WHAT IT MEANS TO BE A MAN
“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done with charity.” —1 Cor. 16:13, 14
What is “trending” in the world and in our increasingly godless American society tends to trend eventually to some degree among Christians and in churches as well. This is certainly becoming more and more obvious where the redefining of manhood and the demasculinization of men is concerned. The video shared here provides, in less than five minutes, a wealth of truth and plenty of springboards for thought as to What it Means to be a Man. It should be viewed and widely shared. What is presented here is consistent with what God’s Word teaches including what is found in the biblical text cited above. These two verses tell us, from God’s point of view, what it means to be and behave like a man.
“Watch ye.” Real men have their minds engaged in more than providing for their family’s physical safety, keeping food on the table and a roof over their heads. Real men also focus on more than their recreation and their eventual retirement. Real men provide for and protect their families inn these ways, but at the same time, they aren’t oblivious to, or obtuse concerning, what is happening around them. Real men are conscious of and conscientious about the spiritual significance of what is going on in their lives and in the lives of others. They don’t live in a carnal, clueless, selfish bubble.
“Stand fast in the faith.” Real Christian men know what they believe, why they believe it and are willing and able to stand for what they believe. They are in compliance with the admonition that says, “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear” (1 Pet. 3:15). They are “steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58) and not afraid to “contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). Real men are not “anybody’s dog who wants to hunt with them” where their faith is concerned.
Real men do not delegate the spiritual leadership of their homes to their wives or anyone else. Neither do they exercise spiritual leadership in their families according to the likes or dislikes of their children or anyone else. Real men take the position of Joshua who said unequivocally, “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord” (Josh. 24:15b). This is what leaders do: they lead. They take and maintain their God-given leadership role.
“Be strong.” Families and churches are handicapped, and our nation is handicapped today, by weak men; specifically, Christian men (Unsaved men are more than just weak, they are spiritually dead. See Rom. 5:12; Eph. 2:1). It is Christian men who are told in the Bible to quit themselves like men and “be strong.” Christian men need to be strong in character. “Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” (Eph. 6:10). It takes strength to stand for truth and against error and evil at all times and in all areas. But this is what real men do and will do. Real men are always “valiant for truth” (Jer. 9:3).
It isn’t easy for Christian men to be strong leaders in their families, their churches and in their communities. It never has been easy and it never will be as long as we have the world, the flesh and the devil to contend with. Christian men have never had a more corrupt culture to protect themselves and their families against than they have today in America. The temptations they have to deal with have never been as numerous, subtle and sinister as those that bombard our society every day. And, Christian men have never had to deal with a devil as desperate as Satan is now; our adversary, who, “as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,” knowing that “he hath but a short time” (1 Pet. 5:8; Rev. 12:12).
Christian men must be strong today in the face of a culture that is bent on the emasculation and the feminization of themselves and their sons. This is a clear, present and growing danger driven by a corrupt media, entertainment industry and educational system. Men must be strong today if they are going to be obedient to God and be of any good to anybody else. A great many Christian men are already strong in the Lord, and any man can be who wants and is willing to be a real man according to God’s definition. God never commands us to do anything that it is impossible for us to do. A real man, in the sight of God, is a man who is “strong.”
“Let all your things be done with charity.” Real men are not brutes or bullies. As husbands, they recognize the connection between verses such as Eph. 5:22 and 25. As fathers they understand the part love plays in the raising of their children (Eph. 6:4). Real men are not petty, petulant or pushy. They aren’t mean or manipulative. They believe in, and operate based upon their belief in the power of goodness and love in all of their doings (Rom. 12:21; Rom. 13:8).
Real men are strong leaders who exercise leadership that is properly motivated in a proper manner. This “charity” is the agape, God-like, love that is divinely imparted to men at the time of their conversion (Rom. 5:5). It’s the kind of love described in the thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. It is the kind of love that permeates the strong leadership of real men, tempering it with a spirit of meekness without tainting it with
carnal, cowardly weakness.
Real men are needed in Christian homes today. Wives and children want and need them. More real men are needed in churches today. These are the kind of men that God expects men to be and boys to become. God was looking for men like this in the days of Ezekiel the prophet. He said, “ I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me … but I found none” (Ezek. 22:30).
What does God see when he looks at you? Your physical prowess, personal possession, position or reputation is not part of His criteria for a real man. He has made His criteria for genuine manhood crystal clear: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done with love.” (1 Cor. 16:13, 14).
Parents need to do everything they can to help their boys become, and wives need to do all they can to encourage their husbands to be or continue to be, real men. Please take the one or two seconds required to like and share this if you can.
“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
—John 8:32