Two Bad Responses from Men to the Culture
"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love." 1 Corinthians 16:13-14
Under Pressure
The torque of a wrench, the clenched fist, the compressed pedal that accelerates your car, pressure. It is one of the primary mechanisms of change. Put a thing under pressure and if the pressure is great enough that thing will move.
Culture has been putting men underneath pressure for over 60 years. The inception of the sexual revolution in the sixties was at its core a marxist, feminist ordeal that looked to strip society of its historical, complementarian roles. Men and women are essentially the same, they said. Sex is nothing more than a self expression that should be reveled in so long as you are with another consenting adult. The movement was an attack on traditional marriage, child rearing, and the role that men played in society.
This kind of philosophy was met with resistance. A counter prevailing pressure from the religious conservatives and the people who didn't want to sign up for the new world order. The revolution changed its tactics. It began to not just decry men for having been the primary provider and protector of the family unit, it began to decry men for their innate maleness altogether.
Being a dude is problem.. so we are told. Men are the source of all societal woes. Where there is a disparity, you can be sure a guy had something to do with it. Where there is tyranny or an abuse of power.. Men, of course.
The Marxists played their cards well. By crating a narrative that highlighted the so called patriarchy's shortcomings in history they effectively challenged the need of a patriarchal society at all. With cunning they divorced the context of men and women banding together to survive and thrive the frontiers of history and recast the woman as a slave and the man as a tyrannical overlord.
It is low hanging fruit to show how media and the arts have capitulated to that narrative. But we shall pick the fruit nonetheless.
While the hero still existed in movies, the sitcom shifted to highlighting brutes and buffoons. Characters like Homer Simpson, Raymond, and a good old Randy Marsh became staple mockeries of what a father, husband was.. at best gentle, loyal, and dumb. They made great slapstick comedy, but they also highlighted a growing problem. Men were capitulating to the pressure. Pressure was changing the course of masculinity.
Bad Response #1: Effeminacy and Passivity
Biblical masculinity is the glad assumption of responsibility utilizing and celebrating the masculine qualities that God endowed men with. Under the barrage of pressure in our modern culture, one of the consequences has been a response by men that is passive and effeminate.
Effeminism is the inappropriate assumption of feminine qualities by men. There are most certainly feminine qualities that are appropriate in the right context for men to emulate, such as being meek, or hospitable, or submitting one to another for the sake of Christ. God has both masculine and feminine qualities and he tells us to be "imitators" (Eph. 5:1) of Himself.
However, when men choose to dress like women, abdicate responsibility, and act "softly", this as a general rule, is effeminate and is contrary to how God designed and made them to be. A woman who refuses conscription in to the army in order to stay home with the children has a profound argument. This is her role. But a man who dodges the draft and lets others for face the perils is effeminate and a poor example of a man.
When the culture says expressing strength, ambition, and conquest is "toxic", many men get cudgeled into being passive, softer men. This stay at home man allows the women in his life to take on the responsibilities he ought to be shouldering. This type of man is not striving for excellence in his work and does his very best to avoid conflicts with anyone.
This manifests itself climatically in the abdication of ones one sexual roles and society declines into an androgynous phase of its existence. You can see these things in the massive uptick in teenagers who identify themselves as LGBTQ. What used to be a small minority of men and women who struggled with their sexual identities has climbed to Gen Z claiming a 20% plus ratio of people who are confused about their orientation. They have been under pressure.
Bad Response #2: Machismo and Tyranny
The growing sentiment that men ought to be more effeminate creates a backlash from the men who feel in their bones that something is wrong with the world. Without Jesus and the guiding principles of the Bible, these men swing into another trap.
Men were meant to have dominion over the earth, but when on feels they are being dominated in the world, a natural defensive maneuver is to have a ruthless offense.
These men lean into a version of masculinity that glorifies the ability to use power for selfish gain. It embraces the lifestyle of consumerism, conquest, and self glory. These gym bros are extremely self conscious and spend wild amounts of time trying to signal their strength through outward expressions such as their physiques, their paychecks, their body count, and their alpha attitudes.
Rather than assuming godly responsibility to flourish those around them, they tend to focus only enriching themselves. These men are addicted to pornography, vice, and are riddled with pride. They would believe that the picture of the real man is one who sleeps with a lot of women, makes a lot of money, and conquers his own empire.
Biblical Masculinity
In a fallen world, men are going to struggle with these two failures. It is baked into our sinful hearts that we will struggle with pride and passivity. The godly man must embrace a different road. A road that exhibits his strength through his sacrifices and his conquest through the glad assumption of responsibility.
"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love." (1 Corinthians 16:13-14)
Men are to be actively looking for threats. Threats to their wives children, and communities. Threats to their gatherings of worship. They are to have their eyes wide open so that they can respond to what is in front of them the way Jesus would. Jesus was a real man in every sense of the idea. He exhibited amazing strength, amazing self control, and amazing sacrifice.
Men are to be men of faith in the One true God. They are to be strong and resilient. They are hoping in the future and working hard in the present.
Men are motivated by love for others. It is this love that causes them to emulate Jesus in the glad assumption of responsibility for others. There are many problems which are not the man's fault that he must make his responsibility.
Take Jesus as our prime example. Your sin and my sin were not Jesus' problem. Yet, Jesus made out sin his responsibility and he remedied our separation from God by taking all our problems onto his shoulders and paying the price for our treachery. This kind of headship is the headship that men strive for. We look at the world around us and say how can we step in and take responsibility for the things that have gone astray. How can we gladly lay our lives down for the protection of others. How can we act like Jesus?
