How can we be dads who honor God and bless our families?

Thankfully, God hasn’t left us alone to fend to ourselves. We don’t have to guess. He has given us the Bible, which provides us with eternal principles for being God-honoring fathers. 2 Peter 1:3 says,

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness.

God has given Christians everything we need to be godly in every area of life, including parenting. Scripture is sufficient for the task. We don’t need to turn to psychology, sociology, or social media influencers to give us worldly ideas on how to parent.

We should turn to the One who created children to learn how to be effective parents. Through His Word and the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, Christian men can honor God and bless their families in being fathers.

In this new series of articles, we’re going to look at 11 biblical exhortations to help guide men to be God-honoring fathers.

Biblical Exhortation #1: Imitate Your Heavenly Father

If we’re searching for examples of what type of fathers we should be, we need to look at the best. We should seek to imitate the Perfect Father: God.

All throughout Scripture we see God referred to as God the Father.

When we refer to the Trinity we refer to God the Holy Spirit, God the Son, and God the Father. Fatherhood is part and parcel to who He is.

Obviously, God is Jesus’ Father. But He’s also referred to as the Father of Israel all throughout the Bible.

And in the New Testament, we see that by turning from our sin and putting our faith in Christ, we can become children of God.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now (1 John 3:1-2).

This passage tells us that the eternal God, the Creator of the universe, is the Father of all believers. That’s an astounding thought. The One who created the sun, the moon, and the stars; the skies and the oceans, has graciously adopted believers into His family.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God (Gal 4:4-7).

That’s amazing. If you’ve placed your faith in Christ, God is your Heavenly Father and you can call Him, “Abba” or “Daddy.”

Aren’t We All God’s Children?

Maybe you hear that and think, “Big deal…all people are God’s children.” Well, that’s actually not the case. What makes our adoption as sons more shocking is that we are born enemies of God. In our sin, we’re actually born with a different father: Satan.

By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)

God graciously adopts us into His family when we place our faith in Christ and we move from being children of the devil to children of God. What an amazing privilege to have God as our perfect Father.

Maybe hearing that God is the believer’s Father is not a comforting thought to you. Maybe you’re thinking, “My dad was not a good guy. I have a very complicated relationship with him.” Maybe fatherhood has a negative connotation for you. Or maybe you’ve never seen an example of what a good father looks like. Well, if you’re a believer, you have a perfect Father who has loved you with a perfect love.

As Christian fathers, the first point I want to make is that we should imitate the Perfect Father in our parenting. All believers are called to imitate God.

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children (Eph 5:1).

This applies to fathers as well. He is our perfect example of what perfect fatherhood looks like. God is perfectly loving, kind, and patient. He disciplines us perfectly to grow us. He is working all things together for our good. He will never abandon us or cast us away. Not sure what type of father to be? Look to Scripture to see how God acts as a father.

More To Learn

We could end our list right now after one point: just be like God as a father. Well, that’s easier said than done. God is perfect and we are not, so we need to be explicit in what that looks like practically. In our next articles, we’ll look at some specific examples of what Christian fathers should do.