Ephesians 3:13-21
In New Testament Greek, the word for “father” is “patera,” and the word for “family” is “patria.” You can see, then, that a family is conceptualized, and defined, on the basis of its relationship to the father of that family, whether literal or figurative.
Some translations of today’s text from St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians are especially sensitive to this, so that we read in those translations:
“I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Father over all that is called father In heaven and in earth.”
“I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, Him from whom every fatherhood is named, that is in Heaven and in Earth.”
And a translation that I really like, which picks up on these nuances very well, is this one:
“I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth takes its name.”
The Bible describes several different kinds of “paternities,” or families: with some involving God directly as the Father of that “family”; and others involving people who act as God’s representatives, serving as the father or the father figure.
In the Book of Job, when the Lord questions Job regarding his awareness of how the earth was created, God describes the angels as his “sons.” He asks Job:
“Who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”
In St. Paul’s speech against idolatry at Athens, as quoted in the Book of Acts, he states that all human beings are in a sense children or “offspring” of God, their Creator. According to the apostle,
“[God] has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’”
The people of Israel, in the Old Testament, were in a special way understood to be God’s children, and he was understood to be their Father. In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses warned the Israelites against imitating the sorcery and idolatry of the Canaanites:
“You are the children of the Lord your God; you shall not cut yourselves nor shave the front of your head for the dead. For you are a holy people to the Lord your God.”
And of course, we as Christians know God as our heavenly Father, through our faith in God’s only-begotten Son Jesus. Jesus instructs us to pray to God as “Our Father who art in heaven.”
And in the Epistle to the Galatians, as St. Paul summarizes the history of our redemption, he reminds us that
“When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father!’”
But there are also examples in Scripture where certain men are described as having an office of authority that God has given them, through which God wishes to exercise his Fatherly authority in an indirect and mediated way.
The literal father of a literal family represents God’s authority. This means two important things. First, it means that a housefather is owed a special kind of respect from his children, because of the authority of God that is hidden within him.
But it also means that as a housefather exercises his authority within his family, he does so in a loving way that imitates the example of God, and that is shaped by the Word of God. As his children submit to him, he submits to God. Paul writes in his Epistle to the Ephesians:
“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother,’ which is the first commandment with promise: ‘that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.’ And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.”
Out of the office or authority of a housefather, other offices of authority developed over time, as guided by the hand of divine providence.
Civil authority – in the various forms that it takes in different political systems – is a specialized form of divinely-given fatherly authority. St. Paul explains this in his Epistle to the Romans:
Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. … For he is God’s minister to you for good.”
And in the church, where the Word of God reigns supreme in matters of doctrine and practice, God calls specific men to be the instruments through which his Word is preached and taught, and through whom his people are overseen and shepherded.
St. Paul writes to Titus that he should “set in order the things that are lacking, and appoint elders in every city as I commanded you.” Paul goes on to tell Titus that “a bishop must be blameless, as a steward of God,” and that he must be “self-controlled, holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught, that he may be able, by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convict those who contradict.”
In the New Testament, the terms “elder” and “bishop” were used to describe what we today refer to as a “pastor.” And pastors are indeed spiritual fathers to us, as they carry out their ministry as representatives of God the Father in heaven, and in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ.
St. Paul describes himself in his First Epistle to the Corinthians as a servant of Christ and a steward of the mysteries of God. He also reminds the Corinthians: “I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
Jesus is the divine Lord of the church. When the Scriptures – his Scriptures – clearly teach something, then we know that it is Jesus’ will for the church to believe, to practice, and to apply that revealed truth.
But Jesus is the Lord of the church also in areas of church life where the Bible may not give specific directions about what to do or what not to do. When decisions needs to be made about such matters, it is God’s will that the spiritually mature men of the church would fulfill this duty in his name.
With respect to public preaching in the church and decision-making for the church, St. Paul writes in his First Epistle to Timothy: “I do not permit a woman to teach, or to have authority over a man.”
In his First Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul establishes the context for this pattern of order when he writes that “the head of woman is man,” that “the head of every man is Christ,” and that “the head of Christ is God.”
The Book of Acts gives us two examples of congregational meetings, or their equivalent, among the Christians in Jerusalem.
When it was necessary to choose a replacement for Judas, so that there would once again be twelve apostles, the group that was called together to discuss this was addressed by Peter as “Men and brethren.”
And later, when it was necessary to hold an election for deacons in the church – who would assist the apostles by carrying out certain duties that were not directly a part of their pastoral work – Peter once again addressed the gathering that was called together for this in male terms, as “brethren.”
As the mature men of a congregation exercise this kind of paternal authority within and for the church, they will seek to discern, prayerfully and conscientiously, what the will of Christ most likely is, in the practical matters that are under discussion.
