To first understnad your question I think that the verse that you are refering to is posted. It reads: Call no one on earth your father; you have one Father in Heaven. (Matthew 23:9) But to truely understand this claim we must look at the context around the verse which reads: As for you, do not be called "Rabbi." You have but one teacher and you are all brothers. (Matthew 23:8) then it says, Do not be called "Master"; you have but one master, the Messiah. (Matthew 23:10)
To understand why this charge does not work we must first understand the use of the word "father" in reference to our earthly fathers. No one would deny a young girl the satisfaction in telling people that she loves her father. Common sense tells us that Jesus wasnt forbidding the use of the word "father" in this sense. In fact is we totally abondoned calling our earthy fathers "father" hte concept of God being our Heavenly father would be meaningless.
In the New Testament Paul and Peter constantly refer to their congregations as their children. Paul is always refering to Timothy as his son. For example, 1 Timothy 1:18; Phillipians 2:22. In both these verses Paul is calling another person his son that is not his biological offspring. Surely Paul, as someone who studied the words and works of Christ almost his entire life, would not break a commandment of God knowingly. In Titus 1:4 and in Philemon 10 Paul is calling people his children, emphasizing his spiritual fatherhood with them.
So what was Jesus saying then? Jesus was using something called Hyperbole, that is the deliberate overexageration in order to show a pont. Jesus used Hyperbole alot. For example, If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. It is better for you to loose one of your members than to have your whole body be thrown into Hell. (Matthew 5:29) Surely Jesus did not mean this literally or we would all be blind amputees!
Jesus is not forbidding us to call men fathers who actually are such- either spiritually or earthy. To acknowledge someone as father is only to acknowledge the truth and Jesus is not against that. He is warning people about inacurately attributing fatherhood- or a particular kind of degree of fatherhood- to those who do not have it.
