Masculinity is generally condemned in modern society. This denigration, I posit, is part and parcel to the erosion of traditional, biblical values in the world. The nuclear family as the fundamental building block of western culture, heterosexuality as the modus operandi, sexuality as a whole being a private and intimate matter, honor, integrity, concrete biblical truth, resilience, and now, the inalienable rights that used to be defined by our constitution in the United States. All of these have been systematically undermined over the last 20-30 years, all of which are fundamental to create strong men of God that build lasting peace and prosperity in society.
"Bad times create strong men. Strong men create good times. Good times create weak men. Weak men create bad times."
-Unknown
So what has society done? The State can't implement a purge of men. It's tactics must be more subversive and drawn out over many years, perhaps decades. If you want to understand the tactics behind this, I encourage you to read this post.
Why does the World need Men?
In order to answer this question, we must first understand the nature of the world, and answer the question of why did God create men differently than women?
The world is saturated with wickedness. God created mankind, who after some time chose their own sovereignty over the rulership and sovereignty of the Almighty God.
" But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it [the tree of the knowledge of good and evil] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Genesis 3:4
Their original sin propagated further sin within our first forefather's progeny, and we are now, by our very nature, children of wrath who are ruled by the sinful pleasures of our flesh, to the dishonor of our Lord and Creator.
"The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time."
Genesis 6:5
So we understand that we live in a sinful world that by its very nature is inclined to do the very opposite of what is good and pleasing to God. But this is antithetical to who God made us to be.
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day."
Genesis 1:31
The world that God created was inherently good, built to last and to the glory of it's Creator, and we were made to walk in intimacy with the Lord. Adam and Eve did, up to and until they sinned against Him.
Now we break down why God created man differently than woman.
"When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Male and Female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created."
Genesis 5:1
"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb."
We know that we are created intimately in the image of God. This God, who created the intricacies of mathematics, astrophysics, quantum physics, chemical processes, and even the intangible laws of logic, designed human beings with the same attention to detail and specificity. It must then be inferred, that the differences between men and women were intentionally created in order to determine behavioral, mental, physical, and social characteristics particular to men and to women.
Now, the science isn't out on this. Men and women are inherently different in a vast number of ways. Anybody who makes the claim that men and women are more similar than different is fundamentally trying to ignore the very very important differences in favor of the obvious biological similarities such as, we both have one heart, 10 toes, and the ability to speak. The research is out there, I encourage you to do it yourself, but here are some of the important points I'd like to make based on neurological research done by others in the last 30 years.
Men:
Use and have more gray matter (7x) than women. This results in the ability to process more information in localized regions of the brain.
Have far higher testosterone levels than women, which give us more dense musculature, higher bone density, which means were physically stronger, more resilient, and less susceptible to physical, blunt force damage. It also means we are naturally more aggressive and more impulsive, among other things.
Brains process a lot of information in a front-to-back pattern, which means that we generally have better motor and spatial skills than women.
We have larger amygdalas than women. They have larger hippocampus(es?)
Women:
Have larger Hippocampus than men, which is better for memory retention and sensory information processing.
Use (9x) more white matter than men, which results in a higher capacity to multi-task and connects the two sides of the brain.
Far higher estrogen levels than men, and far far lower testosterone levels means they are the weaker sex. Not weaker in terms of value, just physically.
Better at social cognition due to the side to side processing of information between brain hemispheres.
Therefore it can be inferred:
Men process emotion through our left brain (logical) amygdala. Note: This is not 100% true, 100% of the time. Just mostly.
Increased testosterone makes us stronger, more warlike, more impulsive, and more sexual.
Brain composition, specifically ratios of gray to white matter, means we process information differently.
Men are generally more task oriented.
Women are better in social scenarios.
Okay so who cares, right? Well, everyone should. Our chemical and neural makeup inform how God intended us to perform.
Men are physiologically made by God to protect, and literally were mandated by God to fill and subdue the earth.
Men are created to be more spatially organized, better at performing and executing physical tasks, which could imply that we are better suited to leveraging those strategic differences to provide for our families. This is changing with society and more specifically, technology.
Men are mentally wired to be worse at emotional response, and better at compartmentalization. We are designed for processing emotion through out left brain, or logical amygdala, which makes us generally more logically based leaders. We're also called to be leaders in the family unit and the church.
Therefore, we infer these three points about the Role of Men.
We Protect. We Provide. We Preside.
Strength. Provision. Leadership.
Men are built stronger and bear the burden of protecting those who are weaker. We are mandated to protect our families. We should place emphasis on functional strength, endurance, speed, and mastery.
We are not called to be the sole breadwinner. That's not what I mean by provide. If that be the case, then fine, there's honor to that as well. But the emphasis here is on being someone who creates and provides, as opposed to someone who only takes and consumes.
Men ought to be leaders. We are mandated to be. In our marriages. In the home. In our community, and in spiritual defense of the values and law of God. God made men to lead. Its an unpopular truth. Men are built to lead in families and in churches, and Isaiah even saw female political leadership as a sign of judgement for Israel.
“O My people! Their oppressors are children, and women rule over them”
Women are equal in value, but built to support. Let me just say, as a disclaimer, that there are plenty of great leaders that are women. Outside of the church and the home, the bible does not specifically come into contention with the idea of female leadership. Anybody that God ordains to lead, whether they be male or female, is fit to lead. We see this with Deborah in the old testament. But as a generality, men are called to be leaders. Not all will be generals, pastors, or presidents, but we're called to be leaders and influential in the least within our fields and spheres.
So how do men build lasting peace through and despite such systematic suppression and oppression? What is the role of men in the world?
Keep yourself strong. I'm speaking in regards to functional strength. Be able to run a mile and not be winded. Be able to lift, at the very least, your body weight off of your chest and in a squat/deadlift. Don't eat Taco Bell every day. Be willing and able to defend yourself. There's both a physical and mental portion to this. You can lift heavy and eat healthy all day long but if you fail to act when the need arises, all your fitness is rendered useless. Take some brazilian jiu-jitsu classes. Start somewhere, build out from that point when it gets easy.
"A harmless man is not a good man. A good man is a very dangerous man who has that violence under voluntary control"
Jordan Peterson
Be the kind of man that contributes more than he consumes. Create. Teach. Provide financially. Contribute to your marriage emotionally. Its a principle that applies to basically any tenet of life. Make more than you spend to gain wealth. Burn more calories than you consume to stay healthy (within reason, obviously). Give more affection than you recieve, and everyone around you will love you. But from a provison standpoint, within the family especially, if all you do is subsist off of the hard work of others, especially those you are designed to protect, extenuating circumstances such as disability and sickness are obviously exempt, then you are worth very little, if anything at all as a man.
Preside over your spheres of influence. Every man has fields to tend. The home. The workplace. The church. The community. Within each of these, and more, a man must decide to show leadership. Stand up and take ownership of that field, and tend it until it is prosperous. Yes, its time consuming. Yes its stressful. But were called to subdue the earth. Not beneath the iron fist of an autocratic rule. That's not what God meant in genesis 1. Subdue. Bring under control. Manage. Less chaos, more order, in all of the spheres of influence in your life. Be the one that people can look to for direction and wisdom.
Protect, Provide, Preside.
Be strong in the Lord. May He be a lamp unto your feet and a light unto your path. May he lead you in strength and peace, and bring you victory as you seek his will.
-M
Excellent article!