Spiritual Fathering

Sermon on September 9, 2018

I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. 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. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church. Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power. What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?

1 Corinthians 4:14-21

The Roman Catholic Church is in a bit of public relations trouble these days. You may have noticed especially their leadership problem. “Fathers,” they call them; and even the word “Pope” is simply the Latin for father. I remember one time my father telling me that, “It’s like the Catholics went into the Bible to find out all the things Jesus said not to do, and went ahead and did them.” After all didn’t Jesus even say, “call no man your father on earth, for you have one father, who is in heaven” (Mat. 23:9)? There was of course one small irony to this lesson from my dad. It just so happened to be my earthly father that pointed this out! The point was not lost on either of us. However, it does raise the question of whether we need to do more thinking about what Jesus meant. Maybe there are “fathers” and then there are “Fathers.”

• The Reality of Spiritual Fathers

• The Replication of Spiritual Fathers

• The Rod of Spiritual Fathers

Doctrine. God the Father has given little fathers for disciples and discipline.   

The Reality of Spiritual Fathers

Context and connection to the previous text.1 I thought Paul was doing some shaming! Now he says, ‘I do not write these things to make you ashamed’ (v. 14a). What Paul does here is subtle. He is turning, mid-statement, from the “big kids table,” or, as I once used the imagery, “the wizards’ table,” from the Lord of the Rings, in which there was a conference of the wizards at Rivendell that was not for little hobbit ears. Some things, though, are revealed to the whole band. Here Paul descends below the line of Deuteronomy 29:29, above which are those things hidden, and underneath, those things revealed. In this place, he wanted, simultaneously, the whole church to see his showdown with the false shepherds, and in the next breath to more gently address the flock as one who is a true shepherd. It is a bit like that warning passage in Hebrews 6 where the whole church is put on notice about those who fall away from the church, and then there is a transition point where he says, “yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation” (Heb. 6:9). The same sort of subtle transition is happening here. 

So, at the end of the day, this is not to your shame: ‘but to admonish you as my beloved children’ (v. 14b). This is the fatherly thing to do. This is what a true shepherd does. We do have some hard things to say, but as soon as possible, we turn admonition to edification. We tear down to build up. So to earthly fathers Paul says, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Eph. 6:4).

Let us get the stumbling block out of the way. There are “Fathers” and “fathers.” So Paul says, “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” (Eph. 3:14-15),” and the Greek word used for “family” is patria. So that an earthly family just is a patriarchy. We use that word like it is a bad thing. Its badness is even to be assumed. Why? For one thing, in this fallen world, it has often been a bad thing. But remember, there are “fathers” and there are “Fathers.” Or as C. S. Lewis once put it, “You can’t call a line crooked unless you have the idea of a straight line.” The only reason we can lament the abuse of power and control exerted by counterfeit fathers is because we have a standard of what kind of order ought to be brought to a family.  

So modern democratic thinking, and even radical feminist thinking, can help us get a sense of the attempt to have personal order, but without the genuine article. They can show us by omission, that is. They show us by how they care nothing for such an order. We must ask whether we care any more than they do. Most do not think about the value of such fathers until they are gone: ‘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’ (v. 15). Note that Paul treats “spiritual fathers” as a good thing and a thing for which there has been a lack. Guides, yes, but this more familial guide is what you have needed and not had in many fathers. Now what is the difference? The word for guides (pedagogos) is the temporary tutor. He is more temporary than the father, and certainly connected by a lesser bond. Today this could even include the podcaster, or as we have begun to absurdly call it: the influencer. Young men especially need so much more than that. Such guides one can turn on and off. They are a sounding-board for where one is already headed.

The Replication of Spiritual Fathers

‘I urge you, then, be imitators of me’ (v. 16). This is what one New Testament scholar calls “Paul’s imitation doctrine.”2 Let me give you a few verses and see if we see any patterns:

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ (1 Cor. 11:1)

And you became imitators of us and of the Lord (1 Thess. 1:6)

For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea (1 Thess. 2:14)

imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises (Heb. 6:12)

Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith (Heb. 13:17).

We can see a pattern of eternal things as the standard. The earthly “father” is a copy to copy. But the goal is to get to know the original, so that we can tell a true copy from a fake. So in what way is Paul specifically calling for imitation in Corinth? Because he says “I urge you then.” The word “then” points back to what he had previously said. It was the ground of imitation, as if now to say: Imitate me in becoming a spiritual father. Imitate me in the great mission of spiritual fathering. We see that mission element to the Philippians: “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us” (Phi. 3:17). Paul was decentralizing Paul in this imitation operation. “Join my imitation crusade by raising up an army of those around you at each local church who can take over for me.” This is where Timothy enters the picture.

‘That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord’ (v. 17a). This is the normal way Paul talks about his two protégés, Timothy and Titus: “Timothy, my true child in the faith” (1 Tim. 1:2); “To Titus, my true child in a common faith” (Titus 1:4). Now what is the THIS here? “This is why I sent Timothy.” Timothy and Titus were designed by God through Paul to become a “Paul 2.0”! What do I mean by that? Children naturally copy their father, at least in the early years, and so Paul kept Timothy close at first to guarantee a pattern. And that is the purpose of sending a Timothy now. That is what the “this” references. He wants to establish the power of replication. Church plants need a lot of things; but one of the most important things is for the planter to be able to spend time with a few good men for that replication process to occur. 

and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2)

Why is this? Is it merely to produce clones? No! He says, ‘to remind you of my ways in Christ’ (v. 17b). Remember that pattern of imitation: “Imitate me ... as I imitate Christ.” Christ is the standard. Christ is the DNA, but we are the RNA — the translation and replication. We don’t get to say, like that old Charles Barkley commercial, “I am not a role model.” We have to care to be active, and want to be the kind of people that say to those younger with us: “My son, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways” (Prov. 25:26). Notice, however, the kind of role model that we are talking about. “To remind you of my ways in Christ” means TO REMIND YOU OF CHRIST. 

