Occasionally, you might find yourself conversing with someone that disagrees to address a priest to the term father. Sometimes those who hold this opinion even refuse to call their own dad's father. These people are usually very quick to point out that we should not call anyone on Earth father as it says in Matthew chapter 23. But both the Orthodox and Catholic traditions have been using the term father to address priests and biological parents for centuries. So is it appropriate for us to use the term father and if yes why? Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith. The name of the Father and the Son, the Holy Spirit, one God, amen. So not through 23, the text says that we should not call anyone on Earth father. It also says that we should not call anyone teacher. But are these verses supposed to be taken literally or do they have a deeper meaning? If it is to be taken literally then we should never use the term father while addressing a priest or our own biological parents. We should not use the word teacher either. But a very quick glimpse at the remainder of scripture would demonstrate that these verses are not to be taken literally and that Matthew 23 does have a specific context. I will only cite a few examples. In 1 Corinthians, St. Paul says to his congregation the following, I do not write these things to shame you but as my beloved children I warn you. For though you might have 10,000 instructors in Christ yet you do not have many fathers for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. Here St. Paul clearly calls himself a father to his spiritual children whom he has begotten in Christ. Again St. Paul when addressing sentiment he says to him, to Timothy a true son in the faith. Saint John the Beloved does the same in his epistle he says, I have no greater joy than to hear my children walk in truth. In these last two verses we find that the apostles clearly consider their disciples as their children implying their spiritual fatherhood. These verses validated the use of the word father in the context of Christ's priesthood. Remember St. Paul and St. John were apostles of Christ to put it simply, they were the equivalent of a bishop today. Also on many occasions we also find the word father used in the context of biological fatherhood. Ephesians 6 verses 1 to 4 is an example where St. Paul clearly addresses biological fathers and asks children to honor their father and mother. All of this clearly demonstrates that the meaning of Matthew 23 is not to be taken literally. So what is the meaning of Matthew 23? Let us read the text together. Christ says the following. Descremes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat. Therefore whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do. But do not do according to her works. For they say and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear and lay them on men's shoulders. But they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make the follructories broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the market places, and to be called by men rabbi rabbi. But you do not be called rabbi. For one is your teacher, the Christ, and you are all brethren. Do not call anyone on earth your father. For one is your father, he who is in heaven. And do not be called teachers. For one is your teacher, the Christ. Now the problem here is that the scribes and Pharisees were defective fathers. They misused their God-given fatherly authority by laying heavy burdens on the people while they themselves shined away from these rules. That is precisely why we can read in the remainder of Matthew 23, Christ's harsh criticism of the scribes and Pharisees, and he repeatedly labeled them as hypocrites. In other words, they practiced a corrupted fatherhood, a fatherhood that is outside of God. The message here is therefore to heal this Ilyan fatherhood, to bring it back within the true fatherhood of God the Father. Saint Jerome explains it in the following way. He says, remember this distinction. It is one thing to be a father or a teacher by nature, another to be so by generosity. For when we call a man father and reserve the honor of his age, we may thereby be failing to honor the author of our own lives. One is rightly called a teacher only from his association of the true teacher. A repeat, the fact that we have one God and one son of God through nature does not prevent others from being understood as sons of God by adoption. Similarly this does not make the term father and teacher useless or prevent others from being called father. He says here is very crucial and I will tell you why now. He is saying that the son of God is son by nature, yet we can also be called sons but we are sons by adoption. Similarly there is a father by nature who has got the father and another father by generosity or grace, meaning someone that received the gift of fatherhood. So if we honor someone as father because of his own self, his own identity, then we are wrong to do so. We can rightly call someone teacher by his association with the true teacher. We can also call someone father by his association with the real father who is God. So this acceptable to use the term father to address biological fathers or to address priests as we do so within the fatherhood of God. Our biological fathers have received from God the gift of procreation, meaning we participate with God in creating and it is therefore acceptable to be called fathers as it is within God's fatherhood. Similarly the priests have received the priesthood of Christ, they have become shepherds to the flock and therefore it is commendable to address them as fathers, as Saint Paul did in 1 Corinthians 415. This concept of sharing in the fatherhood of God can be seen in Ephesians 3. It says, for this reason I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from home to whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory. The word rendered family here is the Greek word patria which is derived from the Greek word pattern which means father. So these verses could also be rendered for this reason I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ from home to whole fatherhood in heaven and earth is named. In other words the earthly family is a family because it has a father and a mother and this is part of God's plan of sharing his fatherhood. So here we can see an example of a fatherhood that is within God in heaven and on earth. Saint John Chrysostom also says, again call no man your father. This is said in order that they may know whom the ought to call the father in the highest sense. It is not said thoughtlessly as if no one should ever be called father, just as the human master is not the divine master. So neither is the father, the father who is the cause of all. In other words God the father is the ultimate father and all true fatherhood has got the father as its source. Any other type of fatherhood is not true fatherhood. An example of this is if a biological father would ask Saint Eli to cover up for a mistake. This is an earthly fatherhood it is outside of God. And that is the meaning of not calling anyone on earth father, meaning do not accept any other fatherhood that is outside of God. A Christian father should not practice such things but always exercise his fatherhood within God.