Walk Like A Man

One of the newest catch phrases in today’s world is “toxic masculinity” , while there is a real application for this phrase, when applied to men who are violent, abusive, overly aggressive and overtly forceful. It is now being applied to all men. Modern society looks at the characteristics of men as being bad and are pushing a move to make men more like women. Young boys who want to play aggressive games are seen as violent, boys are not taught not to compete, everyone gets a trophy. We push men to leave behind the idea of being strong, frim and successful and to step up and lead thief families to being more in touch with our feelings. Anything else is seen as toxic and needs to be eliminated. After hearing and reading so much on this over the past few weeks, I decided to dig into the Bible and see what God has to say. The very first thing I discovered is that when men do not step up and grasp the responsibility of being a leader as God intended them to be only disaster will prevail.

Eve has always gotten a bad rap for what happened in the garden that fateful day. The truth is it was not her that let God down it was Adam. Adam was given the instructions by God to not eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge before Eve was created. It was Adam who had the responsibility to teach Eve want God had told him. It is grossly apparent that he did not. There is a small area of the account I think many overlook. First lets see what God told Adam.

Genesis 2

“You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, 17 but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat[d]of it you shall surely die.”

Now lets see what Eve told Satan, And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”

It is clear to me that Satan was able to deceive Eve into eating the fruit, because she had been given the wrong instructions. Satan knew this and challenged Eve about what she had been told. She touched it and did not die so then it was clear in her mind that thee was no danger in eating it. Adams fall continued as he gave into his wife’s desires rather than standing firm on the commandment God had given to him. The reality is that as men we have been given the blessing and burden of being the spiritual leaders in our homes. Many of the struggles we endure would not exist if we as men lived as men concerned with glorifying God and keeping and teaching his commandments, rather than men who feared being reject and persecuted by the world we live in. There would be no violence in any way towards women, marriages would last, children would be encouraged and taught how to be men and women, and the world we live in would, would be a much better place. With these thoughts as our starting point let’s see what else the bible says about our relationship with our wives, children and world as strive to be the men God intends us to be.

How we relate to our wives is also rooted in the book of Genesis. This is where the relationship between men, women, and God began. In Genesis one we see that he made them male and female, and he made them in the image of God, God declares in our image we shall make them. So right off we see that we are all equal in the eyes of God, both being made in his image. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians he says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all in Christ Jesus. A man of God recognizes this and the treats others accordingly.

The biblical relationship between man and woman, as husband and wife is made clear from the beginning. God makes the statement “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make a helper fit for him.” Notice it does not say, subordinate, or being of lesser worth, but a helper. When my wife and I are taking our driving day trips sometimes she likes to point out that my driving skills are lacking, and I must admit that at times this gets rather annoying. What I struggle to do is rather than take this personally I try to look at it as she is being my helper. The Hebrew word used here I ezer, and in occurs twenty-one times in the Old testament. It is used to describe woman, it is used to describe the powerful nations that Israel would call on for help, In the other sixteen instances it refers to God. Philip Payne said. “The noun used here throughout the Old Testament does not suggest ‘helper’ as in servant, but help, savior, rescuer, protector as in ‘God is our help’ In no other occurrence in the Old Testament does this refer to an inferior, but always to a superior or an equal.” A biblical view of the relationship between is that of equals. Each of theme give certain characteristics that complement one another, God gave woman to help man, not for man to dominate.