And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
It does not forbid calling a biological father by that name, but forbids giving an earthly person the title of father in the spiritual sense that belongs to God. It was spoken in Christ's final address in the temple courts exposing the hypocrisy of Pharisees, scribes, lawyers and rulers whose corrupt authority bound the people to unquestioning faith in men. God in heaven alone is Father and source of wisdom and Christ alone is Master and Teacher, while all believers are brethren and children of one Father standing on an equality with one another. No human religious leader is to be given honorific titles that lift him toward God's rank and imply control over conscience and faith, such as Reverend, father, master or king, and claiming such authority over others puts a man in God's place. No human being has been made master to rule another's mind, conscience and faith, for God speaking through Scripture is the one infallible guide, and each person is to study the Bible and learn directly from God rather than letting another do his thinking.
Setting and Plain Wording
The command belongs to Christ's final address in the temple courts exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, lawyers, scribes and rulers. It was spoken in denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees and as a warning against following blind leaders. Their corrupt priesthood and customs had bound the people to unquestioning faith in human authority, and their assumed authority led the people to defer to them and reject truth. That warning against human religious authority claiming power over conscience and ruling the conscience remains an admonition for every later age and for future generations, because the same danger has harmed the church in every age. The woes of the chapter were pronounced for impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness, and were Christ upon earth today the same scathing rebukes and woes would be pronounced upon priests and rulers for their impenitence and their opposition to truth and righteousness.
The chapter describes people so spiritually blinded that they cannot discern the relative importance of the things they should understand. The command does not forbid calling one's biological father father. It forbids giving an earthly person the title of father in the spiritual sense that belongs to God, for God alone is the spiritual Father of Christ's followers.
One Father, All Brethren
God in heaven alone is the people's Father, and no earthly person is to be given the title of father in the sense that belongs to Him. Christ alone is their one Master, chief instructor and teacher, and no human authority is to take His place. His instruction as the Master Teacher gives teachers the wisdom they need beyond the wisdom of the world, and the Christian is to obey Him and trust Him through every difficulty. Using earthly religious titles to claim elevated authority is therefore forbidden, and the command exposes selfish ambition for place and power, including a show of humility that hides a grasping heart. No human religious leader is to claim a title that gives him control over another person's conscience or faith, rather than following human teachers who reject God's authority. Greatness is shown through service and humility.
All believers are brethren and children of one Father, and are to stand on an equality with one another rather than as masters and subjects or as authorities entitled to control one another's conscience or faith. The honor and authority belonging to God are not properly claimed by human beings, and the warning against calling a man father rebukes religious leaders' pursuit of honor and power disguised as piety. No man on earth is to be exalted as king or father over others, and in conducting the work of truth this requires walking meek and lowly in Christ's footprints and holding the beginning of confidence firm unto the end, so that no false step injures the precious cause of truth.
Having one Father in heaven makes all people of one family, connected with fellow human beings and bound up with God as part of the web of humanity and part of God's great whole. No one can be independent of others, and the well-being of each affects others in an endless chain of influence. God's design is that each individual feel pledged to promote the happiness and welfare of every member of God's family and feel necessary to the other's welfare. Peter's conduct at the Jerusalem council gave no support to claims that he was head of the church, for he took no authoritative position above his brethren.
Christ's followers are His blood-bought people who have pledged to live to His name's glory with the veil separating them from Him drawn aside, accepting Him as Companion and Teacher. God's will is to become their will, and success in work depends on being sustained by God and receiving the power Christ gives to all who believe in Him to become sons of God. They are to use their physical, mental and spiritual gifts to grow in knowledge and virtue, becoming refined, ennobled and purified through His grace, displaying His character and meeting God's standard. This forbids looking upon self as gods able to carry out own will and devising, and requires faithfully discharging the duties enjoined in the Word of God, living pure and holy lives, shunning everything that would make character like the archdeceiver, and preparing for life in heaven.
