In Matthew 23:9 Jesus says, "And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven."


To go even further. It also says:

5:16, God commands, "Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God commanded you; that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you, in the land which the Lord your God gives you."

This always got to me. Does anyone have an answer?

HI

I think its because they are talking to a man of god, and a priest is supposed to be a servant of god, so when talking to a priest you are symbolically talking to god or the father as they work by the words of the bible.

Its not just Catholics that do this, my best friends dad is a Christian vicar, and people call him father, but that might only be a British thing.

All the best
Faeden

A friend of mine is an Ordained Minister and he is very firm on his belief that "No man shall call another Father for we have but one and he is in Heaven".

Just curious. Would other names for "father" apply to this? Such as Dad or pop? No matter what the religious belief. I just wonder if in Biblical terms they mean the same or would "Dad" and "pop" mainly be slang.

I don't really know why I wanna know but the thought just came to me..

the title of this thread made me think of a bad "sex" joke.



seriously, is it out of respect (while maintaining some "warmth" to the title)?