What Biblical Manhood Actually Means
Culture is currently selling two versions of manhood. One apologizes for existing. The other is all edge and no heart. Scripture describes a man who is both tender and brave, and most of us are good at one of those and quietly hiding from the other.
What Biblical Manhood Actually Means, Beyond Both Extremes
There is a lot of noise about manhood right now and two loud answers. One says the fix is to strip out anything that could be called aggressive, and the men shaped by it tend to get talked over and struggle to carry weight when it matters. The other says manhood is edge, fight, and volume, and the men shaped by it burn relationships down and rarely lead anyone to actually change. Both are reacting to something real. Neither one produces a whole man.
Scripture’s picture is a man who is tender to God’s word and brave against evil, held together in the same person. The message works through Josiah in 2 Kings 22. His inheritance was rot: his grandfather Manasseh ran state-sponsored idolatry for fifty-five years, his father Amon continued it and was assassinated by his own servants, and Josiah took the throne at eight years old. Every reasonable prediction said he would carry the family business forward.
Then the book of the law turns up in the temple, Shaphan reads it aloud, and the king tears his clothes. That is the tender half, and it is not sentimentality. Hearing God’s word convicted him rather than putting him on the defensive, it moved him to act instead of just feel, and it left him hungry for more of it. James later makes the same point from the other side: hear the word and do nothing and you are a man who checks the mirror and walks away having already forgotten his own face.
Then comes the brave half, because in 2 Kings 23 Josiah does not just feel bad, he goes and tears the whole apparatus of idolatry down. Revelation 5 gives you both halves in one person: the Lion of the tribe of Judah who has conquered, and the Lamb standing as though slain. If that is who lives in you, then both are available to you. Do not grit this out. Ask for it. Valor Church is an expository, Bible-teaching church in northwest Arvada, Colorado, serving Westminster, Broomfield, Five Parks, and Candelas. Sundays at 8:30 and 10:30 at Excel Academy, 11500 W 84th Ave.
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Seven days of Scripture, reflection, and prayer drawn from this sermon. One a day. Read it in five minutes. Carry it the rest of the day.
You Are Not Your Inheritance
2 Kings 22:1-2
Josiah’s grandfather gave him fifty-five years of idolatry and his father gave him two more and an assassination. He became king at eight. By every reasonable measure he should have continued it, and he did not. Whatever your father handed you, it is a starting position and not a verdict. God has broken that chain before and can break it in you.
Prayer
God, whatever I inherited, do not let it be the last word over me.
Tender Is Not Soft
2 Kings 22:11
The king hears God’s word and tears his clothes, which in that world was public anguish, not a mood. Tenderness here means your heart is still reachable, that truth can land on you and change something. A man who cannot be moved by God’s word is not strong. He is armored, and armor keeps out what he needs most.
Prayer
Lord, keep my heart reachable. Do not let me get armored against you.
Convicted, Not Defensive
Psalm 51:17
Notice what Josiah did not do. He did not explain that this was really his grandfather’s fault, or that the text applied to other people, or that times were different now. He took it. The instinct to defend yourself the moment Scripture gets close is worth watching. What was the last thing you heard preached that you immediately started arguing with in your head?
Prayer
Father, when your word gets close, keep me from reaching for a defense.
Do Not Stop at Feeling It
James 1:22-24
James says hearing without doing is like glancing in a mirror and walking off having forgotten your own face. Josiah did not stay in the grief. He sent men to find out more and then he acted on it. Emotion at a sermon is not obedience. Name one thing you heard recently and never did, and go do it this week.
Prayer
Jesus, I have heard plenty. Help me do one thing about it.
Hungry for More
1 Peter 2:2
One reading was not enough for Josiah. He sent for people who could explain it further because something in him woke up. If Scripture currently feels like an obligation, that is worth naming rather than faking. Appetite tends to return through returning, not through waiting to feel it first.
Prayer
God, give me an appetite for your word again, and meet me when I show up.
Then Go Tear It Down
2 Kings 23:4-8
Josiah did not stop at being moved. He went through the country dismantling the whole machinery of idolatry his family had built. Bravery starts at home, and it usually starts with something you have tolerated for years because confronting it would cost you comfort. What is the thing in your own house you have been walking past?
Prayer
Lord, give me the nerve to deal with what I have been tolerating.
The Lion and the Lamb
Revelation 5:5-6
John is told to look at the Lion of the tribe of Judah and turns to see a Lamb standing as though slain. Both, in one person, no contradiction. If you are the tender man who never stands up, the Lion is in you too. If you are the brave man who never softens, so is the Lamb. Ask for the half you are missing.
Prayer
Jesus, you are both. Grow in me the half I have been avoiding.
For your small group, family, or personal reflection.
- Which are you stronger at: tender to God’s word, or brave against evil? Answer fast, the first answer is usually right.
- Which of the two cultural extremes have you actually absorbed, the one that apologizes or the one that is all edge?
- When was the last time Scripture genuinely convicted you rather than confirming what you already thought?
- What did you hear preached recently that you agreed with and then never acted on?
- What have you been tolerating in your own home because dealing with it would cost you comfort?
- Josiah broke a chain two generations deep. What did you inherit that you do not want to pass on?
- If you did not have a father who modeled this, who could you ask to help you learn it?
Want to work through these with others? Small groups at Valor meet throughout the week. Find a Group
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Arvada, CO 80005
720-507-9246
Arvada, CO 80005
720-507-9246