Patriarchy

God is our Father. He is the penultimate Father and He rules the Heavens. Patriarchy simply means “father rule,” and so it follows that every biblical Christian holds to patriarchy. The husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church (Ephesians 5:23).

God is our Father and we acknowledge His rule.

One of the primary ruling functions a father has is in ruling over his children. For believing fathers this means bearing the central responsibility to bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Ephesians 6:4), which God as a father does. A father is also responsible to provide for and protect his family. Which God does.

Father-rule. That’s the good part.

But there are objections. One objection is that some men are fools and idiots. This is indeed a strong argument for not marrying one of those and making a father of him. Never-the less, our world is filled with fathers (good and bad) because it is a world created by God the Father.

Fatherhood lies at the centre of all things, and because the Father created the world, the world reflects that reality.

But because it is a world that has fallen into sin and rebellion, it is also a world that is filled with false information about fatherhood.

We have a Father of all good things, but there is also a father of lies out there (John 8:44). We have a Father of lights, but there is also a father of darkness out there.

In other words, there is good patriarchy and there is bad patriarchy.

All fathers are talking about God the Father all the time. All sons are talking, by their manner of life, about the Son. And all of us are, by our manner of life, telling the world whose son we are. Fatherhood and Sonship are inescapable. We do not have the option of remaining silent.

Fatherhood is good and beautiful. Patriarchy is handsome and enduring. Fatherhood that echoes the character of our Heavenly Father is a thing to be sought, exalted and enjoyed by both fathers and children alike.

One of the ways that we can honour fatherhood is through humility and obedience. The kind that involves a contented smile from ear to ear. An inability to do this may indicate we are looking up at the wrong father.

The world rejects patriarchy and hates fatherhood because the father that it sees when it looks up is terrifying. Admitting to fatherhood would mean admitting the Devil as their Father. For the world, patriarchy is indeed a terrible, terrible thing.

And so, the world (after the manner of its father) attempts to confuse and mock the nature of genuine fatherhood. It teaches us to substitute real fatherhood for friendship, fanclubs or an aloof black mumma called Papa baking cookies in a Shack. It seeks to separate us from both our earthly fathers and our Heavenly Father.

It’s weapons are suspicion, bitterness and doubt and it wages its war under the motto, divide and conquer.

But we have weapons of our own. Fatherly weapons of love, joy and faithfulness, and our motto is, divide and multiply.