GOD Makes MAN Real

What does it really mean to be a man?

This question has been asked for thousands of years by people of every tribe, language and culture on the earth. The answers to this question have been many and varied. Many say a real man is strong, smart, confident, promiscuous, rich, successful, adventurous, a loner, unemotional, tough, hard, a leader, muscular, masculine, handsome, athletic, and so forth.

Though all of these qualities are admirable – maybe even desirable – none of them provide the definitive answer to the question of what it means to be a true man. Instead, like the characteristics of the virtuous woman described in Proverbs 31, they become a standard few, if any, men ever attain. Just as no single woman will ever possess every trait of the virtuous woman, no single man will ever continually possess each and every one of the qualities I previously mentioned.

So where does this leave us? Is there no way to not only know what a real man is, but to be one as well?

Humanly speaking, it is impossible to know what a real man is even supposed to be.  Our definitions keeps changing. We keep allowing our desire to be accepted or approved by others to rob us of self-understanding and self-acceptance.

However, amid all of the uncertainty about what a real man is, there are a few things of which we can be certain. One is that there is more to being a man than being a male. What a person has between his/her legs can (or should) only define them as a male or female. And according to the Scriptures, all human beings are men, regardless of their gender. That being so, no one should look up to or down upon someone just because they happen to be a male or a female. Every one is to be afforded the same respect.

Back to what it means to be a real man. If we really want to find the definitive answer to this question, we need look no further than the Word of God. Within its pages, we read of exactly where man came from; we came from God. Not only did we come from God, we were created by Him. Not only were we created by Him, we were formed in His image and after His likeness.

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With such a declaration, we can begin to understand that only God can make a real man out of anyone. And without Him, no one can ever be a full, complete man or woman. Without Him, we will always find ourselves falling short of our potential and living unfulfilled, meaningless lives of frustration and pain.

God said a few things about what defines a real man:

(1) A real man is someone who allows him or herself to mature in their thinking. The apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, “When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things.”

(2) A real man is someone who strives to know and obey the will of God. 1 Samuel 6 tells us the Lord selected David to replace Saul as the King of Israel. The Lord didn’t choose David because for any other reason than in David He found “a man after His own heart”.

(3) A real man is someone who keeps his commitments. In Psalm 15, David wrote that the Lord said that a man who swears to his own hurt will abide with Him forever. Also, in Judges, Jepthah the judge of Israel made a vow to sacrifice whatever met him first after he returned from war with the Phillistines. Even though it turned out his sacrifice turned out to be his own unmarried daughter’s future, he would not take back what he said.

In conclusion, each one of us, whether male or female, can and should pray and ask God the Father to make a man – a real man – out of us. In Jesus Christ and through the transforming power of His Holy Spirit and the Word, we can be made into real, true men and women of God. May God forever bless and keep us all as we continue to grow in grace.