Is it wrong to call someone other than God Father? Your Question: The Roman Catholics call the Priest Father. According to the Bible is it wrong to call someone other than God Father? “Call no one on earth your father; you have but one Father in heaven” (Matthew 23:9). First lets see why Jesus made that statement. Surely He did not mean we must not call our biological fathers, father! Who, then, was He talking about? We find the answer in Matthew 23:2-7: The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the market places, and being called rabbi by men. The scribes and Pharisees came to enjoy the honor and obedience they demanded more than the service they provided. Perhaps some of them demanded to be called father. But they were not fathers, they were hypocrites. They separated themselves from the true Fatherhood that comes from God alone, replacing God with themselves. Obviously Jesus did not approve of some of the Pharisees being addressed as Father by those who were not their biological children. Do we have any instance in the Bible of anyone who was not a biological father and yet was qualified to be called Father? Lets read what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:14-17: I do not write this to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. Therefore I sent to you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. The father-children relationship that the Apostle Paul had with the Corinthians whom he called his children was a spiritual one. He loved them as God his Father loved them. The last verse Matthew 9:12: “whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted” rightly describes the consequences for those who are called father but who do not have the qualities of our Father God. Not only in the Roman Catholic Church but also in Orthodox Churches and in many Anglican Churches, the priests are addressed as Father. Are they able to live up to the title? Let us leave it to God to judge whether they do.
Posted on: Sat, 02 Nov 2013 05:00:00 +0000
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