17 Bible Verses about Spiritual Fathers

Though you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have given birth to you through the good news.

Call no man your father on the earth, for only one is your Father in heaven.

It was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me like a father to Pharaoh. He made me lord over his entire household, and ruler of Egypt.

Micah said: Stay here with me. Be my adviser and priest. I will give you ten pieces of silver a year along with some clothes, and your food.

They told him: Be quiet. Do not say a word. Come with us and be our priest and adviser. Is it better for you to be a priest to the house of one man, or to be a priest to a tribe and a family in Israel?

I was a father to the needy! I championed the cause of the stranger.

You call wood your father. You call stone your mother. You turned your backs, not your faces, to me. But when you are in trouble, you ask me to come and rescue you.

Say this, 'The Lord Jehovah says this to Jerusalem: Your ancestry and birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite.

You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You are also the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and raise livestock.

His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play the harp and flute.

I will clothe him with your robe and strengthen him with your belt. I will commit your responsibility into his hand. He will be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.

Elisha saw it and cried out to Elijah: My father, my father! Mighty defender of Israel! You are gone! He never saw Elijah again. In grief Elisha tore his cloak in two.

You know how we dealt with each one of you. It was like a father with his own children, exhorting you, and encouraging and showing you.

Do not rebuke (censure) (criticize) an elder, but appeal to him as a father, the younger men as brothers.

I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, little children, because you know the Father.

I write to you, fathers, because you have known him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one.