The Masculine Mandate
The Masculine Mandate
By Richard D. Phillips
By Richard D. Phillips
The biblical picture of manhood begins with God and Adam in the garden
The "Who", "Where", "What" and "How" of manhood
God made man as a spiritual creature. The soul of man is eternal with God and is capable of knowing and relating with God. Man is designed and given the capacity to bear the image of God as His worshipers and servants. This is "who" we are as men.
God placed Adam in the garden with a specific purpose. The fallacy of "Wild At Heart" is that man needs to escape the "garden" to find his identity. This is false because God made Adam and specifically placed him in the garden. While God may have made Adam "outside", He puts him in the garden and gives him a purpose and mandate. The place for man is not the untamed wilderness of self-discovery and identity quests outside the "garden", but the care and cultivation of covenant bonds and commissioning within it. This is "where" man is called.
God gives Adam the command to "be fruitful and multiply" and to "subdue and have dominion" over the created world. What Adam is then is the "lord and keeper" or "lord and servant" in the garden. He is an image bearer of his Creator as a servant/keeper and lord. This is "what" man is.
The working out of man's purpose is captured in the words "work" and "keep". God gives Adam the mandate in the garden to "work it and keep it". To work is to labor to make things grow and to keep is protect and sustain. This is how man exercises his divinely-ordained purpose in all areas of life. This is the "how" of manhood.
"God calls us to bear His image in the real world, in this garden that has become corrupted by sin but is being redeemed by the power of God's grace in Christ. He calls us to do this by being leaders and servants in the ultimate cause of displaying God's glory and bearing the fruit of God's love in real relationships. That is the Masculine Mandate: to be spiritual men placed in real-world, God-defined relationships, as lords and servants under God, to bear God's fruit by serving and leading" (p. 9).
The essential mandate for all men is to "work and keep". This is taken directly from the creation story where God made Adam and then placed him in the garden to work it and keep it. In this chapter, Phillips explores the meaning of the two words "work" and "keep". They will be the theme for the remainder of the book.
The first command to "work" can be understood in its literal sense as a gardener tending/cultivating/nurturing/keeping his garden. "A faithful man, then, is one who has devoted himself to cultivating, building and growing", what is good and godly. This is applied not only to things like career and possessions, but very much to people in the man's life, including himself. A man is called to cultivate what is good wherever he is and whatever he is doing.
The second command is to "keep", which can be understood literally as "to protect as a sword-bearer". Phillips says, "To be a man is to stand up and be counted when there is danger or other evil. God does not desire for men to stand by idly and allow harm, of permit wickedness to exert itself. Rather, we are called to keep others safe within all the covenant relationships we enter" (p.15).
Men are designed by God to work and therefore they should. Phillips says, "The life of a man is a life of work. This is good and it pleases God" (p.17). Sin has corrupted the exercise and the experience of working, but God has commanded it and it is therefore valuable. Man's design and command to work is hardwired into man and this is observable in many areas of life. Made clear in multiple passages of Scripture, there will even be work in heaven.
Phillips then turns his attention to how Christians should determine the right kind of work. He asks five question: Does the work glorify God? Does it benefit my fellow man? Do I consider myself called to this work, or can I at least do it well and find enjoyment in that? Does it provide for material needs? Does it permit me to lead a godly and balanced life?
Phillips acknowledges that the "seasons of work" that we experience will often change as we grow older. This is true for most men. But the questions to ask in determined the right type of work to do remain the same.
Phillips discusses how we can work to please the Lord by being a blessing to others and obeying the Lord. This includes serving and honoring those above us, leading well those who are under us, and generally loving others in all our daily interactions.
Finally, Phillips wraps up the chapter with the simple principle of the "Audience of One". All our work should be done with this attitude. The One audience member we seek to work for and please is God.
God made man to bear His image in creation. Phillips says, "This is the chief end of our lives and our fondest desire: that others would see something of the glory of God - His mercy, His faithfulness, His power, His grace - in us" (p.32). Phillips then focuses on three ways in which man displays or images the God in the world: "We were created rational and spiritual", "We were granted dominion over creation", "We are a reflection of original righteousness". The third of these three points applies to Christians only. It is the transforming grace of God in the work of God's Spirit that redeems and restores a person to righteousness. Then that person has the ability and the mandate to walk in righteousness all their life.
"Understanding these three ways in which we bear God's image equips us for a life of obedience, as we seek to carry out our call to represent God to the world" (p.34). Phillips then turns to ways that we glorify God in our lives. The truest way, he says, is by practical righteousness that enables us to be more and more like God in our attitude and conduct. This is the greatest purpose of our lives - to reveal the glory of God by what we do and who we are. "What we do" is essentially actively living out the Great Commission and investing yourself in your church. It's about seeing the lost saved and the saved mature. "Who we are" is essentially living according to our redeemed nature. The Spirit of God within us brings us into greater and greater conformity to the image of Christ, which should be evident to the world. We grow in this by devoting ourselves to God's Word, Prayer and the Sacraments. As we do this we can expect to reduce sins and increase righteousness for the glory of God. This is the greatest purpose and privilege for every man.
