The Role of the Father

Fathers are so special children suffer without them.

God calls fathers to love, instruct, and discipline their children in the ways of the Lord for their joy and God’s glory.

There are three clear God-given roles of fathers.

Our heavenly Father loves and cares for His children teaching earthly fathers to love and care for their children (Matthew 7:9-11)

How does our Father in heaven love and care for his children?

A good father provides for His children.

Matthew 7:9–11 ESV

9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Jesus is making a clear point about his Father by contrasting earthly fathers. A good earthly father will hear the needs of his children and respond appropriately. If our child is hungry, we give them something to eat. If our child is thirsty, we give them something to drink. If our child is tired, we give them a bed to sleep. The point is, a good father cares and loves for his child by hearing them and providing for them. If we being evil (sinful) can understand the expectation to hear our children and provide for them, how much more can our perfect Father in heaven hear us and provide for us when we pray to him? the Father’s love and care for us is that he hears us when we call out to Him and with a loving motive, he wisely responds to us by granting us what we need, in our time of need, and often abundantly more than we need.

A good father is present for His children.

For a father to hear his children and provide for them, you must be present, engaged, involved, aware, and intimately connected to your child’s universe. Our Father is always present, engaged, involved, aware, and intimately connected to our universe. There is not a hair that falls from our head that he is not aware of, nor a fear on our heart that he does not see and resolve to reconcile with his power. And even though he sees our evil, his motive, a s seen through the life and ministry of his Son jesus, is always for our good.

Consider how he provided for his children in the wilderness. Moses reminds Israel how God hears them and provided for them, and is present with them before they entered the Promise Land,

Deuteronomy 1:30–31 ESV

30 The Lord your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, 31 and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place.’

Deuteronomy 8:3–4 ESV

3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your clothing did not wear out on you and your foot did not swell these forty years.

God not is not only present for his children but he consecrates his children.

A good father is a priest for his children (Job 1:1-4)

I am drawn to Job as an example of a good father who consecrates his children. The Bible says,

Job 1:4–5 ESV

4 His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

God is a good father who is always present with you, hears your prayers, and responds for your good because he loves you and desires to care for you. He calls Fat

Job 1:4–5 (ESV) — 4 His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And when the days of the feast had run their course, Job would send and consecrate them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my children have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.

Colossians 3:21 (ESV) — 21 Fathers, do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged.

Fathers are to discipline their children

What does the Bible mean by discipline?

Why is discipline necessary?

Fatherly discipline is necessary because it is a means of grace God has given fathers to rebuke sin that leads to death and restore fellowship that leads to life.

Dictionary of Bible Themes 8231 discipline, divine

God disciplines his people through his word, through their experiences and through punishment, so that they may live in ways pleasing to him.

Deuteronomy 21:18–21 (ESV) — 18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and, though they discipline him, will not listen to them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city at the gate of the place where he lives, 20 and they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This our son is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of the city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel shall hear, and fear.

Proverbs 19:18 (ESV) — 18 Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.

Proverbs 23:13 (ESV) — 13 Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

Discipline is an act of fatherly love.

Fatherly discipline is loving because it it produces holiness that is good and delightful to God.

Hebrews 12:7–11 (ESV) — 7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? 8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. 11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Proverbs 3:11–12 (ESV) — 11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline or be weary of his reproof, 12 for the Lord reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Proverbs 13:24 (ESV) — 24 Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.

Discipline is an act of fatherly correction.

Fatherly discipline lovingly corrects foolishness that brings shame and grants wisdom that leads to honor.

Deuteronomy 8:5 (ESV) — 5 Know then in your heart that, as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you.

Proverbs 22:15 (ESV) — 15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.

Proverbs 15:5 (ESV) — 5 A fool despises his father’s instruction, but whoever heeds reproof is prudent.

Proverbs 29:15 (ESV) — 15 The rod and reproof give wisdom, but a child left to himself brings shame to his mother.

Fathers are to instruct their children

Ps 78:2–8

Psalm 78:2–8 (ESV) — 2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, 3 things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. 4 We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might, and the wonders that he has done. 5 He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to their children, 6 that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn, and arise and tell them to their children, 7 so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments; 8 and that they should not be like their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation whose heart was not steadfast, whose spirit was not faithful to God.

See also Dt 4:9; Dt 6:6–7; Dt 6:20–24; Dt 11:18–21; Dt 31:13; Pr 13:1; Pr 22:6; Eph 6:4

Deuteronomy 4:9 (ESV) — 9 “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children—

Deuteronomy 6:6–7 (ESV) — 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.

Deuteronomy 6:20–24 (ESV) — 20 “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies and the statutes and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. And the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22 And the Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household, before our eyes. 23 And he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in and give us the land that he swore to give to our fathers. 24 And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day.

Deuteronomy 11:18–21 (ESV) — 18 “You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 20 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.

Deuteronomy 31:13 (ESV) — 13 and that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the Lord your God, as long as you live in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess.”

Proverbs 13:1 (ESV) — 1 A wise son hears his father’s instruction, but a scoffer does not listen to rebuke.

Proverbs 22:6 (ESV) — 6 Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Ephesians 6:4 (ESV) — 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Psalm 103:13 (ESV) — 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.