My mom manages to fuse the Proverbs 31 woman’s virtues with Lorelei Gilmore’s hilarity. She’s the best. She taught me to think discerningly, apologize quickly, and—fortunately for readers of this blog—edit rigorously. But my mom lives in Arizona, which put a bit of a damper on Mother’s Day celebrations.
Despite being 1,500 miles away from my mom, I was thoroughly mothered yesterday. (I know, I know, the point of Mother’s Day is to honor moms, not to take advantage of them, but please just keep reading.)
Yesterday, I woke to an email from a church friend, recommending a piano piece to me that she thought I’d enjoy. A few days ago, someone sent my husband home with a bag of hard-sought and freshly-picked morel mushrooms. Today, I cleaned my windows with a friend’s homemade solution (which, by the way, might be magic as my windows have never been so clear). Then, another woman from church popped by on her way home from work to teach me how to properly fry the morels.
Encouraging, feeding, cleaning, teaching—the familiar duties of motherhood, fulfilled by members of my church.
I am one very lucky 28-year-old child to have so many adopted mothers and grandmothers! And beyond just these wonderful women in my church, the Church in a very real sense fulfills the role of a mother.
Spurgeon on the Church as a Mother
The idea of the Church as a mother is nothing new, though Protestants seem prone to forget this wholesome and truthful metaphor. To recall the Church as a God-given mother is to prioritize attendance and service, as well as to receive the benefits of church membership with newfound gratitude. Charles Spurgeon preached an entire sermon about the Church as a mother, which I urge you to read in full using this link. In it, he explains how the Church, like a mother, is tasked with bringing baby Christians to maturity in the following ways:
1. The Church bears the children of God.
Spurgeon writes, “The Church is a mother because it is her privilege to bring forth into the world the spiritual children of the Lord Jesus Christ.” He continues to explain that, while God could very well speak fully-fledged believers into being, he instead chooses to work in and through the Church. The Church is God’s primary instrument in the world today.
2. The Church feeds believers.
Spurgeon describes the church’s foremost occupation as feeding the people of God right doctrine and the “unadulterated milk of the Word.” Just as a mother prepares nutritious meals for her children, the Church “endeavors to satisfy their [Christians] longing souls with the bread of life.”
3. The Church trains up believers.
The Church is not merely meant to evangelize and preach, but to instruct and train its members “for future deeds of usefulness.” I often hear people say that the church is not a museum for saints, but a hospital for sinners. But we should also view the church as a school for sinners-turned-saints. It is an essential training ground for redeemed people who want to honor their King in their lives. The Church raises up and produces people who are saved by faith but also prepared for good works (Ephesians 2:10).
4. The Church cares for sick and weak believers.
I’m an adult, but the minute I start to sniffle, I just want my mom. I want her to rub my head and bring me soup and watch T.V. with me until I feel better. Nothing beats a mother’s care when you’re feeling icky. Likewise, the Church is given to us as a consolation when our spirits are sorrowful. The Church “knows her duty is like her Lord’s, to bind up the broken heart, and comfort those who mourn.” Spurgeon references Paul, who reminds the Thessalonians that he treated them gently, “like a nursing mother taking care of her children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7).
But, like a mom who yanks her child back from a busy road, the Church also cares for weak believers by correcting their sins. Spurgeon writes, “If there be a weak lamb, if there be a wandering sheep within the Church, she opens wide her eyes and it will be her endeavour to watch most over these.” A lamb apart from the flock is terribly vulnerable; apart from the accountability of the Church, we have little hope of conquering sin. We need other Christians’ wisdom and warnings if we want to follow Jesus with strength and health.
Behold, Your Mother
The verses that kept coming to mind yesterday as I worked and worshiped alongside my church family are among Jesus’s last words from the cross. Looking down at his mother and John, Jesus summons the breath to say, “Woman, behold, your son!” and then “Behold, your mother” (John 19:26–27).
Jesus charges John with protecting and providing for Mary (presumably a widow by this point). And I suspect that Jesus gives Mary to John—who so often describes himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”—to love him as only a mother can.
These verses harken back to Matthew 12:46–50, where Jesus gestures toward his disciples and declares, “Here are my mother and my brothers! For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus, the very Son of God, was born to and raised by a human mother. He had siblings and a legal father. He honored motherhood, marriage, and family as God-ordained and good for human flourishing (Matt. 19:4–6). But, in Matthew 12, we see Jesus identify more strongly with his adopted people than his blood relatives. Jesus respected the nuclear family, but he came to establish a new family.
We often talk about this new family in terms of sonship and siblinghood. But Jesus does not only grant us access to the Father and give us innumerable siblings; he also provides a mother to foster our spiritual growth.
Mother’s Day 2025 has come and gone, but if you are in Christ, I hope you will consider afresh the Church as a mother-figure—a guardian and caregiver established by the Lord for your good and his glory.
Considering the motherly role of the Church is especially encouraging to Christians who—no matter their age—crave a mother’s loving presence. Behold, your mother! Whatever your familial situation, you can find a mother’s love in the Church. Your local congregation is a gift to you from the Lord Jesus, given to nurture you, teach you, support you, and correct you as only a mother can. Accept her with gratitude, visit her often, and enjoy the nourishment she provides.
Behold, Your Sons
The Church as a mother is also good news for women (and men) facing infertility, empty nests, or strained relationships with their children. If you are in Christ, you must join in his Church’s “missional motherhood” by making and maturing disciples. Male or female, parent or childless, you are called to bring forth, nourish, raise up, and tend other Christians.
In the Church, we not only have a mother, we have children. Behold, your sons! God calls humankind to be fruitful and multiply, which for many people means having children and raising them in the Lord (Genesis 1:28). But regardless of our fertility or parental status, we all must be fruitful and multiply—if not through childbearing than through disciple-making (John 15). If not through biological children, then through spiritual ones.
We must earnestly pray that God would bring more and more people into his Kingdom, and then we must pour into these young believers—walking alongside them, caring for them, teaching them, and loving them. In short, mothering them.
This Sunday, look around. Behold, your mother and children.
Ryanne Molinari 