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This is the fourth episode of a 6-part series that explains the purpose of the Mission Focused Men for Christ blog and podcast. Episode #1 answered the question, “Who is this podcast/blog for?” and explained the four pillars on which the podcast rest—a commitment to being biblical, insightful, energizing, and bite-sized.
In episode #2, we started to examine the title of the podcast/blog word by word, beginning with MISSION. We saw, both by observing masculine behavior around us and what Genesis 2:15 says about the design of Adam, that men are made for mission—to impact the world around them. A specific impact is assigned to Christ-followers who are commanded, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” which means pursuing the rule of King Jesus over the loyalties of our hearts, over the attitudes of our hearts, and over the planet by seeking to implement his agenda of righteousness in every sphere where we have influence in the culture.
Last week, we considered the second word in our podcast title. FOCUSED. “Mission FOCUSED Men for Christ” We noted several dangers of living an UNFOCUSED, crazy busy life and studied Jesus’ example of staying focused on his mission. We considered the two requirements for success on a mission 1) having a game-plan to accomplish the mission, 2) committing some regular time to meeting with our Commander-in-Chief to reflect and refocus upon our mission. We asked the question, “Could such a regular time be a natural expression of what God originally intended by giving us one day a week set apart to rest and reflect?
Today, we examine the third word in our podcast title, Mission Focused MEN for Christ. We will examine what is unique about our mission because we are men. Christian women are Called TO Christ, Called TO BE LIKE CHRIST, and CALLED TO EXERCISE DOMINION for Christ over every sphere of their lives, just as we are. But God deliberately created Adam and Eve to be different in order to complete each other. And in this completing of one another, they bear the image of God, who exists as the union of three different persons united by love in the Trinity. Genesis 1:27 explains: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. MAN is the union of male and female.
In my lifetime, there has never been a better time to show the world the glory of God’s unfallen design of masculinity because of two realities taking place in Western culture.
A. First, more and more women are joining the ranks of the #MeToo movement; toxic masculinity, i.e. the sexual abuse of women by men, is being exposed. In this cultural environment, Christian men have an enormous opportunity to show the world the power of the gospel to restore broken manhood to the glory it once had before the fall—and point people to Christ in the process. The second half of this episode sets forth as clearly as I can this glorious design of unfallen masculinity.
B. The second reason why being faithful to our call to godly manhood is so important today is because a destructive, fractured view of sexual personhood is shaping our children and today’s culture. This worldview is being promoted by the Transgender Student Educational Resources organization which calls its fractured sexual personhood view, the Gender Unicorn. Making the right to choose its highest value, this view of sexuality proclaims that every human is free to choose and change five separate aspects of his or her sexuality. Here are those five component parts identified:
- Sex assigned at birth: the sexual anatomy with which you were born. (This can be changed through surgery or hormone treatments)
- Emotional attraction: which is separated from physical attraction, (meaning you can be in love with your wife but having sex with men)
- Physical attraction: sexual orientation (same-sex, heterosexual, or bisexual attraction)
- Gender identity: seeing yourself as a man, a woman, or androgynous (gender fluid),
- Gender expression (role): the way you express your gender; adoption of expectations for your gender
This fractured view of human sexuality permeates the thinking of key influencers in the culture who are shaping the rising generation. The importance of choice in sexuality is seen on television and on college applications, is discussed in YouTube videos, and promoted in the social media. This view of sexuality may seem more fair and inclusive to our teens, but, in reality, it is destructive for both those inside and outside of the Church.
When it comes to understanding gender, Christians have something far, far better to offer our children and culture. It is not human disintegration—the splitting apart of one’s biological sex from one’s sexual identity and sexual role, or saying that gender is unrelated to romantic attraction. It is a fully integrated, holistic view of body and soul that recognizes that God’s design of male and female is GLORIOUS.
The biblical view celebrates the different and complementary natures of male and female at all five levels—their biology, sexual and emotional attractions to one another, identity as a man or woman, and God-assigned roles. Every human is either distinctly male or distinctly female. The differences are not arbitrary or accidental, but intentional. The identity and roles of male and female in Scripture are not interchangeable. In their book, The Grand Design: Male and Female He Made Them, Owen Strachen and Gavin Peacock give a good working definition of this biblical view, which is called complementarianism.
Complementarity (is) the way in which men and women find happiness in owning their God-given identity and filling their God-given roles. Equal in dignity and worth, men and women share much in terms of Christian discipleship. But we are not the same. Unlike what egalitarianism would argue, men and women have different roles to play in life. We thus cannot agree with the idea that men and women alike lead in the home and church, as our egalitarian friends would say. The gospel of grace does not erase sexual difference and role distinctions: the gospel actually opens our eyes to savor divine design and our God-formed responsibilities.
Before we proceed to God’s design of masculinity, it is important to address how we, as Christian’s should respond to our culture’s brokenness regarding gender and sexuality. Knowing how destructive the fractured view of sexual personhood is for individuals and our culture should move us out of love to oppose the Gender Unicorn view of gender and winsomely promote God’s glorious design of gender as the foundation for our culture. Because we live in a democracy, we need to make our voices heard to oppose the spread of this destructive worldview. We need to have the courage to speak the truth in love.
