12 Reasons Why We Need Godly Men More Than Ever
by on Oct 5th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
#1 - Manhood Matters to God
Ok, ok, I know that this first reason stands as the patented Sunday School answer, but if we fail to submit to this biblical fact then little else matters at all!
If you have ever served as a subordinate in any organization, be it an athletic team, a company, a church, or even a household, you know that our interests are secondary to the interests of the leader. The leader’s agenda is the agenda for the organization, and wise subordinates organize their efforts around seeing to that leader’s agenda.
God clearly has an agenda for His people, and He also has interests that never diminish from His heart. Therefore, as Christians, we must learn to orient our lives around His agenda, His interests, and His passions before we ever consider prodding Him to support our own personal plans. I have said this softly, but Jesus is much stronger in stating this fact when He demands, as a foundational act, that we deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (Luke 9:23-27).
One of the things that matters to God is the physical, emotional, and spiritual maturation of His people so that they are fit for serving Him and His creation according to His desires. This agenda is directed at all humans regardless of gender, but the point I am making is that there is a distinctly male expression of fulfilling this agenda (just as there is a distinctly female expression as well).
This male expression is made clearer in passages like 1 Timothy 2:8; 3:1-13, Titus 1:5-9; 2:2; and 2:6-8, not to mention the male expression of service to God within the covenant of marriage and role of father (Ephesians 5:25-33; 6:4; Colossians 3:19, 21; 1 Peter 3:7). These verses all serve as proof that God wants men to fulfill His commands in a distinctly male way. There is a male-oriented role on this earth that only men are to fulfill, and God is the author of that arrangement.
We must be crushed by the weight of this divine expectation if we are to truly pursue biblical manhood. The God of the universe has given to men certain responsibilities that He has not assigned to any woman, animal, vegetable, or mineral. If we do not fulfill those expectations, we must answer directly to Him for why we wasted our manhood and His creative work.
God made us. He made us human and not animal, which means that we must fulfill the responsibilities and expectations that He has placed on humanity in distinction to the rest of creation. He has also made us male, and such a distinction has meaning to the Author of Life. We dare not waste it.