What Makes a Man a Man?

Proverbs 4:1 Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding

A man’s true character is tested and always shows during times of uncertainty. It’s easier to treat others right when times are good.

What makes a man….a man?

• Being a man doesn’t mean that we have all the answers….

• Being a man doesn’t mean that we are beating our chests in arrogance….

• Being a man doesn’t mean we spend all of our time criticizing others….

• Being a man doesn’t always mean trading an eye for an eye…

• Being a man doesn’t give us the right to talk down to our wives or our children…

There are times that I feel like I fall short in being a man. I don’t know much about cars, I can tell you where the gas goes, I cant build much, I am better at deconstruction than construction, I cant tell the difference between a v-8 or a v-6, I never seem to have the right tools or know the name to the tool that I need for the job. But are these the things that makes a man, a man?

Sometimes it’s easy to look at every situation and act like you’ve got all the answers when you aren’t the one that is actually making the decisions….

Sometimes being the manliest of men means showing some humility, some grace, some empathy, (something our country sorely needs right now) and compassion not just to your friends but to those that are your enemy without compromising your biblical principles. Jesus said:

Matthew 5:38-39 Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth:

But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.

• David was a man after God’s own heart. Yes he had his own downfalls and struggles but he was a man who wanted more of God.

• Job was a man who lost everything but still looked up and praise God.

• Peter was a man who was ashamed to be associated with Christ but later humbled himself and stood up in the midst of 120 men and women in that upper room and led the church on a soul winning crusade.

• Joseph was a man who had every reason to have hatred, bitterness, and anger toward his brothers who betrayed him but ultimately showed empathy and compassion toward them during a famine.

• Jesus was a man who had every reason to come down off that cross but as he hung there dying alone, beaten to a bloody pulp, praying for his enemies, as the love that Christ had for humanity past, present, and future is what kept him on that cross.

It wasn’t the nails that kept him on that cross it was his love for you and me.

You want to see the true character of a man, look at how he treats his enemy….

Proverbs 24:17 Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:

….look at how he acts when the plan starts to come apart and doesn’t go exactly how he thinks it should go.

I say this because Jesus was the manliest man that ever walked on the face of the Earth. He never beat his chest, even though he is the One who does have all the answers, when he was being beaten, mocked, and spat on he never retaliated, when he was standing before Pilate, he didn’t utter a word but rather let his actions speak for his words.

James 2:24-26 Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

The manliest man will humble himself, lay down his pride, get out of his own way and point others toward Christ.

The book of Proverbs does say that pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall…..

There are some out there today if we don’t humble ourselves, and men, I’m talking directly to us, we are heading for a fall as a nation. It starts in the home. It starts in the heart. Im not going to sit here and claim to have all the answers or have it all figured out but I do know that what we as Godly men do need to do is show the world a little humility and grace. Look at what the Bible says:

Proverbs 25:21-22 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink: For thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward thee.

We desperately need men of God who will take care of their families, their wives and their children. We need men of God who will go out and work to provide for their families. We need men of God who aren’t afraid to admit that they don’t have all the answers, are doubtful and fearful at times but still go out on the front lines everyday in spite of all of their downfalls.