Read Previous Articles in this Series:

Biblical Exhortations to Dads #1: Imitate Your Heavenly Father
Biblical Exhortations to Dads #2: Love Your Wife and Children
Biblical Exhortations to Dads #3: Lead Your Family
Biblical Exhortations to Dads #4: Provide for Your Family

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

Thankfully, God has told us in His Word what He expects from fathers. In this new series of articles, we’re reviewing a list of biblical exhortations for fathers. We’ve previously explored the following exhortations:

• Imitate Your Heavenly Father
• Love Your Wife and Children Lead Your Family
• Lead Your Family
• Provide for Your Family

Let’s look at the next item on our list.

Biblical Exhortation #5. Protect Your Family

As the leaders and providers of the home, fathers are to be the protectors of the home as well. The protection we provide for our family runs the gamut of life: from the physical to the spiritual.

At the most basic level, we should be physically protecting our families. That includes being on the lookout from anyone who would physically harm our families or take advantage of them. We should be willing to lay down our lives in defense of our wife and kids. Jesus said this about the sacrificial nature of love:

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

I would take a bullet for my kids. I would do anything to protect them from someone trying to hurt them. Their physical protection is a chief concern for me.

Whenever we’re out and about as a family, I am usually planning out what I would do if we were attacked. In my head, I’m like Jason Bourne utilizing surrounding objects as makeshift weapons. Of course, I would probably get taken down pretty quickly, but my spirit is willing even though my flesh may be weak.

Physical and Spiritual Protection

Beyond just the physical, we should be focused on their spiritual health as well. As fathers, we need to be protecting our children from the evil influences of the world and from false teaching. What are they hearing at school? What are they learning from TV, movies, or social media? What are they picking up from their friends? Be aware of the anti-biblical influence of the world.

False teaching is especially dangerous. If your children are learning a distorted gospel or a distorted view of what it means to follow God, that can set them off course spiritually.

One of the reasons why it’s so important to have your family involved in a good church is to make sure your family is regularly getting good teaching from God’s Word. As the head of the home, you need to be on guard and protecting your family’s spiritual health as well.

And that should not just be reactive or defensively. How do you proactively care for their spiritual health? We’ll explore that in our next article.