Fatherhood: God's Good Plan

The third Sunday of the month of June marks Father’s Day in the United States of America. Therefore, I thought it very timely for us to consider some Biblical truths regarding fatherhood. God is good and His Word is good! The blessed person will delight in God’s Word and meditate on it day and night (Psalm 1). Part of the joy of the Christian walk is being part of the body of Christ which has been commissioned by our Lord to learn to do all that He commanded us (Matthew 28:19-20). As believers in Christ, we are to have a biblical worldview in all areas of life and practice, and that includes understanding God’s Word regarding fatherhood.
 
The first usage of the word father in the Bible is found in Genesis 2:24 where we have the first marriage as the culmination of the Creation week. On the sixth day, God created the man from the dust of the ground, and then He created the woman from the rib of the man. Genesis 1:27 clearly states, “male and female He created them.” Therefore, a key foundational truth for a biblical worldview of fatherhood is to recognize that fathers are men! When you get to Genesis 2:24, you read, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother.” Scripture clearly teaches there are two and only two genders; the father is the male and the mother is the female. When a godly foundation exists in a society, that basic truth is accepted. But in a world that is marked by increasing godlessness and lawlessness, even the most basic principles of God and His Word are under attack. With that elementary foundation in place, it is also important to realize that God’s good plan for fatherhood is to be entered into only in the context of marriage.   Genesis 2:24 is the “therefore” or the result of the LORD bringing the woman to the man and Adam responding with some beautiful poetry as the LORD blessed him with a wife. Therefore, sexual sin undermines God’s good plan of fatherhood. God’s good plan of fatherhood was undermined just as much by the sexual revolution in the 1960’s as it is by the blasphemy of what many today celebrate during the sixth month of the year. Furthermore, within the context of marriage, God blessed the man and the woman and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply.” Children are seen as a blessing, not as a burden. When God finished day six of the creation week, “God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.” Although Adam was not yet a father, God’s good plan looked forward to Adam becoming a father.

The Scriptures also teach us what the role and responsibilities are for fathers. In summary, a father is to rule his house in a manner that leads his children towards godliness. God’s design for marriage and the family was not just that the earth could be filled with offspring but rather with godly offspring (Malachi 2:15). As an image bearer of God, a father’s primary concern is to live a godly life and to testify of God so that his children can know the true and living God (Deuteronomy 6:1-8; Psalm 78; Malachi 4:6). All fathers will bring up their children in the training and admonition of someone or something. The key for us as fathers is to bring up our children in the training and admonition of the Lord! Knowing that “godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of life that now is and of that which is to come” (1 Timothy 4:8), may we as father’s purpose to fulfill our role and responsibility of being godly fathers. May the words of 1 Thessalonians 2:10-12 mark our testimony as fathers; “You are witnesses, and God also, how devoutly, and justly and blamelessly we behaved ourselves among you who believe; as you know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you, as father does his own children, that you would walk worthy of God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.”  

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