Liturgical Living

Apologetics

Common Objections

“Call No Man Father”

When Jesus says ‘call no man your father on earth,’ he's warning against pride and against putting any human in the place of God the Father — not banning the word ‘father.’ Scripture itself, including Jesus, uses ‘father’ for people constantly.

The short answer. If that verse were literal, you couldn't call your own dad ‘father’ — and the same sentence bans calling anyone ‘teacher,’ which nobody obeys literally. Paul calls himself a spiritual father. It's about not usurping God's place.

The same passage 'bans' teacher and master too

In the same breath Jesus says call no one ‘teacher’ or ‘master.’ Since Christians obviously have teachers, the saying is clearly hyperbole about humility — no one on earth may take the place that belongs to God and to Christ.

Matthew 23:8–10But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi’, for one is your teacher, the Christ, and all of you are brothers. Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven. Neither be called masters, for one is your master, the Christ.

The apostles call people ‘father’

Paul calls himself the Corinthians' father: ‘in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.’ Stephen and Scripture address the ancestors as ‘fathers,’ and everyone calls Abraham ‘our father.’ The inspired writers didn't read Matthew 23 as a word ban.

1 Corinthians 4:15For though you have ten thousand tutors in Christ, you don’t have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus, I became your father through the Good News.
Acts 7:2He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,

Common objections

“But Jesus said it — ‘call no man father.’”

Then to be consistent you'd have to stop calling your dad 'father' and stop calling anyone a teacher — which contradicts the rest of Scripture. Jesus uses vivid overstatement to make a point about pride and God's supremacy; the apostles show us how to read it by freely using 'father' themselves.

Scripture quoted verbatim from the World English Bible (public domain).

All sixteen topics are free in the app — with the whole Bible one tap away.

Google PlayApp Store