This past Sunday PM, 2/19/12, we kicked off Collision Course at Crestview. A series of videos and talks about the meaning of manhood, allowing men to sharpen one another as iron sharpens iron.
Here’s the video from session 1:
We also added these notes:
Session 1—2/19/12PM
Masculinity Defined
With Doug Wilson
Masculinity Is the Glad
Assumption of Responsibility
(http://vimeo.com/30751344)
Scott Anderson: So Doug, when John [Piper] invited you to speak at the Desiring God Conference for Pastors coming up in 2012, he noted that he’s been amazed to see in the past 25 years or so this resurgence among the young reformed guys in their embracing of complementarity and he would not have foreseen that: a bunch of young reformed guys reformed and also concerned about Biblical Manhood. He’s been heartened by that and thus we want to do this conference on it. I wonder if you have any kind of working definition for Biblical Masculinity or Biblical manhood as you understand it?
Doug Wilson: Yeah, the working definition that I have is that masculinity is that which takes responsibility, so the glad assumption of responsibility or to fill it out a little bit more, the glad, sacrificial assumption of responsibility is masculinity. So, my understanding of Christ’s teaching is that authority flows to those who take responsibility. And, authority flees those who try to evade responsibility. And so, when men try to evade responsibility through laziness or brittle egos or whatever, however much they make excuses, authority, natural masculine authority, is running away from them. But when they take responsibility—husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church—that’s the assumption of responsibility, and that’s the sacrificial assumption of responsibility. And, when a man does that, he begins functioning as a head ought to function. He is the head, regardless, but he begins functioning the way a masculine head ought to function. So, the glad assumption of sacrificial responsibility is how I would understand masculinity.
Some Scriptures That Unpack This:
In the Garden before the Fall and before Eve, God gave Adam the task of naming animals: (Genesis 2:19-20) “Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.”
After Eve’s sin in the Garden, God comes looking for Adam: (Genesis 3:8-9) “And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
God considers men those who sacrificially take responsibility: (Ephesians 5:23) “…the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”
Therefore…some questions for application:
1) In what areas do you need to take responsibility?
2) What is keeping you from doing this gladly?
3) What sacrifices will this mean for you and how do they compare with the sacrifice Christ has made for the church?
4) What effect do you think that your taking responsibility might have on those around you?
5) How can other men help encourage you and hold you accountable in your assumption of responsibility?
Hope you have a fruitful time unpacking what we discussed.