1. Ephesians 5:25-33
a. Men desire respect, but must get it the way God teaches:
i. God tells the wife to respect her husband. That’s because men want respect more than love while women want love more than respect.
ii. An immature man walks around trying to impress others with his strength, smarts, or influence in order to get that respect.
iii. A Godly man gets that respect through showing Biblical love.
b. God commands men to love and defines it by two actions of Christ:
i. “gave himself up”
1. John 15:13 “Greater love has no man than this that a man lay down his life…”
2. Jesus, our example of manhood, gave His life for us on the cross
3. We do this through denying luxuries to ourselves and giving our physical strength and mindpower to help others.
4. The purpose of giving yourself up is “that he might sanctify” – our intervention by physical and intellectual exertion should set apart, save, and make others special rather than to make yourself the greatest.
ii. “washing of water with the word”
1. This involves speaking the word of God into people’s lives.
2. Jesus taught continuously, and we men should take every opportunity to teach God’s ways as well.
3. The purpose of bringing the word to bear on people’s lives is “that he might present… the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle” in other words, God’s word transforms ugliness into glory, it washes sin out, it encourages towards righteousness, and makes fresh. That should be the purpose of our words.
2. Isa 59:16 says, “He saw that there was no man.”
a. Of course there were lots of men walking around. What does this mean? In Biblical use, “being a man” means remembering God’s truth and obeying God’s law of righteousness:
b. Isaiah 46:6 Those who pour out gold from a bag and silver in weight will weigh it and hire one who refines, and he will make it a god, and then they will bow down… he will call out to his god, but it will not make a sound nor will it cause him to be saved from his distress. 8. Remember this and be a man. Turn [it] over [in your] heart, sinners. 9. Remember the first things from the ancient times, for I am God and there is no other God and none besides me… Isaiah has defined being a man as remembering that idols are powerless and remembering that Jehovah is the only true God.
c. King David defined manliness to his son in terms of keeping God’s law:1 Kings 2:1-4 Now the days of David drew nigh that he should die; and he charged Solomon his son, saying, 2 I am going the way of all the earth: be strong therefore, and be a man; 3 and keep the charge of Jehovah your God, to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, and His commandments, and His ordinances, and His testimonies, according to that which is written in the law of Moses, [now he gives two reasons why] that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn yourself, 4 that Jehovah may establish His word which He spoke concerning me, saying, ‘If your children take heed to their way, to walk before me in truth with all their heart and with all their soul, there shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel.’ Having a king on the throne who uses God’s standard to define true from false is equated with having a real man on the throne of Israel.
d. This is repeated in the New Testament. Manliness is related to a strong, alert, stand for the faith! 1 Cor. 16:13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Background: Aspen bark lying along Rainbow Trail near Colony, CO