How can we be real masculine?
Under Pressure
The torque of a wrench, the clenched fist, the compressed pedal that accelerates your car, pressure. It is one of the primary mechanisms of change. Put a thing under pressure and if the pressure is great enough that thing will move.
Culture has been putting men underneath pressure for over 60 years. The inception of the sexual revolution in the sixties was at its core a marxist, feminist ordeal that looked to strip society of its historical, complementarian roles. Men and women are essentially the same, they said. Sex is nothing more than a self expression that should be reveled in so long as you are with another consenting adult. The movement was an attack on traditional marriage, child rearing, and the role that men played in society.
This kind of philosophy was met with resistance. A counter prevailing pressure from the religious conservatives and the people who didn't want to sign up for the new world order. The revolution changed its tactics. It began to not just decry men for having been the primary provider and protector of the family unit, it began to decry men for their innate maleness altogether.
Being a dude is problem.. so we are told. Men are the source of all societal woes. Where there is a disparity, you can be sure a guy had something to do with it. Where there is tyranny or an abuse of power.. Men, of course.
The Marxists played their cards well. By crating a narrative that highlighted the so called patriarchy's shortcomings in history they effectively challenged the need of a patriarchal society at all. With cunning they divorced the context of men and women banding together to survive and thrive the frontiers of history and recast the woman as a slave and the man as a tyrannical overlord.
It is low hanging fruit to show how media and the arts have capitulated to that narrative. But we shall pick the fruit nonetheless.
While the hero still existed in movies, the sitcom shifted to highlighting brutes and buffoons. Characters like Homer Simpson, Raymond, and a good old Randy Marsh became staple mockeries of what a father, husband was.. at best gentle, loyal, and dumb. They made great slapstick comedy, but they also highlighted a growing problem. Men were capitulating to the pressure. Pressure was changing the course of masculinity.
Bad Response #1: Effeminacy and Passivity
Biblical masculinity is the glad assumption of responsibility utilizing and celebrating the masculine qualities that God endowed men with. Under the barrage of pressure in our modern culture, one of the consequences has been a response by men that is passive and effeminate.
Effeminism is the inappropriate assumption of feminine qualities by men. There are most certainly feminine qualities that are appropriate in the right context for men to emulate, such as being meek, or hospitable, or submitting one to another for the sake of Christ. God has both masculine and feminine qualities and he tells us to be "imitators" (Eph. 5:1) of Himself.
However, when men choose to dress like women, abdicate responsibility, and act "softly", this as a general rule, is effeminate and is contrary to how God designed and made them to be. A woman who refuses conscription in to the army in order to stay home with the children has a profound argument. This is her role. But a man who dodges the draft and lets others for face the perils is effeminate and a poor example of a man.
When the culture says expressing strength, ambition, and conquest is "toxic", many men get cudgeled into being passive, softer men. This stay at home man allows the women in his life to take on the responsibilities he ought to be shouldering. This type of man is not striving for excellence in his work and does his very best to avoid conflicts with anyone.
This manifests itself climatically in the abdication of ones one sexual roles and society declines into an androgynous phase of its existence. You can see these things in the massive uptick in teenagers who identify themselves as LGBTQ. What used to be a small minority of men and women who struggled with their sexual identities has climbed to Gen Z claiming a 20% plus ratio of people who are confused about their orientation. They have been under pressure.
Bad Response #2: Machismo and Tyranny
The growing sentiment that men ought to be more effeminate creates a backlash from the men who feel in their bones that something is wrong with the world. Without Jesus and the guiding principles of the Bible, these men swing into another trap.
Men were meant to have dominion over the earth, but when on feels they are being dominated in the world, a natural defensive maneuver is to have a ruthless offense.
These men lean into a version of masculinity that glorifies the ability to use power for selfish gain. It embraces the lifestyle of consumerism, conquest, and self glory. These gym bros are extremely self conscious and spend wild amounts of time trying to signal their strength through outward expressions such as their physiques, their paychecks, their body count, and their alpha attitudes.
Rather than assuming godly responsibility to flourish those around them, they tend to focus only enriching themselves. These men are addicted to pornography, vice, and are riddled with pride. They would believe that the picture of the real man is one who sleeps with a lot of women, makes a lot of money, and conquers his own empire.
Biblical Masculinity
In a fallen world, men are going to struggle with these two failures. It is baked into our sinful hearts that we will struggle with pride and passivity. The godly man must embrace a different road. A road that exhibits his strength through his sacrifices and his conquest through the glad assumption of responsibility.
"Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love." (1 Corinthians 16:13-14)
Men are to be actively looking for threats. Threats to their wives children, and communities. Threats to their gatherings of worship. They are to have their eyes wide open so that they can respond to what is in front of them the way Jesus would. Jesus was a real man in every sense of the idea. He exhibited amazing strength, amazing self control, and amazing sacrifice.
Men are to be men of faith in the One true God. They are to be strong and resilient. They are hoping in the future and working hard in the present.
Men are motivated by love for others. It is this love that causes them to emulate Jesus in the glad assumption of responsibility for others. There are many problems which are not the man's fault that he must make his responsibility.
Take Jesus as our prime example. Your sin and my sin were not Jesus' problem. Yet, Jesus made out sin his responsibility and he remedied our separation from God by taking all our problems onto his shoulders and paying the price for our treachery. This kind of headship is the headship that men strive for. We look at the world around us and say how can we step in and take responsibility for the things that have gone astray. How can we gladly lay our lives down for the protection of others. How can we act like Jesus?
How can we be real masculine?
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