<p>23:9&nbsp;<em>And call no one on the earth your father-&nbsp;</em>Although the twelve called Jesus &lsquo;Rabbi&rsquo;, they perhaps didn&rsquo;t respect Him initially as the&nbsp;<em>only</em>&nbsp;Rabbi -because the disciples were too influenced by Judaism. The Lord has to remind the disciples to call no man their rabbi or 'father' on earth, i.e. in the land, of Israel. The disciples were evidently still under the influence of Judaism and the religious world around them, and this background died hard for them. &ldquo;Why say the scribes&hellip;?&rdquo;, they reasoned (Mk. 9:11), implying that their view was of at least equal if not greater weight when compared with that of the Lord Jesus as they also did in Mt. 17:9,10. He had to specifically warn them against the Scribes in Lk. 20:45,46. 'Father' was a common title for the rabbis, who referred to their disciples as their 'sons'. The disciples clearly respected the apostate rabbis far more than He wanted them to.&nbsp;We can easily overlook the deep and awesome significance of calling our fellow believers &ldquo;brother&rdquo; and &ldquo;sister&rdquo;. As Paul so strongly stresses, the Lord Jesus created a new sense of family, of &ldquo;social identity&rdquo;. We can easily miss how radical this was in first century Palestine; just as we can miss it in our own context. In the Mediterranean world of the first century, families were supremely important. The head of the family exercised total control. For the Lord to teach that His followers should call no man on earth their father was extreme; and yet He said it and expected it (Mt. 23:9).</p>
<p><em>For one is your Father</em>- This appeal to the unity of God would've sat well with the Jewish audience. But like many who profess faith in the One God, they hadn't thought through the implications. If God alone and uniquely is our Father, then we are not to call men 'Rabbi', rooted as the word was in the Hebrew word&nbsp;<em>ab</em>, 'father'.</p>
<p><em>He who is in Heaven-</em>&nbsp;If there is a Father in Heaven, we don't need a spiritual father upon earth. The implication is that they considered that although indeed there was one Father in Heaven, Heaven is distant and we need a father on earth. The Lord is implying that the King-dom, the rulership and essence of God in Heaven, is to be seen and felt on earth in our lives.</p>