Scripture reading: II Timothy 2:1–7

Vive la Différence!

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;

male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27)

 

Our culture is all mixed up when it comes to gender. Unlike previous generations, people today struggle to understand their sexual identity.

Am I male? female? lesbian? gay? bisexual? transgender? Must I let the anatomy of my birth dictate my sexual identity?

One of the great casualties of this gender debate is the disappearance of a cultural consensus on what it means to be a man. Masculinity, like femininity, is now a rather amorphous concept that has little specific definition. This is tragic and has huge implications. When the boundaries between male and female become blurry and the distinction between masculinity and femininity is lost, then human society teeters on the abyss of personal and cultural chaos.

But try as we might, we simply cannot erase the distinctions that our Creator has established. Gender identity goes to the very core of our self-understanding. In his book Wild at Heart, John Eldredge writes about the difference between men and women.

A man is a dangerous thing. Women don’t start wars. Violent crimes aren’t for the most part committed by women. Our prisons aren’t filled with women. Columbine wasn’t the work of two young girls. Obviously, something has gone wrong in the masculine soul . . .

Society wants to deal with this reality by treating masculinity as a problem. If we could just take away all that is fierce, wild and passionate in men then we would have a better world, or so we think. In other words, we want men who are more, well, feminine. The answer however is not in this direction. God’s goal is not to eliminate masculinity but to redeem it!

If a neighborhood is safe, it’s because of the strength of men. Slavery was stopped by the strength of men, at a terrible price to them and their families. The Nazis were stopped by men. Apartheid wasn’t defeated by women. Who gave their seats up on the lifeboats leaving the Titanic, so that women and children would be saved? And have we forgotten—it was a Man who let himself be nailed to Calvary’s cross. This isn’t to say women can’t be heroic. I know many heroic women. It’s simply to remind us that God made men the way they are because we desperately need them to be the way they are. Yes, a man is a dangerous thing. So is a scalpel. It can wound or it can save your life! You don’t make it safe by making it dull; you put it in the hands of someone who knows what he’s doing.

Though reminding ourselves of these things may be politically incorrect, it is time to again have the courage to simply recognize how God created us and how he established the world in which we live. To tamper with the categories God has established is to tamper with the very foundations of human civilization. Rise up, O men of God!

 

Give me one hundred men who fear nothing but sin and desire nothing but God,

and I care not whether they be clergyman or laymen,

they alone will shake the gates of hell

and set up the kingdom of heaven upon the earth.

—John Wesley

point to ponder • God wants to redeem masculinity, not eliminate it.

 

prayer focus • For the men in your social circle, that instead of allowing society to dictate their behavior, they would be as God created them to be.