THE MAN OF the world and the man of Christ ought to stand contrary to one another, yet a great number of Christian men in our generation yield to the pressure of imitating and maintaining the bravado and façade of the world. The world educates what man should be, echoing independence of God (self-sufficiency), while the scriptures clearly exhort us to be conformed no longer to the pattern of this world – a mentality that declares we can do this without God, that we’re strong enough, we’ll overcome anything and nothing will deter us. Naturally, according to our sinful nature, we hate to lose; we want to look fashionably attractive in the eyes of others; we lust for recognition and admiration and many allow it to gain dominance, but how different to a man like C.T. Studd who not only wrote these words but exemplified them:

“Learn to scorn the praise of men,
Learn to lose with God;
Jesus won the world thro shame!
And beckons us His road.”

Adam, the first head of the human race, was created to walk with God, not apart from God, to be dependant on God and so find his life and sustenance in Him. Just as we are dependent upon oxygen to continue living, so we are created to draw our very breath (for purposeful living) from God. As Christians, when we succumb to the power of temptation, we are choosing a path of independency in the same spirit Adam chose his.

Many Christian men may well profess but hardly project Christ; it is not so much what we say but what our demeanour communicates. What is a Christian man like? What is it to be a true man? Can we honestly look to fallen man as a role model, even though he carries the DNA but at the same time has lost the vital connection with his Creator?

How few aspire to be that true man – the apostle Paul who was weak in the eyes of the world, but was strong in Christ. To be restored and rightly related to God is often times to be deplored and despised by the world. Paul was a true man; Christian men draw your example from Paul. Of course we are to look to Christ for our ultimate role model. Christians say we are not to imitate no-one but Christ, but then why did Paul say, “imitate me” (1 Corinthians 4:16; Philippians 3:17)? Paul, in light of the greatest kings, rulers, conquerors, stoics and philosophers was the greatest of them when it comes to man – and why is that? For the very reason that he learned the living fabric of man: to be weak in himself so that the power of Christ would rest upon him. Much pride lives in Christian men. Hunting does not make you a man; a soldier does not make you a man; masculinity does not necessarily make you a man, even though that is a male trait. How men hate their weakness exposed. Paul was weak – in the eyes of a blind, pathetic world, but he was a man among men because he lived out his identity in Christ. Paul lived as God intends man to live. Paul would have been a wimp in and of himself (we all are; we all have our breaking-points) but he learned the secret of being strong only in the Lord and in the power of His might. Paul: a mighty example of prayer, of a warrior and of a conqueror. Of all the greats throughout the history of the church, Paul excels them all. Of course, Christ is the ultimate, but when we look to man as heroes, let us pick one that is worthy of a man created and breathing as an example in Christ.

Let us not forget the distinctive difference between a man and woman which is so confused today; each of their traits and personalities compliment one another while remaining unique. Man is to be a leader; woman is to help; two opposites that in coming together make a balanced whole; man is not independent of woman and vice-versa. Man is not called to be brutish, abusive, blood thirsty and chauvinistic; he is to be a gentleman – a quality that is sorely lacking in our day. Show me a man of the world and I’ll point out his arrogance; show me a man of Christ and I’ll point out his humility and meekness. Meekness is a consciousness of power and strength not flaunted but kept inconspicuous and under control.

Some men go around proving their manhood by demonstrating how firm they can shake another man’s hand. Of course, let us show we are alive with some firmness in the greeting, but there is no achievement in cutting off another’s blood supply or breaking bones while observing facial expressions as some kind of pain barometer!

We are to be men in Christ. Man’s greatest vocation and reason for living is to pursue Christ with all his heart, to love God with all his heart; everything else – absolutely everything else falls secondary to that. Look at Abraham, look at Moses, look at David – these mighty men. What made them mighty was their passion and absolute devotion to God; a fire for God burning in their hearts.

Man’s unrealised weakness is that he is convinced he can do it ‘without God’ – and that is not necessarily an open declaration per se; a prayer-less life speaks for itself. Man’s true strength is the realisation of his utter weakness until the power of Christ endues him; he is nothing without it. Robert Murray M’Cheyne said: “what a man is on his knees before God, that he is, and nothing more” – that is total and utter dependence on God; that is man fulfilling his greatest vocation.

To be a man is never to replicate another personality that we highly respect or admire. We may be drawn to what influences such a person has – how they are principled, disciplined or ethically driven, but we are to never duplicate another soul; we each have our own personality that is drawn out through circumstances; how we react to them determines and develops our character. We may never pray like the apostle Paul but we can imitate his dedication to prayer; we may never suffer like Paul, but we can display the same spirit by being submissive to Christ in unfavourable situations; we may never cover Paul’s expansive missionary enterprises, but we can fulfil what Christ has called us to; we will never write epistles (add to New Testament Scripture), but we can be epistles read of all men and women. God has uniquely created each one of us to be used unparalleledly within His plan, no matter how insignificant or stupendous our perspectives may be upon what we have been designed for and called to vocationally; it is not so much what we do but as to how we perform in God’s calling on our lives that matters the most.

What makes you a man today; where do you get your image of what a man really ought to be?