Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Paul Washer - What is Biblical Masculinity and Why is it Important?

Episode Date: August 13, 2021

Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis: Big Questions, Biblical Answers, is a series that seeks to provide biblical answers to some of the most prominent and fundamental questions regarding God, the Gospel, and the BibleIn this episode Paul Washer, from HeartCry Missionary Society answers the question: “What is Biblical Masculinity and Why is it Important?”Subscribe to stay up to date with each episode! Watch VideosVisit the Website Follow on InstagramFollow on Twitter

Hey guys, my name is Johnny Artavanis and this is Dial In. In this series, Big Questions, Biblical Answers, we're seeking to provide resources and content to some of the most fundamental and prominent questions that many people ask about God, the gospel, the Bible, and how that pertains to life and culture. In this episode, I sit down with Paul Washer and ask him the question, what is biblical masculinity and why is it so important? Let's dial in. Paul, thanks again for being with us.

I want to ask you about biblical masculinity. The idea of biblical masculinity is disappearing in today's culture, and yet we see that it is so important as we look at the scripture. Talk to me about biblical masculinity and why it's so important. Well, first of all, there is a difference between a man and a woman. I know that today that's shocking, but you know, Paul told the Corinthians, act like men. There had to be a basis for that. But here's what we need to understand. Let's say that my father's generation, and for the most part, my generation, the idea of being a man was John Wayne.

And if you watch some of the John Wayne movies, there was a lot of things noble about that. But there were a lot of things that weren't noble so john wayne and that type of thing isn't the model the arch type of what a man is to be and then if you go to the other extreme which you seem to find today it's the very opposite of that person a very passive a delicate man, a fearful man. It's like his psyche is broken and he just crumbles. Part of that we need to realize is one aspect of the judgment of God. Isaiah 3 is very clear about that, that we have young men ruling over older men, noble men are removed from society. And there's all sorts of things revealed there in Isaiah 3. What we've got to realize is this, our main problem is simply, again, not studying the Bible. Our main problem is not looking at Christ,

or looking at Christ through some filtered lens rather than the raw scripture. My desire is not to be like John Wayne. It's also not to be like the other extreme. I want to set my sights on being like Jesus Christ. Now, also, I need to think about something. There is a headship in the family and I am to be the head of my home. That doesn't mean that everything revolves around me. My headship serves one purpose, that I lead my home for the benefit of my wife and children, no matter how costly it is to me. My headship is sacrificial. And one of the

things about being a true man, if we look at the model of Christ, it is self-giving and self-sacrifice. It's always, look at what Christ did. He gave himself and gave himself and gave himself until there was nothing left to give. That is my responsibility to my wife and my children also if you want to talk about Christ as our protector he stood in front of us he stood in front of his bride anyone wants to come to get his bride anyone wants to come to get God's children he's going to stand between them and the ones he loves. This requires strength, courage. I think that young men need to grow in character, number one. And the primary characteristic should be love,

which is self-giving. This is not about me. It doesn't matter how much I hurt, doesn't matter how much I suffer, doesn't matter if my expectations aren't met, my needs aren't met, my wants aren't met. That's not what it's about. It's about me dying for a woman and my children, serving, giving, and stop looking in the mirror and stop being self-absorbed, self-giving. But then there's some practical things also. It's my job to feed my

family. And it doesn't matter, like in the rougher times when HeartCry was first starting out, working construction, doing all these different things, hours a day, coming home at night, whatever I had to do to put food on the table, that's my job. If someone's going to stand in the door and going to hurt my family, it's my job to stand in the door. It's my job to take the brunt of everything this world has to throw at my wife and my family. And so, you know, I was raised where we raised Charlotte cattle and quarter horses. So, I mean, it was rodeo from the word go. I mean, you know, and your dad, my dad would just you're going to be tough to be tough. If you don't die, you're going to be tough. My sons were raised by a preacher.