Titles Claiming Spiritual Rank
No one is to place his spiritual interests under another man as a child is guided and directed by his earthly father, and no one is to take that father-place of directing another's spiritual interests. No human being is to take the place of God as the one directing a person's spiritual interests. The command rules against giving human religious leaders honorific titles that elevate them toward God's rank and imply control over conscience and faith. This forbids calling men father, master, or king in the spiritual sense, and forbids exalting any man on earth as king or father over others, for there is one Master in heaven, even Christ. Calling ministers "Reverend" takes a designation applied to God's name and gives it to people, wrongly transferring honor from God to a creature.
In conducting the work of truth this requires walking meek and lowly in Christ's footprints and holding the beginning of confidence firm unto the end, so that no false step injures the precious cause of truth. Believers are not to seek to be controlled by men but are to look to the Lord as companion, counselor, guide, helper and friend in every calling, whether preaching, teaching, medical work, farming or trade. Each person is only one member of the body, never an independent whole, and the different members are to be controlled by the Holy Spirit, with only one Head, so that unity of the body is preserved as each member performs its several offices. The priests, scribes, and rulers were fellow children of God, not masters entitled to honor or control.
Seeking such titles and places reveals selfish ambition for honor, precedence and power. It includes a show of humility that hides a grasping heart, self-importance, desire for ecclesiastical superiority, and failure to serve others. The warning against calling a man "father" rebukes religious leaders' pursuit of honor and power disguised as piety. Addressing men as Father encourages desire for superiority and for ecclesiastical superiority. It injures the men who are trusted and so addressed.
It confuses the sacredness of the prerogatives of God and obscures what belongs to Him. Such claims can keep people from knowing their privilege as children of God. Exalting clergy through such titles can lead people to revere them unduly and put human beings in God's place. In the church, human distinctions and honorific titles are not to elevate some believers above others, and no one is to receive a title that belongs to Christ. The pope violates the command by claiming authority over others and placing himself in the position of God, keeping the weak and uninformed from knowing their privileges as children of God, and the same application is made against popes, kings and rulers claiming authority over believers and standing in God's place over faith and practice.
Disciples must not seek their own glory, the highest place, or a position of spiritual supremacy. They are to humble themselves, bear the cross, and follow Christ rather than lord it over God's people, and be humble servants, for God alone is their Father in heaven. The closer they come to Jesus, the less they will desire the highest place.
Conscience Under God Alone
No human being has been made a master to rule another person's mind, conscience and faith, for priests, scribes and rulers are fellow children of God, not masters entitled to honor or control, and no title is to be given that claims such spiritual authority over conscience or faith because God alone is Father of all. Such titles are to be rejected because they imply an authority no person possesses, and seeking them exposes ambition and self-importance. God's appointed servants remain fallible and share human weaknesses, so none is to be treated as supreme spiritual authority over others.
The desire to rule and the domineering spirit over others is not to be cherished by any teacher or worker, for one is Father in heaven and one is Master even Christ. That domineering spirit must be completely suppressed and every vestige of it burned out of the soul by the refining, purifying sanctification of the Holy Spirit, for Christ will not abide with those who cherish it. The religion emanating from Jesus Christ is of an entirely different character from domineering profession, requiring humility and the love of Christ shed abroad in the heart manifesting the lovely flavor of His character. Unless those lacking it change decidedly they will never receive a welcome into the gates of the city of God.
Seeking authority over fellow people without divine authority takes God's place, while Christ's spirit leads people to learn humbly from Jesus. Human position does not make anyone superior or incapable of error, so a leader must remain meek and lowly, depend on God, and serve others rather than exercise authority over them as a master. Christ alone is Master, and no human being has God's authority to rule over others as their spiritual master, for God alone is the Father in heaven.
God speaking through Scripture is the one infallible guide for conscience, and human religious authorities including priests and the church must not be treated as infallible when their commands conflict with Scripture. No human leader is to be treated as final authority or allowed to do another person's thinking and planning, for each person is to study the Bible and learn directly from God the great Teacher, from whom all knowledge and wisdom flows. No human judgment and plans are to be regarded as supreme, and no one is to think and plan for another so that individual identity is lost.
