Manhood, Masculinity, and Christian Characterনমুনা

The Right Companions

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. No man is alone. The author of Hebrews suggests that this cloud of witnesses compels us to set aside sin and to look to Jesus Christ who is the finisher of our faith. It was the joy set before Christ that compelled him to face even the cross, and so, for the joy set before us and compelled by those who have gone before us, we press on. We keep at it.

It’s easy to read the Bible as a pantheon of religious heroes. Men set before us as heroic examples, paragons of masculinity. But those are only casual storybook readings, fit for flannel boards but only caricatures of the actual men the Bible presents.

The ancient cultures offered men heroes to follow: Hector, Achilles, Hercules. The Greeks set up their heroes to inspire and model who they needed men to be. To be sure, the men of the Bible have heroic moments, but they aren’t pointing to themselves. Their lives are too complicated and compromised for that. If you read their story closely you will see that they lived by faith; they strained to see the things coming. They lived looking for something ahead of them.

They witness not to their own strength or capabilities; they witness to something better, something which was beyond them. They witness to Christ. They witness to a life that strains by faith to be a participant in what God is doing.

The men of the Bible are our companions, not heroes. They are like us. They expose us. They force us to take a closer look at our own lives and they compel us to look for Christ.

What they force us to see about ourselves is not always easy. They force us to see our failures, our shortcomings, our sins. They force us to see that we aren’t enough on our own and that we are more prone to destruction than salvation.

The author of Hebrews reminds us that this endurance is for our own discipline and that discipline is always the work of a loving father. He also reminds us of words from the proverbs. The Lord calls us sons and he disciplines us out of love that we might grow and mature.

Growing and maturing as a man isn’t easy. The cultivation of Christian character isn’t a weekend project. It takes time and perseverance. It takes difficult conversations and often painful realizations. It takes discipline and a willingness to be corrected by a heavenly father. But it should mean something profound to you that you are not alone. For when you humble yourself and willingly submit to his leading, you find yourself in good company, you find yourself surrounded by this cloud of witnesses.

Many men want to know what it means to be a man. I’m not so sure that question matters all that much. What matters far more is what God is doing in your life. What matters more is where he is leading you and how he is disciplining you. I like to think of manhood as a byproduct of submitting to Christ. We entrust our manhood to him. We submit to his lessons and we trust that he is capable of perfecting our faith. He is capable of leading us into a better manhood.

What might God be pointing out in your life that needs to grow?