God as Father In Scripture
Old Testament
I leave the Old Testament scriptures for my visitors to study if they wish. I prefer to comment on the New Testament which refers to me personally in acknowledging God as My Father.
Deuteronomy 32:6 - "Do you thus requite the Lord, O' foolish people and unwise? is not he thy Father that has brought thee? hath he not made thee and established thee?"
1 Chronicles 29:10 - "Wherefore David blessed the Lord before all the congregation; and David said, blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father forever and ever."
Psalms 68:5 - "A Father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows is God in his holy habitation."
Isaiah 64:8 - "But now, O' Lord, thou art our Father, we are the clay and thou our potter and we all are the work of thy hand."
Malachi 2:10 - "Have we not all one Father? hath not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously, every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?"
New Testament
I will comment on the scriptures below without doing a study on them but rather to share what these verses mean to me in my Christian walk with God and what I understand them to mean from that perspective.
Matthew 6:9 - "After this manner therefore, pray ye; Our Father which art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name."
Of course this verse should be familiar to people even if they aren't Bible students because virtually everyone has heard or said these verses at some time in their life. There is more here than meets the eye at first glance. Jesus is speaking these words and teaching us how we ought to pray. The first thing we can learn from this is that we are addressing "our Father" meaning father of those who know and love him. There are some who consider all men to be God's children but a better understanding of that can be found by clicking on God's Children where it's highlighted in this sentence. I will leave it up to my readers to visit the page and study what's there. We also learn that our father is in Heaven. I would suspect he is in the highest Heaven since there are at least three Heavens that are mentioned in scripture. Hallowed be thy names simply means "holy is your name" in reference to the Father.
Matthew 7:11 - "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him?"
This verse begins with the clear statement that "men are evil by nature" which can easily be verified by scripture study, but even evil men know how to give good gifts to their children. I could really expound on this beginning with spoiled children and how receiving gifts they don't earn is received by them as opposed to children who are humble and thankful I'm sure that some of my readers could give me plenty of feedback on that subject from personal experience. The important part of this verse is that God, the Father, loves to give good things to those who ask. I think our attitude should be different with him.
Matthew 23:9 = "And call no man your father upon the earth; for one is your Father which is in Heaven."
Call no man your father is in reference to spiritual leaders and I believe that the reference here is that no man should have such prominence in spiritual matters as to take the place of the Heavenly Father. Men should value and honor their spiritual leaders but recognize their first allegiance and accountability is to God.
Romans 8:15 - "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba Father."
Prior to being delivered from sin through Christ's sacrifice many of us have fears such as walking alone at night and hearing unidentifiable noises that frighten us unnecessarily. This verse is telling me that we are no longer in bondage to fear because we have been adopted into God's family and should be confident in our Father's loving care.
1 Corinthians 8:6 - "But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things and we by him."
But to us (Christians) there is one God, however we are not monotheistic, that is we believe in one God in three persons which the scripture calls the Godhead. The father here needs no explanation. All things exist because of God, Christians are in him (his adopted children) and there is only one Lord Jesus Christ by whom all things exist and we exist as God's children by faith in the sacrifice of Christ. This verse is very interesting because it says all things are by God, but it also says all things are by Christ. That could be interpreted only one way, and that would be that Christ is equal to the Father and therefore proves the deity of Christ.
Ephesians 4:6 - "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all and in you all."
Remember here that Paul is speaking to Christians. His is saying there is one God. This verse causes great controversy because all religions believe their god or gods are the real deal. An examination of the whole Bible will show that God claims to be the only "true and living" God. If the Bible is truly God's Word then all other gods are false and either non-existent or existing only in the imaginations of men and are idols and all who worship them are guilty of idolatry as the Bible charges.
There is also only "One Father of all." This applies specifically to Christians since all men are not God's children. Since only those who are redeemed through Christ are God's children the rest of the verse applies to them as God is in us and works through us.
Hebrews 12:9 - "Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?"
Here the Bible speaks of our earthly human fathers stating that they corrected or disciplined us. Sadly this is not true today as children prove by example that they are disrespectful, rebellious and ungodly in many ways. These are the children of the world: not the children of God. We gave our earthly fathers respect if they were disciplinarians and we gave them a certain amount of submission if we thought it would be profitable for us down the road, and some were made to fear their fathers because their fathers were abusive mentally, physically and even sexually. Submission to God for Christians is not out of fear. We both fear and love God out of knowing he is worthy of both. Because we can turn from God it is healthy to keep the fear of eternal damnation before us if we should do so. Because God is merciful to us and saves us we can love him for his grace to us. This verse ends with the words; "and live." The end of wickedness is death, and not just spiritual death but spiritual death which is separation from the love of God our Father forever with no chance of recovery. On the contrary, there is absolute peace in loving God and serving him from a heart filled with thanks for his kindness we never deserved and his continuing power keeping us forever.
1 Peter 1:17 - "And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear."
Here we have a very significant word; "IF." Two letters carrying an amazing impact in everything in our life. If we call on the Father implies that we might not call on him, choosing to live life without him. That would be a fatal mistake if we die before correcting it.
Next we see that God doesn't have favorites or respect "of" persons. Every person living will have an opportunity at one time or the other to call on God. Some are concerned about those who never heard the name of Jesus. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament there were those who didn't turn to God for one reason or the other. Some of it was their lack of knowledge of who he was but I am convinced that God reaches out to men in every religion, and when they call on him with humility and repentance he has a way to reveal himself to them. Many missionary stories will bear this out. God miraculously has appeared to people of other religious beliefs when they cried out for him to show them who he was and he saved them miraculously. God will never fail to hear the cry of those whoare ready to repent of their sins and put their faith in him. I am living proof of that. Finally this verse tells us to pass the time we travel on earth in fear. Why fear? This is not the craven fear we think of. It is the sure knowledge that those who fear God walk with wisdom in this life knowing the wrath of God falls on the unrepentant person. The fear is sometimes called reverence but I believe it's more than that.
1 John 5:7 - "For there are three that bear record in Heaven; the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one."
Here we have what is known in Christian circles as a doctrinal statement. Here we see that there are three co-equal members of the Godhead, the Father, the Word (the living Word of John 1:1 and 14) which speaks of Jesus, and the Holy Ghost (or Holy Spirit). There are three verses only found in the New Testament speaking of the Godhead. Use a King James Bible to find them. That's sort of a home work assignment if you wish. The closing words state that the three members of the Godhead are one. There is a beautiful way to understand this that just entered my mind and that I've never considered before. The Bible states that God is perfect and all his works are perfect. Now think of this; If the Godhead is perfect as it most surely is then the three are not only one in agreement but every agreement they make is perfect because they are co-equal and perfect as well.
None of them can be any more or any less than they are because perfection cannot be altered. So God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are the most stable threesome in the universe and because of their stability and perfection they can be trusted implicitly to never fail or make a mistake.