This weekend I'll be wrapping up our Abba series. I've enjoyed communicating the heart of God as Father, and including reflections on my own recent journey into fatherhood.
This weekend we'll dig into a statement Paul made as he addressed his spiritual sons and daughters in Corinth.
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. (1 Cor 4.15)
Simply put- when your faith is reproduced in someone else, and they are reborn into the family of God, you become a spiritual parent. It doesn't matter how old you are. If you have a son, you're a dad. If you have a daughter, you're a mom.
This prompts Paul to point out a crisis in the church. There were too many absentee spiritual fathers. Lots of teachers, but not so many fathers. And here's how I might describe the difference.
Teachers inform.
Fathers impart.
Teachers study, prepare to communicate truth, and fill hearts and minds with biblical, relevant content. Fathers also teach. But they take it a step further. They actually reproduce themselves in disciples and pass on their own spiritual DNA.
Look at what Paul says next. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. The word is "mimic." And he says the same thing six times in his letters (1 Cor 4.16; 1 Cor 11.1; Phil 3.17; Phil 4.9; 2 Thess 3.7; 2 Tim 3.10).
Fathers don't teach for 45 minutes during a sermon. Fathers teach all of the time.
You can pack an auditorium and teach hundreds of people at the same time. But you can't father all of them. Not in an auditorium. You can only father a few. Mothering requires life on life investment.
And this is why teachers outnumber fathers in the church. It's a messy, full-time, frustrating job to be a parent.
It's also most rewarding to see your faith passed on to someone else.
So here's to spiritual fathers and mothers. We need you.
