Family Friday: Affirming Fatherhood
Last Sunday’s sermon exhorted us to affirm fatherhood. In the letter to the Corinthians, Paul pulls rank as an elder but also appeals to them as their spiritual father in the faith. Affirming fatherhood goes directly against the spirit of the age that is aggressively attacking, not gender just roles, but even the concept of gender.
Christians know that going against God’s order in the world futile; the result is chaos and pain for human beings, especially children. If we mean to teach and preach the doctrines of Jesus Christ, and change society in healthy and biblical ways, then affirming fatherhood has to be at the foundation of all our efforts.
Affirming fatherhood begins with God himself, who is called God the Father, and Our Father. Even within the Trinity itself, God the Father is distinct from God the Son and God the Spirit. In creation, God creates man and then woman. When Adam names Eve, he calls her “the mother of all living.” In creation, we see a biological difference between a father and a mother. The implications of those biological differences are then revealed throughout the Scriptures. Perhaps the most basic definition of fatherhood is the willingness to take initiative and final responsibility for the protection and wellbeing of others. When Christ sacrifices himself for the church, he uses the analogy of marriage, calling himself the husband of the church.
When elders are required to be men, we are not saying that women are not strong enough or smart enough or administratively competent enough to do the job. We are saying that there is something much bigger going on than the pastor’s job description. The elders are symbolically showing fatherhood, as well as practically exercising fatherhood in the church. That message affirms our submission to God’s fatherhood and sets a precedent for fatherhood in the home and in society. Our society desperately needs fathers. Fatherhood is a fact of life, but if we reject fatherhood, we will only create a place for toxic fatherhood, which is cruelly authoritarian or helplessly passive. Wherever you see women abused, there is an absence of biblical fatherhood.