This is the final chapter of Part 1, "Understanding Our Mandate", which is primarily focused on laying the theological groundwork for manhood. In this chapter, Phillips explores the concept of man's commissioning to exercise authority of God's behalf in the world. "This is nothing less that a call to exercise lordship" (p.43). Phillips identifies lordship as leadership. "Lordship - or as we would say it today, leadership - is intrinsic to the male calling in the world" (p.44). The concept and exercise of leadership is corrupted in our world today. There is a great need for godly men to embody and exercise godly leadership. God promises blessing when it is so. David says in 2 Sam. 23:3-4, "When one rules justly over men, ruling in the fear of God, he dawns on them like the morning light, like the sun shining forth on a cloudless morning, like rain that makes the grass to sprout from the earth".
The Leader as Shepherd - "If there is one image in the Bible that sums up God's model for leadership, it is that of the shepherd watching over, protecting, and leading his flock of sheep" (p.45). Jesus is the ultimate picture of the Good Shepherd, a leader who lays his life down for his sheep.
The picture of the shepherd-leader is a perfect match with the Masculine Mandate to work and keep. The shepherd nurtures and grows, guides and protects. These are captured in the concepts of "work" and "keep". Phillips focuses on three facets of the work of the shepherd: guiding, protecting and caring. Phillips draws out these concepts by looking specifically at Psalm 23, where David proclaims, "The Lord is my shepherd...".
Jesus' self-sacrifice in the work of redemption on the cross is the single most important example of what it means to be shepherd-lord. Jesus secured for His flock the greatest outcome of working and keeping - redemption, reconciliation and eternal blessing. Phillips says of our own reward in mimicking Christ's example, "The rich satisfaction of being greatly used by God in the lives of His sheep and, to varying degrees, the 'unfading crown of glory' (1 Peter 5:4) that Jesus has prepared for all who have faithfully shepherded the beloved flock that He purchased with His own blood" (p.51).
Phillips begins by stating the importance of knowing, specifically the importance of knowing the truth about marriage. A man's relationship with his wife is the primary and most important relationship where a man fulfills his Masculine Mandate. Phillips will take the next three chapters to expand on the truth of marriage and how the Masculine Mandate is fulfilled within it.
The first thing Phillips addresses is the fact that man was created incomplete. The Genesis story tells us that God created man and then declared it "not good" that he was alone. So he created woman. A man was designed to be with a woman and a woman was created and designed to be with a man. Therefore, it is not good for a man to be alone.
Phillips also speaks to the role given to Eve as helper. This is important and I will quote Phillips at length:
"There is also an important point to be seen in God's use of the work helper. A wife is indeed the best possible companion for a man, but God did not call Eve a 'companion' to Adam because that would suggest the primary purpose of mankind on this earth is fellowship and relational fulfillment. In the same way, a wife is clearly and uniquely designed to be a mate to man, but God did not call Eve a 'mate' to Adam because that would suggest our primary purpose is procreation and sexual pleasure. God said Adam needed a 'helper' because it places the primary emphasis on the shared mandate to work and keep God's creation under the man's leadership. A wife is called to help her husband in this grand, glorious task in a myriad of ways - by enjoying fellowship and relational fulfillment as his companion, by enjoying sexual pleasure and bearing children as his mate, and on and on. But it all comes under the heading of 'helping', which is essentially about the working and keeping of God's creation. In this book I will use many words to refer to a wife's relationship to her husband, depending on the context. None of these, however, contradict or replace her primary relationship as helper" (p.58).
Phillips takes a moment to address single men and say, "The best thing that a young Christian man can do... is to marry a godly woman" (p.59).
The chapter concludes with a discussion on the nature of the husband and wife relationship as oneness while the husband and wife are different from each other in design, personality, etc. The wife is "fit" for the husband like a puzzle piece. A man is made for a wife and a woman is made for a husband. Their unity and oneness propels both of them to greater and greater holiness as they carry out the mandate. Men and women are different, however, and that contributes to the wonder and the challenge of marriage. Marriage requires sacrifice, understanding, care... All of these things require a man to lay down his life. Phillips says, "God intends for a man's love to his wife to be costly. Simply put, it is not easy for a man to love his wife, and God does not intend it to be easy. If it were easy, it wouldn't be valuable. Instead, God desires us as husbands to love our wives who we don't fully understand, who thing and feel differently than we do, and who require a love that involves sacrifice on our part. One of God's chief purposes in our lives as men is to teach us to love as He loves. His complementary design in marriage is intended to promote that God-like agape love in us" (p.63).
Marriage is the primary context for man to carry out his mandate. Marriage is designed that way. Phillips closes by saying, "the chief end of marriage is that a man and woman should know and glorify God together through their lives, and most particularly through their godly love for one another" (p.65).
