Call No Man “Father�

My general response, if I’m in a feisty mood, is, “Well, what do you call your own father?” That’s usually shrugged off. It’s not the earthly father, but the heavenly Father that the text speaks of; you shouldn’t look to mortal men as spiritual fathers. Ok, but what about the biblical citations on the subject? About this point a look of confusion or suspicion sets on their faces. Here we go…

Have a look at Judges 17 & 18. Both of these chapters deal with a Levite from Bethlehem who journeys away from home looking for his place in life. A man named Micah comes across him and they talk. Eventually, Micah says to him, “stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest…” He said this to a man that was a stranger a few minutes earlier. Later on, 600 armed Danites come to Micah’s home and the Levite encounters them. Eventually, the Danites say, “come with us, and be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be a priest to a tribe and family in Israel?”

The important lesson for us today is that Judges 17 & 18 shows the fatherly nature of the priesthood in the Old Testament. The concept of being a priest is tightly joined to the concept of fatherhood. It is a spiritual fatherhood; it’s not physical and it’s not heavenly. This was understood from very early in the history of Israel.

Next have a look at Acts 7:2. St. Stephen says, “Brethren and fathers, hear me.” The word “fathers” is plural, so he surely isn’t speaking specifically to his own natural father who just happened to be in the audience. St. Paul uses the exact same language in Acts 22:1 with, “Brethren and fathers, hear the defense which I now make before you.” These two scenes take place after the resurrection, so Christ’s admonition in Matthew 23:9 had already happened. Why would Stephen and Paul use these terms if they were so strictly forbidden by Christ himself?

Paul also makes a case for Abraham being the spiritual “father of us all” in Romans 4:16. One person once tried to convince me that Paul was referring to Abraham as the father of Israel or the Hebrew people. Not so. If you go back to verse 13, you see that Paul is referring to Abraham’s descendents inheriting the world not “through the law but through the righteousness of faith.” In verse 14 he specifically says that inheritance through the law is null if the faith is void. Abraham is therefore a spiritual father, not merely a biological father of the Hebrews.

Now, have a look at a few more points. First is 1 Corinthians 4:14, where Paul admonishes his readers “as my beloved children.” Next is 1 Thessalonians 2:11, where Paul speaks to his readers “like a father to his children”. Paul also opens his first letter to Timothy with “my true child in the faith.” He does this again when he writes to Titus, saying “To Titus, my true child in a common faith.” Now I ask you, how can you have a true child in a common faith without a true father in that same common faith? You can’t have a child without a parent.

Lastly, let’s look to the Prince of the Apostles in 1 Peter 5:13. Here Peter closes his letter by sending his greetings and adding, “and so does my son Mark.” Mark acted as Peter’s interpreter for many years. Here we again ask the question, how can we have a son without a father? How can Mark be referred to as son, if Peter were not his father in faith? It also points to Peter’s place amongst the Apostles that Mark, another Apostle, would be his son in faith.

Matthew 23 is an entire chapter where Christ rails against hypocrisy. He admonishes people to listen to what the hypocrites say, but watch what they do as well. It’s not that Christ is telling us to “call no man father” relative to their faith. Instead, he’s saying that we should call no man father that isn’t fit for the title. Taken in the context of the specific chapter, and the references above, it’s hard to come away with any other conclusion. Oh, and Christ also says not to call anyone “teacher” as well, “for you have one teacher.” Why doesn’t that eliminate every Protestant theologian that tries to teach someone their faith or theology? But this flies in the face of such as 2 Timothy 2 where we read: “And the things which thou hast heard of me by many witnesses, the same commend to faithful men, who shall be fit to teach others also.” Or 1 Timothy 4, “These things command and teach.” And perhaps my favorite is Acts 8:30-31: "So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and asked, 'Do you understand what you are reading?' And he said, 'How can I, unless someone guides me?'" But I runneth on…