No leader, including a conference president, is to control how ministers carry forward their work, repress or discourage a brother, or put his own armor on another. No leader is to be copied in gestures, habits, attitude, expressions, tone of voice, thought, sentiment, or planning and execution. Each person God makes a shepherd is qualified by God for that work and must keep individual identity and become a learner directly from God by taking the Bible and entering divine communion with the great Teacher, who is the source from which all knowledge and wisdom flows.
Even the best and most intelligent people have only limited ability, being finite, erring and subject to temptation and sharing human weaknesses and fallibility, so discernment is needed to know each person's true place rather than relying on human judgment as final guide. No living man is to take the place of God in the mind or become the object of ultimate dependence or homage, because God in heaven alone is Father. Seeing prejudices, errors, instability of opinion and partiality of action in others must not lead to feeling superior, measuring self among self, or leaning to own understanding, but to less self-confidence and jealous watch over own spirit and action. No person should set himself above others or draw attention to himself as though qualified to govern minds and consciences.
Among God's people there are to be no kings, no rulers and no popes standing in God's place over faith and practice, for Christ is the only authority and God in heaven is the only Father, so no man on earth is to be called father in that sense. The pope violates this by claiming authority over others and placing himself in the position of God, keeping the weak and uninformed from knowing their privileges as children of God. Refusing such human authority is part of coming out from the world.
Humble Obedience in Life
The command forbids placing dependence on man and giving homage to fellow men or expecting it from them, for no living man is to take God's place in the mind. It is to be obeyed to the letter in humility before God, by meekly pursuing duty not to be praised, petted and honored of men but to glorify God, which receives as reward glory, honor and eternal life, while being lifted up in spiritual pride breaks harmony with Christ's instruction. Even the best and most intelligent men have only limited ability, so discernment is needed to know each man's true place rather than relying on human judgment as final guide. Seeing prejudices, errors, instability of opinion and partiality of action in others must not lead to feeling superior, measuring self among self, or leaning to own understanding, but to less self-confidence and jealous watch over one's own spirit and action.
A Christian must obey Christ alone as Master and trust Him through every difficulty, having pledged to live to His name's glory with the veil separating from Him drawn aside and accepting Him as Companion and Teacher. Success in work depends on being sustained by God and receiving the power Christ gives to all who believe in Him to become sons of God, faithfully discharging the duties enjoined in the Word of God and shunning everything that would make character like the archdeceiver, forbidding looking upon self as gods able to carry out own will and devising. Earthly authority must not displace His supreme authority, and this applies to business as well as spiritual life: when business threatens spiritual and eternal interests or brings persistent temptation, it must take a subordinate place. In the school setting the same principle supports respect for proper authority and obedience to its rules, since disregarding those rules undermines order.
In the Sanitarium directors and workers are fellow members of Christ's household under authority in heaven, and those in command must themselves follow Christ rather than oppress the workers under them. God's workers are to acknowledge no earthly master as highest authority but receive their commission from God and are accountable to Him for how they use the talents entrusted to them. Whether preaching, teaching, medical work, farming or trade they are to look to the Lord as companion, counselor, guide, helper and friend and not seek to be controlled by men, for Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life is their Master and God alone is their Father. Each person is only one member of the body, never an independent whole, and the different members are to be controlled by the Holy Spirit with only one Head, so that unity of the body is preserved as each member performs its several offices.
Loyalty to God comes above every earthly claim, since there is one Master in Christ and one Father in heaven. Yet that loyalty does not require a wife to abandon a widowed mother in need, and staying with and helping her mother does not break the marriage relation. The duty is to remain with the mother until there is decided change, to watch and pray and trust the living God, and to seek the Lord with her husband for light on living near the mother while still being with her husband when possible.
