Agape works best at the husband-and-wife level, then with children to almost the same degree, and then with others.

Your children will never be as close to you as your mate. There is only one person whom you should see as the most valuable and precious person on earth, and that is your husband or wife.

Next should come your children, and it is important to make it clear to them that they are valuable and precious through both your actions and your words.

Most men can do that very easily in action, but they have trouble doing it in words. That is one of the problems with the last two generations: Fathers never told their children that they loved them. Likewise, husbands never told their wives they loved them. They just said, "Look at all the things I do for you."

But wives and children need to have love communicated to them in action and in words. Actions alone are not good enough. Love is something that should constantly be verbally expressed, especially in the Christian home.

In order to have success in your marriage and family, you have to recognize the importance of family (by esteeming the value and preciousness of each member) and establish God's Word as the final authority in your home.

Home and Family—The Building Block of Society
The home or family is the basic unit of all society. Strong families are important for the success of society and the success of the Church. When you have a society as we have now that doesn't recognize the family, that society will eventually fall apart.

And when you have a particular church that doesn't recognize the family or the importance of the home life, you will have an unsuccessful church.

Now the definition of family is a group of persons of common ancestry; a group of persons living under one roof and usually under one head; a group of things related by common characteristics and properties; and the basic unit of society, having as its nucleus two adults cooperating in the care and rearing of their own or adopted children.

But I would like to look at the biblical concept of the family.

But I will establish My covenant (promise, pledge) with you, and you shall come into the ark —you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.
(Gen. 6:18 AMP)

And the Lord said to Noah, Come with all your household into the ark, for I have seen you to be righteous (upright and in right standing) before Me in this generation; ...And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. ...On the very same day Noah and Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, went into the ark.
(Gen. 7:1,7,13 AMP)

And Jacob called for his sons and said, Gather yourselves together [around me], that I may tell you what shall befall you in the latter or last days. Gather yourselves together and hear, you sons of Jacob; and hearken to Israel your father.
(Gen. 49:1-2 AMP)

Notice that the family is the vehicle through which God communicates to man. Also, in Old Testament times, before the patriarchs died, they would bless their children (especially the eldest son) as we saw in Genesis 49.

So it was through the family that righteousness and godly principles were taught and spiritual inheritances were passed on to future generations.

As you read through the Bible concerning the family, you'll find that the family is God-ordained. It is a unit of society that has parental headship and parental discipline.

(For example, the Bible tells you to "spank" your child if he needs correction [see Proverbs 23:13 and 14]. It won't kill him if you do it where he is supposed to be spanked. We all came equipped with a "spanking spot"!)

Scripture further supports the purpose of the family is to establish and develop God-centered relationships and fellowship. Godly character, natural and spiritual reproduction, natural and spiritual dominion, and God-appointed ministry and functions are also the purpose of families.

So if you want a contemporary working definition of the family, you could say it is the God-ordained basic unit of society that has parental headship and discipline and is established for the purpose of enjoying a common life through working, caring, sharing, serving, and ministering to God, others, and itself.

Source: Marriage and Family by Deborah Butler
Excerpt permission granted by Word Of Faith Publishing