Will the Real Men Please Stand Up?

Standing firm against a modern culture that seeks to engineer men out of manhood, this is a call to reject the drift, take responsibility, and heed the timeless charge to “act like men.”

Where are the real men? I was watching a message this morning by a Bishop who has gone on to be with the Lord, and in it, he encouraged the men of his congregation to rise to the challenge. However, it wasn’t the first time I had heard him speak to men, because he had also spoken at Bishop T.D. Jake’s Man Power. After watching his message, I told my wife, “Bishop was a man that men would follow.” This blog is not about men that men will follow, but godly men who will be men.

As I pondered what I would write about for June’s blog, I didn’t want to write another Father’s Day piece, and that’s when I recalled this morning’s message. Two things impressed me about it. First, the number of men who were members of this megachurch. Men, especially black men, sometimes view church as something for women or weaklings. But this church had a sizeable proportion of men to women. Second, they responded to his call to come to the altar, or as far as they could, given the large number present, and to commit to taking responsibility for their communities, irrespective of the challenges or troubles they may have experienced in the past. It took a strong leader to command their attention and respect, and it also took them to be willing to answer the call.

Manhood Is Under Assault

There are plenty of books and essays on leadership and the effects of fatherlessness in households. You can read about that at your leisure. What I am concerned about is the attack on men. Indicated by terms such as “toxic masculinity,” “metrosexual,” and “bromance,” it is evident that there is an intentional assault underway against manhood. Men are being badgered and socially engineered into not being men. But I’m not going along for the ride.

In 1 Corinthians 16:13, the Apostle Paul writes, “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong” (NASB). In chapter 16, the apostle is giving his final exhortations to the saints in Corinth. His third charge is to “act like men.” We are certainly aware that the churches in Corinth were comprised of men and women, so Paul was not being misogynistic or chauvinistic. He was speaking figuratively to both sexes about demonstrating a certain disposition in light of the persecution and adversity they were experiencing because of their faith in Jesus. As Mark Taylor aptly points out: “The verb translated ‘be men of courage’ occurs only here in Paul and means ‘to act like men.’”^[1] Furthermore, the Louw and Nida lexicon clarifies that the phrase is “(a figurative extension of [the] meaning of ἀνδρίζομαι ‘to be manly’ or ‘to become a man,’ …) to exhibit courage in the face of danger.”^[2]

These two sources clarify that manhood was understood to be associated with courage. That’s what we need today: godly men who will be courageous enough to lead. While men and women are both called to be courageous in the face of opposition and danger, today’s call is not for women. Men must be men, and we cannot apologize for it.

Manhood Is Theological

Why is this so important? There are three reasons why we need godly men to lead. The reason we have the phrase “toxic masculinity” is that manhood has been perverted. To pervert something is to taint or corrupt it. Masculinity is not toxic; it must be redeemed and reclaimed in light of a biblical understanding of what it means to be a man.

1. We need godly husbands for wives. God created male and female in Genesis chapter 1. His original design was for a godly woman to have a godly husband, and for a godly husband to have a godly wife, so that the earth would have godly families. With the fall of humanity in Genesis chapter 3, God’s design for humanity was corrupted and perverted, but it did not change what He originally planned. Therefore, we don’t need more live-in boyfriends or men with side chicks. We need more godly men to be husbands.

2. We need godly fathers in the home. Scripture provides only one prescription for parenting: that the father and mother in the home work collaboratively to raise their children together. God is our Father, and He models for us how a father is to parent his children. He is loving, compassionate, and provides for us while disciplining us when necessary. Unfortunately, mothers sometimes have to take on that responsibility, but it doesn’t make it right, and it certainly isn't God’s will. Therefore, we don’t need more baby daddies or absentee fathers. We need more godly men in the home.

3. We need godly leaders in the community. When men don’t lead their communities, we experience what we are seeing today. We can blame the politicians, the teachers, the police, and society, but this is a man's problem. French author François Rabelais is quoted as having written, "Nature abhors a vacuum." Whether or not the claim is absolutely true, we see the impacts of godly men not leading in their communities. I acknowledge that we have men with titles and positions, but that doesn’t make them leaders. Leaders are those who influence people and outcomes. And, it is clear, the men who are “leading” our communities are doing a poor job of it, if at all. Therefore, we don’t need more kingpins or superstars. We need more godly men leading in the community.

Manhood Is Manifested in the Master

God created men to be the head, not the dictator, not the chief, and not the king, but the covering over his wife, his family, and his community. Jesus is the ultimate example of manhood. He followed and pointed people to God, spoke out against the oppressive actions of the political and religious leaders of His day, cared for the marginalized in society, and faced death with courage. Now, that’s godly masculinity. The question today is: “Will the real men please stand up?”

Dr. Isaac Hayes is an Assistant Pastor at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, Illinois, and author of Men After God’s Heart: 10 Principles of Brotherly Love. He also has a Doctor of Ministry degree from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Follow Dr. Hayes on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube at @RevIsaacHayes.

^[1] Mark Taylor, 1 Corinthians, ed. E. Ray Clendenen, vol. 28, The New American Commentary (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2014), 429.

^[2] Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 306.