And do not call anyone on earth your father, for you have one Father, who is in heaven.
Parallel translations
- WEB Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.
- KJV And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.
- NKJV Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.
- NASB And do not call anyone on earth your father; for only One is your Father, He who is in heaven.
- NLT And don’t address anyone here on earth as ‘Father,’ for only God in heaven is your Father.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Believers should call no one on earth 'Father' in the ultimate spiritual sense, for God alone is the Father in heaven. It guards God's unique place as the source of life and authority.
Overview
Jesus warns against giving any human being the supreme spiritual reverence due to God alone. The point is not to abolish family titles but to reject claims of ultimate spiritual fatherhood that rival God. Through Christ believers are brought into the family of the one true Father, who alone gives spiritual life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- 1 Jn 3:1Behold what manner of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.
- Heb 12:9Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?
- Mal 1:6“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’
- Job 32:21–22I will be partial to no one, nor will I flatter any man.
- Rom 8:14–17For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
- Matt 7:11So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
- Matt 6:8–9Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
- 1 Tim 5:1–2Do not rebuke an older man, but appeal to him as to a father. Treat younger men as brothers,
- 1 Cor 4:15Even if you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.
- 2 Cor 6:18And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
- 2 Kgs 2:12As Elisha watched, he cried out, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!” And he saw Elijah no more. So taking hold of his own clothes, he tore them in two.
- Acts 22:1“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense before you.”
- 2 Kgs 6:21And when the king of Israel saw them, he asked Elisha, “My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?”
- Matt 6:32For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
- 2 Kgs 13:14When Elisha had fallen sick with the illness from which he would die, Jehoash king of Israel came down to him and wept over him, saying, “My father, my father, the chariots and horsemen of Israel!”
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 23:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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