John Calvin Commentary Matthew 23:9

"And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, [even] he who is in heaven." — Matthew 23:9 (ASV)

And call no man on earth your Father. He claims for God alone the honor of Father, in nearly the same sense as he recently asserted that he himself is the only Master; for this name was not assumed by men for themselves, but was given to them by God.

And therefore, it is not only lawful to call men on earth fathers, but it would be wicked to deprive them of that honor.

Nor is the distinction that some have brought forward of any importance—that men by whom children have been fathered are fathers according to the flesh, while God alone is the Father of spirits. I readily acknowledge that God is sometimes distinguished from men in this manner, as in Hebrews 12:5. However, as Paul more than once calls himself a spiritual father (1 Corinthians 4:15; Philippians 2:22), we must see how this agrees with Christ's words.

The true meaning, therefore, is that the honor of a father is falsely ascribed to men when it obscures the glory of God. This occurs whenever a mortal man, viewed apart from God, is accounted a father, since all degrees of relationship depend on God alone through Christ and are held together in such a manner that, strictly speaking, God alone is the Father of all.