“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” (1st Cor. 13:11)
I have asked this question of many that I have met over the years, and to most it has caused an epiphany within them, so I will ask it of you today.
How many guys have you met, and how many men have you known?
What the difference is, is debatable in the minds of most, but that difference is as clear as night and day in the Scriptures.
“Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish.” (Psalm 49:20)
In the world, guys do not go to boxing matches, nor do they learn for themselves that sport or any other form of violent self-defense. Men do. Men play at sports, they hunt, fish, trap, they are rugged individuals who rely on no one for what they need or want, they earn what they have at best, at worst they take what they want. They do not run from a fight, and many times are willing to start one.
Two lines from old movies for you, that encapsulate what the world says a man is. “I won’t be talked down to, and I won’t have a hand laid on me.” And “We serve hard drinks for hard men that want to get drunk fast.”
In other words, men are not cowards, and they face adversity head on in the eyes of the world.
“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” (1st Cor. 16:13)
“Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?” (Psalm 94:16)
I will ask you another question now, how can you tell a man of God from a man of the world?
In what I will call today’s form of Christianity, that man of God is to be in touch with his feelings, he is never to be too forthright or seemingly callous to the feelings of others, he is not to speak the truth in love if there is a possibility that the hearer may have their feelings damaged or hurt. He is expected to have a caring, loving composure at all times, to be smooth, as it were, never rough around the edges, for all intents and purposes, in the eyes of many who profess Christ, to be almost effeminate, not a man hardened against the world, not one who would ever think of correcting, reproving or rebuking unrighteousness, much less to the face of those he meets.
His face is to be as it were a cherubim to others, not as one who has set his face like a flint.
If you cannot tell the difference between a guy and a man, much less a man of the world and a man of God, then you do not know the heart of God.
“And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.” (Acts 13:22)
The castration in spirit of all men, including men who profess to serve the Almighty, is one of the main thrusts of our adversary today, and although he does not fear them, the one, who like Moses when he stood in the gap, who is willing to stand against the evil, who is willing to call it what it is, who is willing to die for Him who died on the cross for him, is the man that Satan will accuse before the throne of glory.
Men of God know when to turn the other cheek and when to stand firm, they know more of the way of the world than any who are seen as men in this world, they know by the grace of God, the heart of those of this planet more than any unrepentant person ever could.
Truth by them is always spoken, always in consideration of the emotional state of those they speak to, but it is never covered over with platitudes, false hopes, or concerns with the temporary feelings of those they are speaking to.
It does not bother them one bit if Galatians 4:16 is fulfilled in their lives.
“Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?”
Men of God serve God, if the world hates them, it means nothing to them, they are accountable only to God.
