Manhood Marred: An Introduction.

By Kyle Worley

Have you ever looked into a broken mirror? You can see yourself in the glass, but the image is broken. A fractured picture stares back at you and while you can make out your own features, things are not put together as they should be.

Sin has broken us. It has fractured who we are and how we love. Our hearts are bent and we are in need of being put back together, but it is a task that we can’t undertake in and of ourselves.  For the Christian, sin still has a lingering influence that taints many of our motives, actions, affections, and thoughts.

In the Valley of Vision, there is a prayer entitled “Continual Repentance.” In this prayer the writer says,

“I need to repent of my repentance; I need my tears to be washed; I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness; I am always standing clothed in filthy garments, and by grace am always receiving change of raiment, for you always justify the ungodly; I am always going into the far country, and always returning home as a prodigal, always saying, “Father, forgive me,” and you are always bringing forth the best robe.”

So, according to the writer, we are in desperate need of repentance. Repentance is merely one of the rhythms in the life of the believer. So, we here at Manual think it is time to do a bit of repenting and correction.

With this post we begin a new series entitled, “Manhood Marred.” This series will attempt to explore the various corruptions and aberrations of biblical manhood. We will consider how chauvinism, machismo, passivity, escapism, individualism, and prolonged adolescence all undermine the implications that the Gospel has on biblical manhood. We want to consider these aberrations and examine how the Gospel sets them aright.

Years ago Wayne Grudem, one of the founders of CBMW, created this chart in order to detail various abuses in biblical manhood and womanhood. The chart gives a visual representation of how errors of passivity and errors of aggressiveness both corrupt the biblical ideal for manhood and womanhood. We will be focusing in on the errors of passivity and aggressiveness as it pertains to biblical manhood.

Six years after CBMW published the Danvers statement, the leaders saw fit to publish a statement on abuse. You can find that statement here: CBMW Statement on Abuse. In that statement CBMW made clear that “We believe that abuse is sin. It is destructive and evil. Abuse is the hallmark of the devil and is in direct opposition to the purpose of God. Abuse ought not to be tolerated in the Christian community.”

We hope that this new series will lead men who have allowed corruption to seep into their view of what it means to be a Godly man to repent and turn to Christ. We hope that this series will prove encouraging for those who have suffered at the hands of men who have abused the label biblical manhood by “lording” power over them, refusing to grow up and love those they are in relationship with, living individualistic lives apart from the light of Christian community, and simply refusing to lead well.

Please join us as we seek to drag the perversions of biblical manhood into the light and repent for where we have failed in portraying how the gospel shapes manhood.

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Kyle Worley is Connections Minister at the Village Church in Dallas, TX. He is the author of Pitfalls: Along the Path to Young and Reformed and blogs regularly at The Strife. He holds a double B.A. in Biblical Studies and Philosophy from Dallas Baptist University and an M.A. in Theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is pursuing a M.A. in Religion at Redeemer Seminary. You can find Kyle on Twitter @kyleworley.