“But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith” (1 Timothy 6:11-12 ESV).
God’s design for masculinity is under attack in today’s culture. The media, the education system, and the new radical feminism are combining with other cultural influences to declare a war against manhood.
In Christina Hoff Sommer’s book, The War Against Boys, she says:
“American boys face genuine problems that cannot be addressed by constructing new versions of manhood. They do not need to be ‘rescued’ from their masculinity. On the other hand, too many of our sons are languishing academically and socially. The widening education gap threatens the futures of millions of American boys. They get most of the failing grades and are more likely to be alienated from school.”
Sommers makes the case that a “misguided” feminism is actually doing harm to our young men.
Guy Garcia decribes the effect that this battle is having on American men. In his book, The Decline of Men, he writes:
“Why are so many ambitious young women unable to find boyfriends as successful and independent as they are? Why do so many men prefer the escapist digitized world of Spike TV, Jackass, and Grand Theft Auto to the reality of their own lives? Men are struggling to redefine what being a man means in today’s world. Their confusion has led to rampant male malaise, which has left many men feeling alienated and disconnected. Too many guys are slacking off and opting out of the manly obligations, producing an entire generation of men who are ditching their own potential and failing the moms, wives, and girlfriends who love them.”
American men are dropping out of school, not going to college, postponing marriage (or not committing to it at all), and finding a way to extend adolescence indefinitely, while playing video games, fantasy league football, and drinking beer. These are disturbing trends.
Perhaps most disturbing of all is how men are dropping out of church. More and more, church is a place for women and children, but men are missing in action.
David Murrow, writes in his book, Why Men Hate Going to Church,
“Women comprise more than 60 percent of the typical adult congregation. At least one-fifth of married women regularly worship without their husbands. There are quite a few single women but hardly any single men in our pews. Step into any church parking lot, and you’re likely to see an attractive young mother and her brightly scrubbed children scurrying to Sunday school. Mom may be wearing an impressive diamond ring on her left hand, but the man who gave it to her is nowhere to be seen… How did a faith founded by a Man and His twelve male disciples become so popular with women, but anathema to men? The church of the first century was a magnet to males. Jesus’ strong leadership, blunt honesty, and bold action mesmerized men. Today’s church does not mesmerize men; it repels them. When men need spiritual sustenance, they go to the wilderness, the garage, or the corner bar. Church is one of the last place men look for God.”
We are not the first generation of men to have our manhood come under attack. The apostle Paul wrote encouraging words to his spiritual son, Timothy about being a man of God. In the language of a warrior, Paul charged Timothy how to be a man of God. He gave him three powerful marks of a man of God:
1. A man of God knows when to retreat. (Flee lust, pursuit of money, idolatry, depravity…)
2. A man of God knows when to advance. (Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith…)
3. A man of God knows when to fight. (Fight the good fight of the faith…)
Godly men and women respect God’s Word and they respect God’s design for masculinity and femininity. They recognize the war for our minds and hearts in the culture today. And they are determined to be what God called them to be.
Men, may we be like Jesus, the perfect model of manhood, of whom Pontius Pilate announced, “Behold the man!”
Be the man.
Most married couples that struggle for compatibility today, can owe it to the fact that men are giving up their right as the “head of the household”. Once this role is handed over to the women, the man’s self esteem slips away. The role reversal this creates only leads to disaster….