But when it comes to the individuals in the LGBTQ life, with whom we have relationships, our loving response to them needs to start, in my view, NOT with tearing down their worldview but with compassion. They are looking for love, belonging, and sexual satisfaction in the wrong places. They don’t realize that the deepest craving of their hearts is for the unconditional love that they can never fully find through sexuality, but only in Christ. The only way anyone’s sexuality can be restored to God’s intended design is by bringing their brokenness to Jesus. May we lead many fellow sexual strugglers to His feet! May they see in us, a picture of Jesus’ power to restore broken masculinity to godly manhood. Let’s look at that picture:
GOD’S DESIGN OF UNFALLEN MANHOOD
A. Adam Is Placed in the Garden to Cause It and Its Inhabitants to Flourish. In Genesis 2:15, we are told that Adam is placed in the garden to work it (ESV). The Hebrew word for “work it” is avad, which is also translated cultivate (NASB). In this context, it means to make fruitful, to cause to flourish, to shape. Adam is to make the garden (which includes its inhabitants) fruitful—to provide what the garden needs to thrive, to help it and its inhabitants reach their fullest potential. This core concept of masculinity is that we spend our lives (energy and time) devoted to helping those under our care develop to their fullest potential. We sacrifice our greatest assets, time and energy, so that the garden (or civilization) as well as our wives and children, who are also in the garden, flourish, prosper. Men need to think through and provide what their wives and children need to prosper physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
Application Idea: One emotional need of our loved ones that needs to be filled in order for them to thrive is to feel understood. For example, one of the keys to not provoking our children to anger (Eph 6:4) is to empathize with how our child feels while still giving him or her firm correction. Husbands, also, are to show such empathy, being commanded by Peter to live with their wives in an understanding way. Christian counselor, Paul Tournier, explains how to meet another’s need to feel understood. He writes:
In order to really understand, we need to listen, not to reply. We need to listen long and attentively. In order to help anybody to open his heart, we have to give him time, asking only a few questions, as carefully as possible, in order to help him better explain his experience. Above all, we must not give the impression that we know, better than he does what he must do. Otherwise we force him to withdraw (To Understand Each Other).
You can help anyone flourish by helping him feel understood.
B. Adam Is Placed in the Garden to Protect It Genesis 2:15 continues, The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and KEEP IT. The Hebrew word that is translated “keep it” is shamar, which also means to guard, watch-over, and protect. The word is used of soldiers, shepherds, priests, custodians, and government officials. Rick Phillips writes, This calling to keep rounds out the Masculine Mandate of the Bible. A man is not only to wield the plow but also to bear the sword. Being God’s deputy lord in the garden, Adam was not only to make it fruitful but to keep it safe. At the core of godly masculinity is a predisposition to protect those under our care and those who are vulnerable.
Application Idea. The call to be the head of our homes requires us to protect those under our care, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Here is a check list to rate how you are doing. Are you:
- Protecting your wife’s health and safety
- Protecting her from harmful emotions, like fear, anxiety, depression, and negative feelings about herself?
- Protecting her by helping her win her spiritual battles by praying for them?
- Protecting your kids by helping them fight their spiritual battles in prayer?
- Protecting your kids from the peer pressure and ungodly influence of the much of the social media, and other harm that comes into their lives via their phones?
C. In the Dance of Man With Woman the Man Initiates. “Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed” (Gen. 2:24-25). The man is the one who leaves his father and mother to find and pursue his wife. He asks her to dance. When we combine Genesis 2:24 with New Testament teaching for husbands to love their wives as Christ loves the Church, we see that the man takes the initiative to pursue the woman 1) to give her his love, 2) to enjoy her, and 3) to partner with him as the leader in their joint calling to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.”
D. Men Are Called to Strength. Although all believers are called to be strong in the Lord, Scripture repeatedly associates godly manhood with strength. For example, The Apostle John, in his first letter, addresses subgroups of people in the church praising the young men for their strength. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one (1 John 2:14b). All healthy males want to be strong, and John recognize this fact. One thing I admire about the rising generation is their emphasis on working out. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and as Paul says to Timothy, physical exercise is beneficial (1 Tim 4:8). Along with keeping our bodies fit, godly manhood also pursues becoming spiritually powerful, as the young men to whom John wrote had done. They had strengthened their souls through feasting on the nutrition of God’s Word and had learned to fight spiritually. They were putting into practice Paul’s admonition in Ephesians 6 to fight, spiritually using the weapons Christ provides us.
Application Idea. Ask God to help you think through what it actually means to put on each part of the armor for battle. Here are the pieces of armor laid out for you:
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication (vs 14-18).
By the way, a great resource for understanding these weapons is David Jeremiah’s book, The Spiritual Warfare Answer Book.
So, the call to godly manhood is the call to PROVIDE, PROTECT, PURSUE, and be POWERFUL.