Now see the scope of Paul’s replication crusade: ‘as I teach them everywhere in every church’ (v. 17c). This pattern wasn’t just for Paul’s own church plants. This pattern was meant to be a norm throughout church history. Recall what he had said in that building metaphor in 3:10 — “Let each one take care how he builds upon it.” In our verse here there is the emphatic and redundant EVERYWHERE in EVERY church.

That raises a question for us. Each one of us: Who is your Paul and who is your Timothy? In other words, who is discipling you and who are you discipling? I am not asking for an answer to that on the test right after the service. But each of us needs to be thinking hard about that in the coming days. 

The Rod of Spiritual Fathers

‘Some are arrogant, as though I were not coming to you’ (v. 18). Fee’s comments here set the stage nicely: “The argument that began in 1:10 is now finished; but Paul is not. The most delicate issue remains: In light of all that has been said, how is he to reestablish his authority over them?”3 In other words, this moment in Corinth is a lot like when Moses came back down from Mount Sinai. When he had left, parties began to form. It was not only the Golden Calf, but there were open challenges to the prophet’s authority: “As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him” (Ex. 32:1). Challenges to God’s established authority are normal. They are part of the great war that has raged from the Garden. However, the crucial principle is this: Challenges to God’s established authority are no mark against that authority. Indeed, they are often confirmation. There are two ways to react to that challenge: with humility or with arrogance. Paul identifies some who, he says, are arrogant. 

‘But I will come to you soon, if the Lord wills, and I will find out not the talk of these arrogant people but their power’ (v. 19). Many have found this puzzling. First of all, he just finished casting shame upon the ringleaders, and he suddenly returns to thoughts of closure with them. Second of all, Paul acknowledges that he is not that impressive (cf. 2 Cor. 10:1). So what is all this trash-talking? one might think. However, this is not trash-talking at all! Paul is not petty here. I point this out because I am convinced that fragile Americans have a hard time reading Paul. The man lived all of life like it was all on the line all the time. 

‘For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk but in power’ (v. 20). Such “power” may only be manifest over time. It is ultimately the sword of Christ by which God’s kingdom is ruled.

Sometimes dad has to flash the belt. ‘What do you wish? Shall I come to you with a rod, or with love in a spirit of gentleness?’ (v. 21) Here is another thing about children, especially as they approach adolescence. There are those puffy-chested moments that Paul knows is really immaturity. They rebel; and that rebellion is total. It is a challenge to the throne of the patriarchy. Remember the way Chapter 3 started? He said they were acting like children: children who thought they were giants! At this point it is a good thing for such children to be cut back down to size. And it is a delicate surgery because the parents is not aiming to break but to bruise, not to cast out but to restore. Thus of the ultimate Shepherd it is said, “Your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Ps. 23:4). The staff is for gentle leading beside still water; but that is not what the rod is for. And yet the Psalmist says to the perfect Shepherd and Father that both have brought him comfort. 

No doubt Paul struggled mightily against the spirit of vengeance and vindication, but at the end of the day his whole heart could only burst out with the spirit of Christ, 

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! (Mat. 23:37)

Practical Use of the Doctrine

Use 1. Exhortation. The stress that Paul places on this should forever silence the boasts of legalists in our midst who have looked down on families who could use a little extra help with their growing boys. It is true that we do not have information about Timothy’s father. Of his grandmother and mother we know. They were faithful Christians who did the best they could. Evidently, what they did had a massive impact:

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well (2 Tim. 1:5).

Even so, the Apostle took this young man under his wing. Many boys who are raised by faithful Christian fathers nevertheless resist hearing many things their fathers say. For some, this incredulity is mild and would hardly be thought as “rebellion” by onlookers. For others, the aching heart of a father whose son has strayed from the faith and is far from home, longs for God to send some Christ-like male influence into his path. There is just something that hits differently when the same things are stressed by another masculine angle. To sneer at that—to look down upon that father—is to neglect this grace in the local church that is needed today more than ever. Consider being such a man; and certainly pray much for such fathers and such sons.

Use 2. Consolation. There’s really a parable in this whole thing. These Corinthians have arrogance. Paul has a rod. The Corinthians, like any other church, are a microcosm of God’s people. An assembly of image-bearers, created by God, to take care of His things in His house. And they walk around acting like they own the place. Kind of like the original group of people in Adam and Eve; and there all along was the rod of God’s anger, not coming down as hard as He could have brought it. Just the opposite was in God’s mind, because since the beginning He planned to sacrifice His own Son to make us sons and daughters: “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 Jn. 3:1).

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1. Note upcoming passages in which appropriate shaming returns: 5:2, 6:5, 11:22, 15:34.

2. cf. Dr. Robert Cara, “Pauline Epistles” Lecture.

3. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, 183.