There is a challenging fact that we men need to face: men are significantly outnumbered by women in the Church and in commitment to the Christian faith in general. Numerous rigorous studies have verified that women are more likely to pray regularly, attend worship services, study their Bibles, and serve others. For some other world religions, the gender gap is skewed the other way – more men than women are involved. For the rest, in which more women are committed than men, the difference is less than 2%.
In other words, of all the world’s religions, Christianity has the lowest commitment level from men compared to women.
Dedicated and faithful women are doing the heavy lifting in the Church right now, and it’s time (AGAIN) for men to step up and share the load.
King David was a man’s man. As a young shepherd, he killed lions and bears by seizing them by the hair and “striking them down” (1 Samuel 17:34-35). When he was a very young man, maybe still a boy, he went up against a huge and renowned Philistine warrior, wearing no armor, killed him with a slingshot and then chopped off his head. People wrote songs about him, saying “Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands…” He was surrounded by a group of “mighty men,” each of whom had performed incredible deeds of valor in battle, single handedly defeating hundreds of men at a time.
He was also the one who God said was “a man after My own heart.”
In 1 Kings 2, David is nearing death. His son, Solomon, is about to inherit his throne, and David speaks these words to him:
Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the Lord your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies.
Here, being a man is defined as “walking in His ways and keeping His statutes, His commandments, His rules, and His testimonies.” You may remember that when Jesus was asked which of the commandments was the greatest, He said that it was to “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
David reminds us in Psalm 119:11 (which he wrote) that one of the keys to keeping God’s ways is to study, meditate on, and memorize His word. This means that we men need to study. Most of the psalms that David wrote are either prayers or songs of worship. Some are even songs about the joy of gathering for worship. This means that we men need to worship, and we need to pray. He wrote in Psalm 41:1 that those who defend the weak or the poor will be blessed. This means that we need to serve others.
The point of all of this is that if we men were upholding in ourselves the Biblical definition of what it really means to be a man, we would have a much greater presence in the Church – and by “Church”, I mean inside and outside of the walls, wherever God is at work through His people. We would be studying God’s word. We would be actively defending the poor and oppressed. We would pray a lot and things would happen (James 5:16). We wouldn’t tolerate sin in our lives, or apathy toward God. Instead, we would love Him with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength, and we would love others as we love ourselves – and this would be seen not just in our words, but our actions (1 John 3:18)
Of course, this isn’t easy. David’s first words in the passage above are “Be strong.” Remember that it’s not our own strength that we must rely on, but God’s (Psalm 28:7). We need His strength to resist sin, to love others above ourselves, and to “walk in His ways.”
God is calling you to stop standing by and be engaged. Your kids are watching. Your co-workers and friends are watching. What are they seeing about the God in Whose image you are made? He is calling you–and enabling you–to be strong, and show yourself a man.
