What It Means To Be Masculine

How To Display True Manliness

What’s Wrong With Men?

Most often, people view the Christian life as a tender sentiment, but this is far from the case. For Christ Himself was the most masculine man to walk the earth.

As Christians, our character should comprise patience, humility, meekness, kindness, and gentleness. The problem is, there are plenty of Christian men who have these characteristics, yet lack the robust characteristics of true manliness. These men have a gentleness that is weakness and the same have no convictions or at least any strong conviction.

Then there is the other type of man which also does not embody true, and full, masculinity. These are those that are overly hostile, mean, or toxic. From the outside, these hostile men may seem pleasant and often engage fairly in business. But as the relationship gets close, one discovers their vileness, which was not obvious before.

Having a toxic masculinity, either as baseness or as being a man-pleaser, will only harm one’s reputation and influence on his community. When a Christian, in particular, exhibits these qualities of toxic masculinity, he quickly loses the power to be useful for the Kingdom of God.

We see these two extremes in society because it is easier to be one or the other, not both. To be both, as the knights of high chivalry were, is not natural but a product of effort and constant sculpting of self. Truly masculine men exhibit both sides of the spectrum and exercise self-control. They are masters of their physical strength, passions, emotions, and temper.

Christ and Masculinity

Fortunately for us, Christ is our teacher, and He shows us what it means to be masculine. If we want to be truly masculine men, we must study the life of Christ, our King. He is the only true, and the ultimate, example of masculinity.

Christ Is the Complete Man

As we touched on above, it takes both the gentle qualities, and the stern, to make a complete man. Jesus had gentle qualities that are often attributed to women, such as kindness, patience, and sympathy. We see this pumped from watered down Christianity and apostate churches.

Even though these gentle qualities appear in the life of Christ, it does not negate the other elements He possessed. Elements of courage, justice, integrity, heroism, and strength were all part of Christ’s life on earth. He is fully God and fully man and walks the fine line that is perfect masculinity.

Christ’s Courage

True courage, that which is quiet and firm in the face of antagonism and danger. It continues forward with unwavering persistence to a goal.

Every step Christ took while physically on earth was toward His death at Calvary. As He got closer and closer to that day, he did not waver but pressed on. Every step Christ made, even his torture before death, was completely voluntary.

To see your mission completed no matter what the cost for the betterment of those around you.

This is true courage.

Christ’s Strength and Control

Strength is a good quality for a man, but our masculinity is incomplete if we are physically strong yet have weak moral strength. Take Samson, for example. He was strong, but could not stand firm when lust and idleness tempted him.

But Christ’s self-control is a glimpse into true strength. A man who is strong not only has physical strength but also mastery over his muscle, feelings, and passions. Christ had perfect control. He was gentle and patient with his sheep. But also fierce to the wolves and vipers.

Powerful men exercise self-control, whether it be their physical strength, passions, emotions, or temper. So be truly masculine, as Christ is, a man has to display meekness. It is much easier to become brazen with others or retaliate against those who wrong us. But that is not what Christ commanded us to do.

Christ’s Large Heartedness

Strong and godly men also exhibit generosity, also known as being large-hearted. A man that is powerful but lacks the ability to be gentle, and large-hearted, is no masculine man at all.

Christ is large-hearted. He is tolerant of others and patient with their weakness. All of His words and deeds were sincere, gentle, and kind when speaking to his sheep. Christ is also thoughtful, unselfish, and sympathetic towards those that follow Him.

How to Be Biblically Masculine

Clearly, Christ is the ultimate example of manliness. If we obey His commands, we will walk close to the truest form of masculinity. He is our teacher, and He shows us what it means to be truly masculine.

Being a Christlike man means we must engage in a constant battle against the enemies of manliness, because they will confront us at every step of the journey. A Christian man must have a gentle touch for his sheep, while having the courage and strength of a mighty hero to conquer evil, the enemies of Christ, and do the Lord’s work.

We, as Christian men, must follow the example of Jesus Christ and be both strong and meek. Without both, we will either be a man-pleaser in public or a brute in the home. A man’s wife and children want to see him as the epitome of manliness.

So men must be bold, not ambiguous. We must be in the front and face danger for our sheep; and speak the truth no matter who it offends. We need to find every fault in our character and remove it. We must crush every evil habit we have picked up.

We must restrain and repress sin every time it shows up because the old man needs subdued and brought under control daily. Being truly masculine means we need constant, and likely painful, discipline because our sinful nature is unruly and difficult to tame.

True masculinity is a never ending toil of self-denial.

Knights are a good example of manliness. The best of them did not compromise their ferocity for meekness, and vice versa. In fact, they took on both sides and executed them to the extremes.

When the Christian family does not produce men that are capable of the Knight’s ferocity and meekness, we end up with the two extremes separated. What we get are men that are gentle yet cowards or men with ferocity in battle but can not be meek when the occasion requires.

Christ’s life in His first coming offers the only solution to a world that is split between stern and meek men. Where the stern men are not gentle when needed and the meek cannot defend all that makes this life desirable.

Knights of high Chivalry were men of war and familiar with the gruesome sights of battle; but were also modest, reserved, gentle, and unobtrusive when the occasion required.

We, as Christian men, need to return to the balance of the best knights by following the prefect example of masculinity that we have in our King, Jesus Christ.

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Attention: My Brother in Christ

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