It does not forbid calling a biological father by that name, but forbids giving an earthly person the title of father in the spiritual sense that belongs to God. It was spoken in Christ's final address in the temple courts exposing the hypocrisy of Pharisees, scribes, lawyers and rulers whose corrupt authority bound the people to unquestioning faith in men. God in heaven alone is Father and source of wisdom and Christ alone is Master and Teacher, while all believers are brethren and children of one Father standing on an equality with one another. No human religious leader is to be given honorific titles that lift him toward God's rank and imply control over conscience and faith, such as Reverend, father, master or king, and claiming such authority over others puts a man in God's place. No human being has been made master to rule another's mind, conscience and faith, for God speaking through Scripture is the one infallible guide, and each person is to study the Bible and learn directly from God rather than letting another do his thinking.
Setting and Plain Wording
The command belongs to Christ's final address in the temple courts exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, lawyers, scribes and rulers. It was spoken in denunciation of the scribes and Pharisees and as a warning against following blind leaders. Their corrupt priesthood and customs had bound the people to unquestioning faith in human authority, and their assumed authority led the people to defer to them and reject truth. That warning against human religious authority claiming power over conscience and ruling the conscience remains an admonition for every later age and for future generations, because the same danger has harmed the church in every age. The woes of the chapter were pronounced for impenitence and opposition to truth and righteousness, and were Christ upon earth today the same scathing rebukes and woes would be pronounced upon priests and rulers for their impenitence and their opposition to truth and righteousness.
The chapter describes people so spiritually blinded that they cannot discern the relative importance of the things they should understand. The command does not forbid calling one's biological father father. It forbids giving an earthly person the title of father in the spiritual sense that belongs to God, for God alone is the spiritual Father of Christ's followers.
One Father, All Brethren
God in heaven alone is the people's Father, and no earthly person is to be given the title of father in the sense that belongs to Him. Christ alone is their one Master, chief instructor and teacher, and no human authority is to take His place. His instruction as the Master Teacher gives teachers the wisdom they need beyond the wisdom of the world, and the Christian is to obey Him and trust Him through every difficulty. Using earthly religious titles to claim elevated authority is therefore forbidden, and the command exposes selfish ambition for place and power, including a show of humility that hides a grasping heart. No human religious leader is to claim a title that gives him control over another person's conscience or faith, rather than following human teachers who reject God's authority. Greatness is shown through service and humility.
All believers are brethren and children of one Father, and are to stand on an equality with one another rather than as masters and subjects or as authorities entitled to control one another's conscience or faith. The honor and authority belonging to God are not properly claimed by human beings, and the warning against calling a man father rebukes religious leaders' pursuit of honor and power disguised as piety. No man on earth is to be exalted as king or father over others, and in conducting the work of truth this requires walking meek and lowly in Christ's footprints and holding the beginning of confidence firm unto the end, so that no false step injures the precious cause of truth.
Having one Father in heaven makes all people of one family, connected with fellow human beings and bound up with God as part of the web of humanity and part of God's great whole. No one can be independent of others, and the well-being of each affects others in an endless chain of influence. God's design is that each individual feel pledged to promote the happiness and welfare of every member of God's family and feel necessary to the other's welfare. Peter's conduct at the Jerusalem council gave no support to claims that he was head of the church, for he took no authoritative position above his brethren.
Christ's followers are His blood-bought people who have pledged to live to His name's glory with the veil separating them from Him drawn aside, accepting Him as Companion and Teacher. God's will is to become their will, and success in work depends on being sustained by God and receiving the power Christ gives to all who believe in Him to become sons of God. They are to use their physical, mental and spiritual gifts to grow in knowledge and virtue, becoming refined, ennobled and purified through His grace, displaying His character and meeting God's standard. This forbids looking upon self as gods able to carry out own will and devising, and requires faithfully discharging the duties enjoined in the Word of God, living pure and holy lives, shunning everything that would make character like the archdeceiver, and preparing for life in heaven.
