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Ruth's speech to Naomi is the most famous statement of chosen family loyalty in Scripture: "whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God." Ruth spoke this to her mother-in-law — not her husband. Her husband was dead. She was binding herself to a woman, a people, and a God she had not been born to. The family she was claiming was assembled from grief and loss and choice, and Scripture holds it up as one of the great covenant loyalties of the Old Testament.
Get These Verses Daily — Free“And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”
The Greek word 'provoke' — parorgizete — means to embitter, to frustrate into anger. In blended families, the risk of provoking through unrealistic expectations or forced intimacy is real. The alternative — nurture — requires time and patience that cannot be rushed.
“A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.”
A brother 'born for adversity' — the Hebrew means someone who becomes a brother through difficulty, not despite it. Siblings in blended families are often born for adversity in a literal sense. The relationship can be built from the difficulty, not ruined by it.
“Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.”
The Greek word for 'bond' — syndesmos — means a ligament, the connective tissue of the body. In blended families, the natural ligaments of blood and history may be absent or complicated. Love is described as the replacement ligament.
“And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:”
Ruth's speech is the most famous statement of chosen family loyalty in Scripture — spoken to a mother-in-law, not a spouse. The family being formed here is assembled from grief, choice, and deliberate loyalty. Scripture holds it as a covenant model.
“God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains: but the rebellious dwell in a dry land.”
The Hebrew word for 'setteth' — moshib — means to cause to dwell, to establish as a resident. God is actively involved in placing solitary people into families. Blended family formation is not accidental in God's economy.
Colossians 3:13–14 gives the structure that makes any difficult relational community workable: forbearance, forgiveness, and above all love, which "is the bond of perfectness." The Greek word for "bond" — syndesmos — means a ligament, the tissue that holds the body together. In a blended family, the natural biological ligaments that hold family structure together are often absent or complicated. What holds it together instead is the practiced, chosen love that Paul describes here — not sentiment but the daily decision to bear with, to forgive, to remain.
Psalm 68:6 contains a statement that applies directly to non-traditional family formation: "God setteth the solitary in families." The Hebrew word for "setteth" — moshib — means to cause to dwell, to establish. God is actively involved in the construction of family out of people who are alone or displaced. This does not make blended families frictionless. But it does mean the construction is not accidental.
Commentary is from a charismatic Protestant perspective, drawing on KJV text and public-domain sources including Spurgeon, Andrew Murray, and Matthew Henry.
Ephesians 6:4 — "ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" — is addressed to fathers specifically, and in the context of blended family, it applies to step-parents who are in a parenting role without the history or biology. The Greek word for "provoke" — parorgizete — means to provoke to anger, to embitter. The warning is against the relational damage of unrealistic demands or harsh authority. The alternative — nurture and admonition — requires patient relationship-building that cannot be rushed.
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