Jesus never called them: my children, my spiritual children, my adopted children, when it was He who could express Himself in this way.
Instead he told them:
15 I will no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give to you. 17 This I command you, that you love one another.
John 15:17-17
Roger! It is a beautiful gesture to call others "friends" instead of ”servants". Friendship is a special bond that transcends hierarchies.