Titles Claiming Spiritual Rank
No one is to place his spiritual interests under another man as a child is guided and directed by his earthly father, and no one is to take that father-place of directing another's spiritual interests. No human being is to take the place of God as the one directing a person's spiritual interests. The command rules against giving human religious leaders honorific titles that elevate them toward God's rank and imply control over conscience and faith. This forbids calling men father, master, or king in the spiritual sense, and forbids exalting any man on earth as king or father over others, for there is one Master in heaven, even Christ. Calling ministers "Reverend" takes a designation applied to God's name and gives it to people, wrongly transferring honor from God to a creature.
In conducting the work of truth this requires walking meek and lowly in Christ's footprints and holding the beginning of confidence firm unto the end, so that no false step injures the precious cause of truth. Believers are not to seek to be controlled by men but are to look to the Lord as companion, counselor, guide, helper and friend in every calling, whether preaching, teaching, medical work, farming or trade. Each person is only one member of the body, never an independent whole, and the different members are to be controlled by the Holy Spirit, with only one Head, so that unity of the body is preserved as each member performs its several offices. The priests, scribes, and rulers were fellow children of God, not masters entitled to honor or control.
Seeking such titles and places reveals selfish ambition for honor, precedence and power. It includes a show of humility that hides a grasping heart, self-importance, desire for ecclesiastical superiority, and failure to serve others. The warning against calling a man "father" rebukes religious leaders' pursuit of honor and power disguised as piety. Addressing men as Father encourages desire for superiority and for ecclesiastical superiority. It injures the men who are trusted and so addressed.
It confuses the sacredness of the prerogatives of God and obscures what belongs to Him. Such claims can keep people from knowing their privilege as children of God. Exalting clergy through such titles can lead people to revere them unduly and put human beings in God's place. In the church, human distinctions and honorific titles are not to elevate some believers above others, and no one is to receive a title that belongs to Christ. The pope violates the command by claiming authority over others and placing himself in the position of God, keeping the weak and uninformed from knowing their privileges as children of God, and the same application is made against popes, kings and rulers claiming authority over believers and standing in God's place over faith and practice.
Disciples must not seek their own glory, the highest place, or a position of spiritual supremacy. They are to humble themselves, bear the cross, and follow Christ rather than lord it over God's people, and be humble servants, for God alone is their Father in heaven. The closer they come to Jesus, the less they will desire the highest place.
Conscience Under God Alone
No human being has been made a master to rule another person's mind, conscience and faith, for priests, scribes and rulers are fellow children of God, not masters entitled to honor or control, and no title is to be given that claims such spiritual authority over conscience or faith because God alone is Father of all. Such titles are to be rejected because they imply an authority no person possesses, and seeking them exposes ambition and self-importance. God's appointed servants remain fallible and share human weaknesses, so none is to be treated as supreme spiritual authority over others.
The desire to rule and the domineering spirit over others is not to be cherished by any teacher or worker, for one is Father in heaven and one is Master even Christ. That domineering spirit must be completely suppressed and every vestige of it burned out of the soul by the refining, purifying sanctification of the Holy Spirit, for Christ will not abide with those who cherish it. The religion emanating from Jesus Christ is of an entirely different character from domineering profession, requiring humility and the love of Christ shed abroad in the heart manifesting the lovely flavor of His character. Unless those lacking it change decidedly they will never receive a welcome into the gates of the city of God.
Seeking authority over fellow people without divine authority takes God's place, while Christ's spirit leads people to learn humbly from Jesus. Human position does not make anyone superior or incapable of error, so a leader must remain meek and lowly, depend on God, and serve others rather than exercise authority over them as a master. Christ alone is Master, and no human being has God's authority to rule over others as their spiritual master, for God alone is the Father in heaven.
