Real men don’t wear pink! Real men don’t cry! Real men are always tough! Real men… The world has much to say about what defines a real man. Even as a young person, I remember the image of the Marlborough man, sitting astride his horse on top of the hill. In his cowboy hat, two-day growth of beard, and that glare, he looked strong and invincible. This was meant to portray that if you smoked his brand of cigarette, you would be a real man. I don’t know where all these images originated, however, I do know they are not an accurate measuring stick of what constitutes a real man.
Throughout the Scriptures we see men rise to the occasion of fulfilling the call of God on their lives. In all these true accounts, the task they were challenged to complete was not for the weak. Abraham was told to leave his country and travel to an unknown land to find the will of God. He stepped out in faith, packing up wife and setting out. In all his journey, God’s promises seemed impossible to achieve, yet he believed, and it was credited to him as righteousness.
Moses was to lead a band of beaten down slaves to defeat one of the greatest armies in the world. It was a difficult enough task but add to it the fact that many of his followers were more whiners and complainers than soldiers. Yet God came through once again. In an act of faith, Moses stepped into the Red Sea and led God’s people to safety.
God found Gideon hiding in a hole, threshing his grain secretly because of his fear of the enemy. God declared him a mighty warrior and gave him the assignment of leading the Israelites in defeating that enemy. This reluctant hero sought sign after sign from God, but eventually stood up to the challenge. As a test of his faith and proof that the victory belonged to the Lord, God sent Gideon into battle with just four hundred men against a Midianite army of 185,000. Again, God came through.
The Apostle Paul was commissioned by God and his Church to evangelize much of the known world at the time. This was not a popular process with many of the Jews of his day and Paul faced hardship after hardship. In 2 Corinthians 11:24-27, Paul gives an accounting of some of what he suffered. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked.
These are the guys God would call real men. Not because they looked good on a horse with a cowboy hat on, but because they exhibited the qualities that God measures as important. When King David was handing the reigns of the kingdom to his son, Solomon, he gave him this admonition in 1 Kings 2:1-3, When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. 2 “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man, 3 and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go.
In God’s Kingdom, a real man is measured by faith in God’s power and obedience to his Word. This could very well bring hardship and even suffering for the name of Jesus. But when we stand before our Lord, it will also allow him to say, “Well Done!”