A Call for Biblical Manhood

I was greatly encouraged and challenged by a recent blog by Boaz Michael, founder of First Fruits of Zion, on the subject of biblical manhood entitled "My Wife-My Life." It presents a pointed critique of any who would stand outside of the body of Messiah and disengage from spiritual responsibilities simply because the "church" is broken. If it is broken, why, and who is responsible to fix it? How does Yeshua's example challenge us? He laid down His life for His Bride, all who belong to Him. This idea is nicely captured in the song "The Church" by Derek Webb (disclaimer at the end of this post). Without further preamble, here is the opening paragraphs of "My Wife-My Life." Follow the link at the end to read the rest of the article. I highly recommend that you do.

The church is broken, increasingly ineffective, and in some ways self-serving. As men we tend to see the broken state of the church and quietly rejoice in her brokenness because it gives us an excuse to pull back and withdraw. The cycle will continue to spiral downward until the church's complete destruction--and we, a gang of male revelers--will rejoice in its destruction ... b-e-c-a-u-s-e that means we will be free from our responsibilities as men to invest our time and our energy into something spiritual. We will be free from nurturing and building up the bride of Messiah--his church.

Our marriages are in a similar state: broken, ineffective, and self-serving. At some point our wives will disappoint us, they will not fulfill us, or may no longer be attractive to us. So, we will pull back and withdraw. Our male nature will tend to see the shortcomings of our wives and quietly rejoice that her shortfalls giving us an excuse to pull back from our love and commitment toward her. We gang of revelers are then justified in our jokes, our lusts, our sins. To continue reading, click here.

Disclaimer: When saying "church," what I am describing must be understood as the ecclesia, the enduring covenant people of God from Abraham to the present day. The "church" has not replaced Israel as the bride. Israel is still the bride and includes all those who have been grafted in by faith in the Messiah Yeshua (Romans 11).