God speaking through Scripture is the one infallible guide for conscience, and human religious authorities including priests and the church must not be treated as infallible when their commands conflict with Scripture. No human leader is to be treated as final authority or allowed to do another person's thinking and planning, for each person is to study the Bible and learn directly from God the great Teacher, from whom all knowledge and wisdom flows. No human judgment and plans are to be regarded as supreme, and no one is to think and plan for another so that individual identity is lost.
No leader, including a conference president, is to control how ministers carry forward their work, repress or discourage a brother, or put his own armor on another. No leader is to be copied in gestures, habits, attitude, expressions, tone of voice, thought, sentiment, or planning and execution. Each person God makes a shepherd is qualified by God for that work and must keep individual identity and become a learner directly from God by taking the Bible and entering divine communion with the great Teacher, who is the source from which all knowledge and wisdom flows.
Even the best and most intelligent people have only limited ability, being finite, erring and subject to temptation and sharing human weaknesses and fallibility, so discernment is needed to know each person's true place rather than relying on human judgment as final guide. No living man is to take the place of God in the mind or become the object of ultimate dependence or homage, because God in heaven alone is Father. Seeing prejudices, errors, instability of opinion and partiality of action in others must not lead to feeling superior, measuring self among self, or leaning to own understanding, but to less self-confidence and jealous watch over own spirit and action. No person should set himself above others or draw attention to himself as though qualified to govern minds and consciences.
Among God's people there are to be no kings, no rulers and no popes standing in God's place over faith and practice, for Christ is the only authority and God in heaven is the only Father, so no man on earth is to be called father in that sense. The pope violates this by claiming authority over others and placing himself in the position of God, keeping the weak and uninformed from knowing their privileges as children of God. Refusing such human authority is part of coming out from the world.
Humble Obedience in Life
The command forbids placing dependence on man and giving homage to fellow men or expecting it from them, for no living man is to take God's place in the mind. It is to be obeyed to the letter in humility before God, by meekly pursuing duty not to be praised, petted and honored of men but to glorify God, which receives as reward glory, honor and eternal life, while being lifted up in spiritual pride breaks harmony with Christ's instruction. Even the best and most intelligent men have only limited ability, so discernment is needed to know each man's true place rather than relying on human judgment as final guide. Seeing prejudices, errors, instability of opinion and partiality of action in others must not lead to feeling superior, measuring self among self, or leaning to own understanding, but to less self-confidence and jealous watch over one's own spirit and action.
A Christian must obey Christ alone as Master and trust Him through every difficulty, having pledged to live to His name's glory with the veil separating from Him drawn aside and accepting Him as Companion and Teacher. Success in work depends on being sustained by God and receiving the power Christ gives to all who believe in Him to become sons of God, faithfully discharging the duties enjoined in the Word of God and shunning everything that would make character like the archdeceiver, forbidding looking upon self as gods able to carry out own will and devising. Earthly authority must not displace His supreme authority, and this applies to business as well as spiritual life: when business threatens spiritual and eternal interests or brings persistent temptation, it must take a subordinate place. In the school setting the same principle supports respect for proper authority and obedience to its rules, since disregarding those rules undermines order.
In the Sanitarium directors and workers are fellow members of Christ's household under authority in heaven, and those in command must themselves follow Christ rather than oppress the workers under them. God's workers are to acknowledge no earthly master as highest authority but receive their commission from God and are accountable to Him for how they use the talents entrusted to them. Whether preaching, teaching, medical work, farming or trade they are to look to the Lord as companion, counselor, guide, helper and friend and not seek to be controlled by men, for Christ who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life is their Master and God alone is their Father. Each person is only one member of the body, never an independent whole, and the different members are to be controlled by the Holy Spirit with only one Head, so that unity of the body is preserved as each member performs its several offices.
Loyalty to God comes above every earthly claim, since there is one Master in Christ and one Father in heaven. Yet that loyalty does not require a wife to abandon a widowed mother in need, and staying with and helping her mother does not break the marriage relation. The duty is to remain with the mother until there is decided change, to watch and pray and trust the living God, and to seek the Lord with her husband for light on living near the mother while still being with her husband when possible.