Call no man on the earth your father, for one is your Father, he who is in heaven.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 9–10. Call none your father … Neither be ye called masters, and so forth The meaning is, that our Father in heaven is incomparably more to be regarded, than any father upon earth: and no master is to be followed, who would lead us away from Christ. But this does not hinder but that we are by the law of God to have a due respect both for our parents and spiritual fathers, (1 Corinthians 4:15,) and for our masters and teachers. Challoner.—This name was a title of dignity: the presidents of the assembly of twenty-three judges where so called; the second judge of the sanhedrim, and so forth V.—Nothing is here forbidden but the contentious divisions, and self-assumed authority, of such as make themselves leaders and favourers of schisms and sects; as Donatus, Arius, Luther, Calvin, and innumerable other of very modern date. But by no means the title of father, attributed by the faith, piety, and confidence of good people, to their directors; for, Saint Paul tells the Corinthians, that he is their only spiritual Father: If you have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet not many Fathers. 1 Corinthians 4:15.