The answer
As a Roman citizen, the scholar Tertullian was comfortable with applying the title of “father” to rulers, but he advanced a more profound understanding of the fatherhood of the ruler than the mere imposition of authority. He says, “How can he, who is truly father of his country, be its lord? The name of piety is more grateful than the name of power; so the heads of families are called fathers rather than lords.”902
“A Christian is enemy to none, least of all to the Emperor of Rome, whom he knows to be appointed by his God, and so cannot but love and honour; and whose well-being moreover, he must needs desire, with that of the empire over which he reigns so long as the world shall stand—for so long as that shall Rome continue. To the emperor, therefore, we render such reverential homage as is lawful for us and good for him; regarding him as the human being next to God who from God has received all his power, and is less than God alone.”903
Fr. Tadros Yacoub Malaty
Notes
902 Tertullian, Apology 34 (ANF 3:43).
903 Tertullian, To Scapula 2 (ANF 3:105).