They will work toward a decision that supports and advances the mission that Christ has given to his church in general, and to their congregation in particular.
They will study and learn. They will consult with others, and will take into account the information that is shared and the suggestions that are made.
But after these discussions and deliberations, when the time comes to make a decision, they – as congregational fathers and leaders, in God’s name and with God’s help – will make that decision. They will fulfill this duty. They will bear this burden.
And they, together with the whole congregation, will bend their knees “to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth takes its name.”
All of these various kinds of fatherhoods, or positions of authority, are either fulfilled by God the Father himself, or are delegated by him to his representatives. And God expects those who do represent him in these various arenas of service, to think and act as he thinks and acts.
God is not motivated by petty pride, and neither should be the men who serve and represent him. God is motivated by a desire to do what is best for those who are under his care, and so should be the men to whom he has entrusted the responsibility to watch over, to govern, and to protect others.
The Book of Jeremiah is one of many places in Scripture where we read things like this: “Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His mercy endures forever.”
Because of human sin, however, those who are called to represent God, in fatherly offices where they are supposed to imitate God’s way of thinking and acting, are often not as good and merciful as they should be, within those offices. They are sometimes proud and arrogant, selfish and lazy, corrupt and abusive, harsh and impatient.
Literal fathers in a family, spiritual fathers in a congregation, and father figures in other settings, will never properly fulfill their obligations to those who are under their authority, unless they continually remember that they themselves are under God’s authority, and that they are accountable to God for how they represent him.
Their personal sins do not negate the legitimacy of the authority that they have from God. But those sins do make it difficult for people to get along with them and to respect them. Those sins also mark these men as in need of a sincere and humble repentance before God, and as needing to apologize to any people they have offended.
We who are in positions of paternal authority and service so often do need God’s forgiveness, and we so often need the forgiveness of those who depended on us but whom we failed. We so often need a do-over, a re-start, and another chance to do better: with God’s help; and with a renewed commitment to honor God more deeply, and to obey God more fully.
And those who bristle under the fathers and father figures whom God has placed over them, or who do not show proper respect for them even when they are fulfilling their duties conscientiously, are actually rebelling against God, who set up these arrangements for their good.
Certainly we do not have a duty to follow their lead even when they would lead us into sin. We must always obey God rather than men, if such a choice is placed before us.
And our conscience is not bound to every opinion that those men may have. But in general, for the sake of peace and good order, and especially when a matter of conscience is not involved, we have a duty to love and honor those who have authority over us.
When we have not done so – in the civil sphere, in our families, and in the family of God – we, too, have sinned against the majesty of God’s fatherly authority: which is hidden under their human weaknesses, within their fatherly office. We, too, are then in need of God’s forgiveness, and are in need of God’s help to do better in the future.
Jesus, according to his divine nature, is the eternal Son of the Father. So, even within the eternal existence of God, according to the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the relationships of the divine Persons are ordered in this way.
And Jesus, according to his human nature, and in his state of humiliation while on earth, functioned very much under the authority of his Father in heaven. In St. John’s Gospel, Jesus said:
“I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”
Again, he said:
“Of Myself I can do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.”
Our divine-human Lord and Savior certainly does have authority over us. But he, in turn, was also under the authority of his Father in heaven in all that he did.
God’s plan for the redemption of the human race, which the Father sent his Son into the world to fulfill, was a wonderful and marvelous plan: filled with grace and love for all of us. And Jesus fulfilled that plan perfectly.
The most important things that Jesus came into the world to do, was to die, to atone for our sins before God; and to rise again, to bring about our reconciliation with God and our forgiveness by God. Jesus himself says, in St. John’s Gospel:
“My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life, that I may take it again. … I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.”
The Prophet Isaiah referred to the coming Messiah as “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” As the faithful and obedient everlasting Father of his church, Jesus has procured for us, and in his gospel now distributes to us, an everlasting salvation.
For all of our failures to be the kind of fathers and fatherly leaders that God the Father has called us to be, Jesus forgives us. For all of our failures to respect and honor the fathers and fatherly leaders whom God the Father has placed over us, Jesus forgives us.
Jesus forgives, and Jesus restores. When we mess up the harmonious ordering of things that God has set up for us, Jesus puts it right again.
When we have confused and contradicted the channels of authority that God has established for us, Jesus brings the correction and the recalibration that we need.
Jesus changes our hearts, as his Spirit works in all of us the humility that we need to be faithful: faithful in obedience to him; and faithful in service to one another, according to our various vocations.
And as the Holy Spirit works, we pray that the will of our heavenly Father will be done in his world and in his church. We pray that God’s gospel will be preached to the joy and edifying of his people; and that God’s people will flourish and thrive, through all the temporal and eternal blessings that he gives them.
“I bend my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all paternity in heaven and on earth takes its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Amen.