And so and they were homeschooled, so they weren't knocking about in football or rugby or this or that. And so I had to create scenarios. Physical scenarios for them, I made them work from the time they were little. They lifted weights. They learned how to fight. They did all these things because that's part of when my sons marry, I expect them to do everything they have to do and be everything they have to be to protect that woman that they've married and to protect their children and so there's there's there's all kinds of things that go into that and and we have to realize that you know we want to know that there's a noble and righteous government we want to know that all

these things are in place to protect us. But the responsibility I have is above all those other things to care for a wife. You know, I told my boys, I said, let me look at your hands. Are there any calluses on your hands? You know, all right, I'm going to work you. And that's what we did. We did. So I created scenarios to make them tough. I didn't have much time for the outdoors because of my hectic schedule, but I made time. So they'd be sitting out in the snow for 10 hours, hunting or whatever, just to make them tough. Talk about work ethic and how important that is in the molding of men. Yeah, I purposely, we lived in a, lived up basically kind of up a hill with a logging road. And we had no central heat or air conditioning in our cabin for all the most of the years of the boys.

And they were cutting wood constantly. I know a man who lives in a suburb. And so what he would do when his sons would disobey, he went out to Lowe's and he bought a pallet of cinder blocks. There are probably a of cinder blocks. There were probably 100 cinder blocks. And then he put an empty pallet way on the other side of the backyard. And he would have the boys, okay, you dishonored your mother. You're going to do 100 push-ups, this many setups, and you're going to move all those cinder blocks from over there to over there.

And it's just toughness. Just briefly, Paul, you mentioned your definition of masculinity there. You know, and it just toughness. Just briefly, Paul, you mentioned, you know, your definition of masculinity is not some external facade. It is sacrificial service that is not defined, you said, by passivity, but because of inner strength, by being a man of character. Is there anything else, if you're talking to a young man, and I was 15, 25, 35, and you say, if you want to be a man, you need to do this, what would you say?

I know this sounds just so simple, but you need to know who Jesus really was as he walked on this earth, and you need to imitate him. And you do that by if someone you know if you take some silly course on manhood there's no telling what's going to end up but if you will just get in the word and say who is this christ and then know this love look i i know a guy who went into the jungle with me one time. He was slight.

He was afraid of absolutely everything. I mean, he was so afraid. He was afraid of his shadow, the leaves, the spiders, the snakes. He was afraid of everything. You'd say, well, you know, how can you admire a guy like that? I admire him.

Why? He was slight. He wasn't strong. He wasn't necessarily an outdoorsman and he was scared. Do you know why he was there? Love. He was there because he loved the people and he wanted them to know Christ. It's look, it's love that makes a man strong. It's love that makes a man fight like a tiger. It's love. And that's what I want him to see. You take him, you know, you take a Samuel Rutherford, you know, you read Samuel Rutherford and his writing is so poetic. And at times, you know, you're like, whoa, that's a little bit too

much, you know. And yet here was a man who would defy anything because of his love for Christ, because of his love for his people. And so, you know, I don't want to build this. The Lord has spent many years destroying my bravado. It's one of the reasons for all my illnesses, everything else. It's to destroy that. We're not talking about some carnal strength or discipline or he's got muscles, you know, coming out of his ears. I want a man who loves so much that he will just lay down his life, lay down his life, lay down his life. And he's not. If I would say the greatest cause of weakness among young men today is self-absorption. Instead of sacrificial love and service. That's what will make a man defy armies.

When bolder, bigger men turn tail and run. That little puny man who loves will stand his ground. He loves Christ. You know, and some will say, are you afraid? Yes, I'm afraid. There's been so many times I've been so afraid I didn't know what to do. What keeps you in those moments? Because you're going to face enemies that it doesn't matter who you are.

This is not the movies. They're going to take you down. And what makes you stand is not that you know Krav Maga. What's going to make you stand is you've been conformed to the image of Christ and you love. As you said, act like men is a biblical command. Yes. So I'm thankful just for your clarity on reeling to us what that even means and how it's possible. So thank you so much, Paul. All right.