects foreigners; He sustains the fatherless and the widow, but the ways of the wicked He frustrates.