Lead Like Men (Part 6 of Biblical Manhood Series)
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When we began this masculinity series a couple of months ago, I was convinced that the recovery of Biblical manhood was one of, if not the most, important issues that we face today. There is an all-out war being waged against men and the culture around us is suffering because of it. In the same way that a house will not stand if you knock down it’s load bearing walls, a culture cannot stand when you knock down its men. They are the ones who were designed by God to bear the load of the nation, they are the ones who were made to protect our most valuable and precious citizens, our women, who in turn care for and protect our children. So, when you cut down the men, pervert them, and cripple them, you leave everyone else exposed… Which kind of seems like the point.
Today, we draw our masculinity series to a close by talking about what it means for men to bear the load of leadership. In this episode, we will talk about where true leadership begins and we will give a Biblical case for what male leadership looks like, in this generation, and beyond. So, let us first begin with where leadership begins, and that is at submission.
SUBMIT LIKE A MAN
In order to lead like a man, you must first know the limits of your leadership. You are not sovereign, Christ is. You are not unlimited, He is.
We know this from many passages, but perhaps the most clear passage for us to consider is Matthew 28:18, where Jesus says
“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
Jesus’ perfect unbroken submission to His Father, along with His lifelong unblemished active submission to the law of God, as well as His lifelong unflinching passive submission to the covenantal plan of redemption - that would culminate in Him being crucified on a Roman cross, dying like a criminal, and buried in a borrowed tomb - is what earned Him supreme, unlimited, and unrivaled authority. When He rose form the dead, He did not claim a kind of amprophous or undefined victory… He triumphed over all powers, authority, and dominion. He earned maximal authority on earth, in heaven, over life, and over deah.
Knowing this, we may rightly conclude that there is no actual (or even perceieved) authority structure outside of Jesus Christ. Every king, every dictator, every potentate, and every single person exercises authority that is borrowed on credit from the Lord of glory. We will either bow our knee to Him, in this life, as humble slaves that have done our master’s bidding (Mt. 25:23) or we will bow in terror in the life to come, when He showcases His magnified and exalted position to all creation (Philippians 2:9-11).
As men who are called to lead, we must remember that every facet of our life, and every milisecond of our leadership, must be done in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our King and soverign. We are simply the stewards of His treasures and will be held accountable for how we care for His possession. At the heart of it, that is the essence of male leadership. It is not pomposity, abdication, nor machismo. True godly and masculine leadership is found in submission to Jesus. It comes in orienting our lives around loving, serving, obeying, and worshipping Him. The rest of my remarks will be based on that.
LEAD LIKE A MAN
When we come to the topic of masculine leadership, there are several different facets of life that a man is called to lead in. He will be called to lead in work, lead in the home, and to provide leadership in the church. Let us begin with work.
When we think about leadership, one of the most obvious ways we can see a man leading his family is through vocation. After submission to Christ in all things, this is one of the ways, that man can provide godly and life giving leadership to His home. How?
Man was made, even before the fall, to work an honest job that would cultivate the earth from his labors (Genesis 2:15). After sin entered the world, he was expected to work hard enough and long enough to break out in a good smelly sweat (Genesis 3:19), to extract enough food and material from the soil to provide for his family (Ephesians 4:28), all for the glory of God (Colossians 3:23; 1 Corinthians 10:31). His natural leadership would take him consistently out of the home in order to provide for the home. That is natural for a man. What is entirely unnatural for a man is laziness, sloth, and a refusal to care for the ones he loves. Paul even tells Timothy that this kind of man man is worse than an unbeliever (1 Timothy 5:8).
And while work is an incredible way to showcase masculine leadership, it most certainly is not the only way, and not even the best way. The best way that we will demonstrate leadership is in the home, to the family God has given us.
This, of course, is all rooted to being submitted to Jesus. If all our family witnesses is a high powered CEO type, with all the latest leadership jargon, but they do not see Jesus on us, then we have entirely failed. Our families must see men submitted to Christ, pointing them to Christ, and teaching them about Christ.
For instance, when talking about the way a husband will lead his wife, Paul says in Ephesians 5:22-28
22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies.
Paul concludes chapter 5 by saying:
each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
In this passage, we get a wonderful picture of what masculine leadership is. When we exert leadership in our home, we imitate the way Christ loves His bride, the Church. This means leading her will be loving and sacrifical. It will not be self serving but will be focused on meeting her needs and helping her grow to be more like Jesus. Like Jesus does for us, we will point our wives to the truth and help her grow up into maturity. And like Him, we are to care for her enough to wash her in the water of the Word, so that she will grow in sanctification, and make herself ready to meet her King.
Think about it this way, men, a Christian husband is to love his wife, like a royal gem cutter loves the stone. In love, he goes out looking for her, finds her, adores her, and brings her into his home. And while he clearly sees her impurities and imperfections, he refuses to toss her away, because he can see all of her beauty and potential. So he gets to work, cutting, polishing, and sharpening her, so that when she is ready, he can present her as a glorious treasure to her soverign King.
But it does not stop there. Like a skilled famer, you have been called to cultivate an entire family. By the Lord’s help, you are meant to see children as a blessing from God (Genesis 1:28); to earnestly desire children (Psalm 127:3-5), and when your wife bears children, you are called to raise up those children in the instruction fear and admonition of the Lord (Ephesian 6:4). You are to teach them the commands of God (Dt. 6:4-9) and help them grow up eager and ready to live for Jesus.
