The Forgotten Doctrine of Spiritual Fatherhood 1 Cor 4:14-15

I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

God loves family. He loves it because he invented it, and purposefully crafted every relationship and every natural emotion involved in each of those different relationships as pictures of spiritual realities. And throughout the Bible he continuously keeps pointing to different family relationships to explain things in terms that we can understand. Christians are called God’s Children, and are taught to see him as our Father. We are to see each other as brothers and sisters. In relation to Christ the church is a betroth bride waiting for the wedding feast. And now we come upon another such picture that is replete all throughout scripture, but sadly almost completely overlooked.

Paul has become a “father” to the Corinthians. How did he become their father? Certainly not the natural way, but rather through the Gospel. That was his instrument of labour when he worked among them, and that was what caused them to be born into the family of God.

Paul went through the pains of birth with these men and women as he prayed for them, witnessed to them, was rejected by them and was persecuted by them. These birth pains were not unique to Corinth. In the Galatian church he even at one point wrote and told them that he was going through this labour with them once again because they had embraced false teachers (Gal 4:19).

After suffering for them, Paul had rejoiced with the angels to see each of them take their first breath as a new creature in Christ. He had carefully instructed them and paid close attention to them. I’m sure he shared the sentiment of the apostle John, who said “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.” (3 John 1:4)

Paul loved his children dearly, and took personal responsibility for them and their growth in Christ. A responsibility that extended deeply into his wallet. Speaking in 2. Corinthians of his plan to make a third visit to them he said:

“Here for this third time I am ready to come to you, and I will not be a burden to you; for I do not seek what is yours, but you; for children are not responsible to save up for their parents, but parents for their children.” (2Cor 12:14)

God loves fathers. One would expect nothing less from one who has taken Father as his title. And conversely, the devil hates fathers, and has created a culture where the vast majority of families don’t have one. They may have an adult male family member, but not one that fulfils the biblical role of fatherhood.

The same is true in the church. Spiritual children are born, and left as defenseless orphans. Some churches try to patch things up with discipleship programs, counseling and various classes and courses, but the real problem goes unaddressed. Their spiritual fathers have abandoned them.

We’ve been conditioned to see evangelism as a short term job. We preach the word, get the largest possible number of “decisions” and then move on to the next place. That is not how Paul operated. He knew that once a spiritual child was born into his hands he had become a father.

This is part 1 of a 3 part series on Spiritual Fatherhood based on 1 Corinthians 4 stay tuned for the other parts:

1 Cor 4:14-15 - The Forgotten Doctrine of Spiritual Fatherhood
1 Cor 4:16-17 - A Father's Example
1 Cor 4:18-21 - A Father's  Discipline