Recovering Biblical Masculinity

Over the last month, we have been digging deep in trying to understand the problem with men. We have covered a lot, but we know that this is just the tip of the iceberg. We could spend the whole rest of the year on just this one topic, and still that wouldn’t cover everything, but we did want to leave all of you men out there with a practical way forward. Today, we’re going to look at one passage of scripture that has the potential to give each of us a starting point and a clear heading as we navigate in the choppy waters of becoming men.

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” This exhortation was written by the apostle Paul to the Church in Corinth. Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians because he had heard of quarreling and division between believers within the church as well as sexual immorality and immoral behavior. If you look around today at the modern church, you will see many of those same issues, so Paul’s words are especially poignant here. Towards the very end of the letter, Paul writes the verse I quoted above, speaking directly to the men and charging them with a few specific directions about how they should conduct themselves as men, starting with “be watchful” followed with “stand firm in the faith.” Now, most of us would have ordered those the other way. Shouldn’t standing firm in the faith come before anything else? But remember, Paul is writing to the Church. These are people who have already been established in their faith and know the truth. They have received and accepted the gospel, and now Paul is telling them how to live this thing out. Paul recognizes that, as Christians and even more specifically as men, they would be under attack. Throughout this month, we have talked about how men are called to be the spiritual heads in their home, how they are meant to be the providers and protectors, how they should be the ones to lead their families first and then minister outwards to the Church family and then the community around them. So, what happens when the head is cut off, when the leaders can no longer lead? Well, a lot of what was happening in Corinth then and what we see happening today. Paul understood that in order to stand firm in the faith, the men would need to be watchful; expecting attacks and being prepared for them. Men, like it or not, you have a spiritual target on your back. There is a real enemy who is looking to take you out, because if he can do that, then everyone you were meant to protect is now vulnerable as well. This is why Paul’s first command is to be watchful and then he says to stand firm in the faith.

Next, Paul tells us to act like men. Woah, woah, woah. That has patriarchy, toxic masculinity, and Chad bro’s written all over it! What does it mean to act like men? Well, a more precise question would be, “what did Paul mean when he said, ‘act like men?’” We can import any number of our own thoughts and interpretations into the text and make that phrase mean pretty much whatever we want. That doesn’t mean that we have a proper understanding of this passage. Whenever we are trying to understand scripture, we have to learn to read in context. Act like men is written in the context of being watchful and standing firm in the faith and comes right before he tells us to “be strong.” Clearly, Paul is giving us a classic picture of manhood – the priest, provider, and protector. Guys, we are commanded to be more than just church attendees. We aren’t called to be casual observers of someone else doing what God has told them to do, we are tasked with being active participants in the kingdom of Heaven. There’s no such thing as a passive pastor. When translated, the word pastor literally means shepherd. We are supposed to be shepherds in our homes to our families; our wives and children. If we aren’t leading and guiding them, showing them which paths to follow and what to stay away from, pulling them back in when they go astray, just like sheep, they will be easy prey for the wolves. Act like men is a call to step up and do what it is that men are made to do, regardless of whether we feel like it or not. Now, this doesn’t mean we suck it up, take it on the chin and hold everything inside, all to ourselves, until we explode – we talked about that last week. No. We were not saved into isolation but saved into the family of Christ. We have spiritual fathers and brothers who are meant to share the burden and lead alongside us. We are able to act like men because we should be walking in the company of men beside and ahead of us that we can model ourselves after.

After Paul says to be strong, there is one more verse that I left out earlier which is meant cement the way we read and understand everything that he said before it.

“Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.” and then verse 14 - “Let all that you do be done in love.”

This is what being a man all comes back to. A strong man without love is not a biblical man and very easily he can become a tyrant. A faithful, religious man without love is the type of pastor that many of us have experienced – cold, dogmatic, unforgiving, bitter, angry and more concerned with his own sense of self-righteousness rather than the wellbeing of those in his care. A watchful man without love can become paranoid, untrusting, isolated and ineffective for the call. All of us are commanded to love God with all of our hearts, our souls and our strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. It is impossible to be a Godly man if this is not the starting point. The best you can be is a superficial man – carrying the façade of masculinity but broken on the inside and heading towards self-destruction. Being a man, a Godly man, the man that you were created to be, starts and ends with love.