“You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God.” ­– J. I. Packer, Knowing God

The highest privilege of fatherhood is the opportunity to lead those closest to you to the most distinctive truths of the New Testament. With every moment as a father, men fill out their families’ understanding of what God is like as a father. Obviously, it is possible to wield this impact well or poorly. The privilege of fatherhood comes with some equally high responsibility.

The chief obligation of a father, then, is to learn the way God works as his father. Men learn from God his leadership, sacrifice, generosity, love, training, correcting, and forgiving (and more). No father can lead his family toward God without deeply experiencing the divine Father’s relationship.

Even after men taste the goodness of God’s fatherhood, our natures, weakened by sin, shape our capacities to accurately reflect God to our families. But God uses our weakness to demonstrate his power. Even though we mix faithful witness to God with our error, He is able to make himself known to our families. In fact, admitting our failures helps our families direct their trust and affections toward God, their Father, which is that ultimate goal and privilege of fatherhood anyway.

• Scott