Real Men
July 9, 2007
Dear Friends,
I have been around a lot of men in my life who could be said to be the epitome of masculinity. I have known professional athletes whose strength and prowess have made them the top in their respective sports. I have known strong men whose biceps were the size of small trees and almost as hard. I have known real-life cowboys who ride a horse and carry a gun on the range. I have known men who were expert at boxing or martial arts that could beat you to a pulp without breaking a good sweat.
Men want to be men. What I mean is that men have a concept of what a “real man” is and some will go to extreme lengths to achieve it. I even know a man who for some reason believed that he needed to kill someone in order to be a real man (and did!). While not many men will go this far, others try to achieve manliness by other forms of being “macho.” Macho means qualities considered manly especially when they are assertive, aggressive or dominant. Macho characteristics are being tough, maybe a little mean, insensitive, aloof and uncaring for the feelings of others. A macho guy would not stoop to doing servile work. He will be the leader and the winner by dominating his opponents – real or imagined. In this mindset, women are objects to be used and abused.
This idea of manliness is a far cry from God’s definition of manliness. The Apostle Paul gives us a pretty good idea of what it takes to be a man in 1 Cor. 13.:
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. (v. 11)
Paul used to be a pretty tough guy. He was cocksure. He was mean. He badgered and bullied people. He was sort of the Pharisaical version of a Wild West lawman. He tracked down the “bad guys” (believers – both men and women) and took them off to jail. Yet, Paul now considered these old ways babyish and unmanly. Paul had a new definition for what it meant to be a man: love.
Love is God’s definition of what it takes to be a real man. It is a love that will allow a man to be struck in the face and not strike back. It is a love that will allow him to comfort others, do the most menial task, suffer himself to be defrauded, show true warmth and affection, be kind and considerate, show respect to women and other men and act gently to all men.
What this world needs is more real men, but not as the world defines manliness, but as God defines it. Men were made in the image of God and only by conforming to that image can men be all that they were meant to be. What is the image of God? Love. “God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)
Have a great week,
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