Men... Be Men! (The death of Biblical Masculinity)

What is manliness? Manliness in the traditional sense tends to be associated with muscles, beards, hairiness, eating rocks for breakfast and rescuing damsels in distress. This is not the kind of "manliness" we will address today. My focus today is for us to understand just a little bit more of what manliness looks like. Not just cultures idea of manliness, or 1995's Hercules starring Kevin Sorbo's idea of manliness, but God's description of manliness.

I strongly stand by the idea that our culture has completely changed, (intentionally so) what it means to be a man. (Sometimes in quite a literal sense). In preparing for this article, I've searched through several other articles written about manliness. There were predominantly two things that I noticed about all of these articles. They were either articles damning the typical "toxic masculinity" or articles naming all of the things that, "men definitely aren't". There was a severe lack of understanding as to what a man actually was. In one article from, TheGoodMenProject the author describes how he began to discover manliness, saying..., "Along the way, I learned to search within myself and soon discovered that being a man has more to do with knowing yourself. The examples of other men can be helpful guideposts, but they are only that: guides. You have to find a way to enter through the narrow, the gates of your own consciousness, your soul.".

I must admit, the sentiment of the author does sound nice, and it may in fact even work for him and the type of man he desires to be, however, the type of many we are talking about here is the type of man that God calls us to be. The author makes a mistake in saying that it is inside of the individual man that one must look in order to find what it means to be a man. The idea of looking into one's self to find anything other than sin and depravity is one that Christians should know will never work. To be fair to the author, this article is not written from a Christ driven perspective. It still does however, hold value in showing us the psyche behind one mans (and probably many more) idea of manliness.

"We must look to the ultimate example of what it means to be a man."

Men of God, we must look to the ultimate example of what it means to be a man. We can take guidance from the character of Christ in the way He carried Himself when here in the flesh, and also from the Word of God in the many ways it commands us to be men. As stated before, if you look from a secular perspective to find guidance on what it means to be a man, there are countless opinions. However, if you look to scripture for what it means to be a man, I am quite pleased to say that you will find a much more concise and uniform picture. God makes it clear to us, there are two genders, and there are different roles that those two genders are meant to fill. Let's look into those.

1 Corinthians 16:13–14 . Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love.

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.

Psalm 119:9–16

9 How can a young man keep his way pure?By keeping it according to Your word.

10 With all my heart I have sought You; Do not let me wander from Your commandments.

11 Your word I have treasured in my heart, That I may not sin against You.

12 Blessed are You, O Lord; Teach me Your statutes.

13 With my lips I have told of all the ordinances of Your mouth.

14 I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies, As much as in all riches.

15 I will meditate on Your precepts And regard Your ways.

16 I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word.

These are just a few of the MANY verses in scripture that guide the actions of a man. Of course these are applicable to all believers but the focus now is on the man of God. We see that a man of God stands firm, they are strong, and at the same time what they do is done from a place of love. Biblical men are to know what they believe, and to stand strong on that belief as it is the very foundation of who they are. Sometimes this may come across as rude, but we know that what we do, we do in love. All of this is the Christian man as defined in 1 Corinthians 16:13-14.

Moving onward to chapter 13 of 1 Corinthians we see the man of God is marked with maturity. As we grow, there is a level of seriousness to be had in situations. Where as a child, mostly nothing mattered to us or was approached with even the slightest level of thought, as adults we are to be different. The Biblical man stops, the Biblical man thinks, the Biblical man approaches things with preparation. As men we are leaders, we are responsible for the physical and more importantly spiritual protection of our family. This is something that is to be taken with the utmost seriousness. It is a burden that we bear, but one that we bear gratefully.

And lastly, in Psalm 119:9-16 we see that a Biblical man is one who seeks the good things of God. In this chapter the author understands that he is prone to wander from the things of God, just as we are! He prays that the Lord would keep him. That the Lord would help him keep his mind on things that are pure and holy unto the Lord. He acknowledges that he must abide by and follow the guidance that the Lord has given to him. What are the applicable ways in which he says we can do these things?

1. "Your words have I treasured in my heart"

2. "With my lips I have told all the ordinances of Your mouth"

3. "I will meditate on your precepts and regard Your ways"

4. "I shall delight in your statues; I SHALL NOT forget Your word"

You see men, the writer here acknowledges what we all must acknowledge if we are to be fierce men of God. We are prone to fail, we are prone to forget, we are prone to wander from the things of God. It is by memorizing His word, applying His word, meditating on His word, and weaving the knowlege of His word into the very fiber of our being that we stand a chance against the evil things of this world, and the sinful flesh that we are to fight every day.

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Society has sissified men, Satan has destroyed and twisted what man even means. Men, I firmly believe that a Biblical man, leading a Biblical woman to raise Biblical children is something that Satan absolutely trembles over. Not that we are the ones to be feared, but the One to whom we devote our lives.

We have moved away from all things Biblical and traditional. Men, read your Bibles, lead your family, wake up every day and prepare for battle. Be revolutionary, be counter cultural, be everything that Satan hates. That is what it means to be a man, now go, and do it.