Being a father is really hard. Not that I would know, but I’d imagine it’s difficult work. I mean, I’m a daughter, an only girl at that, and I know how difficult I am. So, it definitely doesn’t seem like an easy feat. A father is the first glimpse of what we possibly hope to grasp of God being like as a father.
When a father ruins that glimpse, he is, for some, ruining what they imagine God to be like. When you say Father to a child, they are making a connection between their Father and father. That’s really serious business.
Think about that. That’s quite the offense right there.
To misrepresent God is not good. And as true as this is for a father, it’s true for Christians period. We are supposed to be a representation of Christ in this world. And if we do anything that is not Christlike, we are misrepresenting Him. We shouldn’t be OK with that, and the fact that it seems like we have become OK with it is not good. God has given us an opportunity to represent Him, Our Creator. That honor should never be taken lightly.
2 Corinthians 5:20 (NLT)
So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”