No Violence to the Laws of Nature

For quite some time now I have been thinking about the “does not do violence to the laws of nature” rule. Where is an example? How should we use it? Yesterday as I was studying I stumbled upon one example, 

Let’s read:

Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

Does this instruction also apply to our earthly father? Does this instruction apply to our father in the flesh?

It is a law of nature that each human being is born of a father. It is a law of nature that each human being has received life from a father. To be requested to not call your father in the flesh “father” goes against the laws of nature. It must then be understood in a non-literal or symbolic sense. How can this be shown?

Genesis 4:21 And his brother's name was Jubal: he was the father of all such as handle the harp and organ.

Here we see that “father" is applied to all those who follow a certain practice. “Father" is a name for the source of a practice, behavior or conduct. Let’s see another example:

Matthew 5:44-45 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and  sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

Here we see a similar concept. “Father" is the source of a behavior. “Father" is the first one of, or the source of, a conduct or behavior. Love your enemies, is the instruction, that ye may be children of your Father in heaven, because he does love even his enemies. One more example:

John 8:39-40 They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. 

Jesus here teaches the spiritual meaning of “children" and “father". To be children of someone, you need to do the works of that person, you must have his behavior. And Jesus continues and reinforces the concepts.

John 8:41-43 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.

Again the same concepts are repeated. We are children of who we listen to, we are children of the example of those we follow, and we are children of those whose actions we do and repeat. 

Let’s read Matthew again:

Matthew 23:9 And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

We shall call our earthly father “father", from who we received our physical life. We shall not call anyone else father on earth. Why? because there is only one Father, one source, one origin. Him we should hear, follow and imitate. His character is to be our pattern. His words and actions, his behavior, words and deeds, if we receive them, will transform us into his children. And how? We read:

John 14:8-10 Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

May the light in the face of Jesus Christ shine in our path.