#3 True Biblical Manhood

By Dr. Stephen Phinney

C. S. Lewis wrote of the dispirate strands of manhood--fierceness and gentleness--can find healthy synthesis in the person of the knight and in the code of chivalry.  Here these competing impulses--normally found in different individuals--find their union. ¹
 

The balance required for authentic Christian manhood is found in his God-given strength and power.  Without the gentle side, men would be mere brutes.  Tenderness and compassion without masculine firmness and aggressiveness produces a male without the fire to lead or inspire others.

In the Old Testament we see David, who was a poet and singer, but also a warrior and king.  He had the fierceness to kill Goliath, the giant, and the tenderness to provide for the needs of the people of God.  His compassion and masculinity found its perfect blend.

Keeping the right balance between our impulses toward power, aggression, and the need to be gentle and responsible is a challenge most men face.  

Our men need a vision for masculinity that challenges and inspires--if our women, children, community, and nation are to be stable and healthy.  In an age of great social, spiritual, and gender confusion, there is a desperate need for clear guidelines and models that can inspire the men of this generation to embrace their God-given masculinity.

To be a true biblical man, we must get back to the basics: 

1. The Word of God--knowing it better than we know our occupations 
2.  Hearing God in our minds and hearts. 
3.  Live with Christ as a Bridal member who is responsible and pure. 
4.  Study the foundational writings of manhood, fatherhood, and what it means to be a patriarch. 
5.  Know history in order to fight off the enemy of today--passivity.

Understanding history and culture is the key to realizing where we stand in the flow of events and ideas that have shaped our identity as men.

As a man, what shapes your educational decisions, choice of vocation, music preferences, your way of relating to patriarchs and spiritual leadership is the key to understanding your culture.  If a man’s primary source of training is something other than the Bible, we have an eternal crisis.  

The industrial revolution did more damage to the American family than any other movement.  

Here are the primary effects of this “revolution”.

•  Industrialism took husbands/fathers away from their wives and children in order to make BIG money. 
• It gave parents permission to let their children “vacate” and not work alongside the parents. 
•  It activated feminism--women demanding their cultural rights. 
• It gave women permission to be workers outside the home. 
•  It turned children into parents--parenting themselves, and at times, their parents. 
•  It removed the patriarchs’ protection from the home. 
•  It turned the leadership over to the strongest personality within the home. 
• Fathers, mothers, and children lost their God-given significant places in family and more significantly, the fathers lost the hearts of their children.

 

Next article: True Biblical Womanhood

¹ C.S. Lewis Present Concerns: A Compelling Collection of Timely, Journalistic Essays (London: Fount Paperbacks, 1986). [C.S. Lewis, Present Concerns, "The Necessity of Chivalry" 1st published in Time and Tide, Aug. 1940].  

True Biblical Manhood Copyright © 2013 IOM America. Permission to reproduce for educational purposes. Please keep author's  name intact.

All Scriptures, unless otherwise stated, are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.