Real Men

A recent newspaper article tackled the subject of why it is so difficult to get men to attend a worship service. Although looked at from a purely denominational point of view, the writer hit on what troubles many Christian families when she wrote, "It is somehow connected to why some men won't touch cinnamon apples in a restaurant, even when they come with the meal. For some reason, a lot of men seem to feel that certain things like showing spirituality or eating something sweet with their steaks threatens their testosterone level" ("Trying to put the spouse's bod in the house of God," by Kathy Swindle, Dallas Morning News, January 4, 1997).

It is not uncommon for Christian men to think that any sign they are living a life for God means they have forfeited their manhood. While women go about the business of tending to the sick, attending Bible classes, nurturing their children in the faith (something commanded to fathers, by the way, Eph. 6:4), their husbands are content to slip into services two minutes before they start and slip out as soon as they are over, never letting anyone think they are interested in God's word.

The Bible deals with men in an entirely different way. In God's word, it is the men who stand for God and who are the strong ones, the ones who are truly "men's men." There is the patriarch Abraham, with his faith which gives him the strength to leave his homeland and family, to go and offer his only son in sacrifice to God, to begin the story of God's people. So strong is the faith and character of Abraham that all three of the world's dominant religions (Christians, Jews and Muslims) claim him as a spiritual father. In the accounts of Genesis, it is Lot, Abraham's nephew, who shows himself to be weak, less than a "real" man, by his lack of faith and character (Gen. 19).

In Exodus, God's people are led by one of the greatest men, not only in the Bible, but in all of history. Moses, called by God the most humble of all men on the earth, stands strongly in the face of those who would call the spiritual man weak. His humility made him strong, for only a strong man would choose to give up "the treasures of Egypt" (Heb. 11:26), in order to serve his God. A weak man would have given in to Pharoah, the most powerful ruler in the world at the time, but Moses chose "rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin" (Heb. 11:25). Even a casual read through the life of Moses reveals a man strong in both his physical nature and in his character.

Armed then, with the examples of the Old Testament, the Christian man must turn to the New Testament to discover the will of God for him. Paul urges the Corinthian brethren, "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong" (1 Cor. 16:13). It is clear that the apostle had in mind men whose strength of character would show through, whether in persecution or in threats from false doctrine. Lest Paul appear to be mandating some kind of macho (that is to say, pseudo) manhood, look at the phrase which follows, "Let all that you do be done in love."

The apostle Peter also calls for more than the weak-spirited man who is afraid to let anyone see him worship. Here was a man who knew both physical strength (he was a fisherman, after all, and it was he who drew his sword to fight at the arrest of Jesus) and what it was like to fail spiritually (Lk. 23:54-62), and in his list of qualities most needed by Christians, he said, "In your faith supply moral courage . . ." (2 Pet. 1:5). Having recovered from his moment of doubt and fear, Peter recognized the need for us to stand for the truth of God's word, and knowing what his future life held for him (see Jn. 21:18-19), he knew that spiritual strength far outweighed the physical strength he had once relied on.

There is no call for weak, namby-pamby men in the church of God, and if we are to serve Him as He would have us, we must get past the world's definitions of what makes a real man, and start studying God's view of the same. We cannot survive as a people with macho men who are unwilling to quietly go about the business of serving God and bringing others to Him. The "immoral and godless person like Esau" (Heb. 12:16) has already been rejected by God.