The sin and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, has cursed the world and the marriage relationship. Men and women have sinful tendancies that drive a wedge between themselves, God and eachother. But God's plan all along was for redemption of relationships through the work of His Son, Jesus Christ. The transforming grace, power and example that Christ gives to us will restore the husband and wife relationship.
Quotes from the chapter:
Even among Christians, the curse of God on men and women, and thus on marriage, is reflected in much bitterness, pain, and sin - and all of this from the institution that God gave for our blessing (p.67).
But for those who need a glimmer of hope to sustain them through the next few pages, know that by the end of this chapter we will have identified and celebrated the solution to the problem that began in Genesis 3 (p.69).
Only through the twin graces of forgiveness and repentance can Christians regain much of what was lost in sin, so that the unity God intends for marriage may be restored in significant degree (p.70).
What a fine little mess sin made. Its power to do so being no less today, sin continues to sunder lives and marriages. Like Adam, men today find it easier to criticize and accuse our wives than to confess our sin. For some men, the conflict with their wives undermines their relationship with God. For others, their lack of a relationship with God leaves them unable to love their wives sacrificially (p.70).
Putting these two uses of the word [desire] together, we see that God has placed a curse on the woman so that she is gripped by an unwholesome desire to possess and control her man (p.71).
This [Adam's sin] should remind us that the primary threat to the safety of our loved ones is always our own sin (p.72).
God's curse on the man draws him unwholesomely away from the woman, even as God's curse on the woman draws her unwholesomely toward the man... God has cursed the marriage relationship with a poisonous desire for control by the woman and a self-absorbed focus outside the relationship by the man" (p.73).
But from the beginning, God had plans for our redemption, so even His curses are designed with redemption in view (p.73).
God's curses on the relationship were the poison for which God alone was the antidote... The struggles that men and women experience in marriage are intended by God to drive us to our knees and to our Bibles, that we would restore God to the center of our lives (p.74).
But now, forgiven and sanctified by God in Christ, a Christian man is able to have compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience toward his wife (and vice versa) (p.76).
As I said in the previous chapter, knowing makes all the difference. It helps greatly to know what has gone wrong with mankind, and with men and women in particular. But it helps much more to know the grace that God has for us through faith in Jesus, the Lamb who takes away our sin. God wants us to know His worth as the Giver, so that he is at the center of all our worship and life. When we return to Him through faith in Christ and place Him at the center of our lives and marriages, God has abundant grace for us to give to others as God has given to us (p.77).
The Masculine Mandate to "work and keep" is carried out first and foremost by a man to his wife and family when he is married. As the last chapter explained, men, women and the marriage relationship are corrupted at the core by sin. God redeems all things through the gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ, including marriage. Through the redeeming and transforming grace of the gospel a man is restored to pursue the fulfillment of his mandate in his relationship with his wife. For a man to "work" in his relationship with his wife, he is actively cultivating, nurturing, cherishing, and understanding her. "As we gain insight about our wives through our shared lives together and our attentive and cherishing interest in the affairs of their hearts, we must nourish our wives with God's Word, and with our own encouraging and up-building words informed by Scripture. This is the essential 'to work' teaching of Peter and Paul to husbands" (p.87). The role of a husband to "keep" his wife is essentially his role as "guardian protector to ensure she is safe". Truly, one of the greatest threats to a man's wife is his own sinful self. As a man lives in repentance and faith as he walks with the Lord Jesus Christ, he is prepared to love his wife. Phillips refers to the story of Boaz and Ruth to illustrate the nurturing and protecting work of a man to his bride. Phillips says, "It is not too much to understand Ruth as saying here to Boaz, 'You are like Christ to me'. Not 'you are Christ to me', but 'you are like Christ'. This is precisely how a wife should relate to her husband: 'For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior' (Eph. 5:23). She is to see her husband as a man who sacrifices himself so that she may live - so that her heart may be kept safe and flourish with grace under his loving care. A wife is the garden a godly husband 'works and keeps', and her growth in spiritual beauty should be among his chief delights" (p.90).
The Masculine Mandate is true for every father with his children. The idea of "working and keeping" our children can be understood in terms of nurturing and protecting. Phillips says, "In fact, according to the Bible, the two main obligations of fatherhood are to nurture (work) and protect (keep). A man is called to work the hearts of his children that they might become fertile soil for the gospel and devotion to Christ. And a man s called to keep and protect his children from the influences of sin - in the world and in their own hearts - so that all the efforts to draw that young person's heart to Christ may not be swept away" (p.94). Phillips asserts that the essential working and keeping of a father can all be directed toward one aim captured in one verse from Proverbs 23:26, "My son, give me your heart". Rather than focus on mere behavior management, the father pursues the heart of the child through working and keeping. In order to do this the father must model the giving of his own heart to his family. Phillips then provides a simple four-part action plan for pursuing the heart of a child. It is, "read, pray, work, play". Phillips says, "This is my simple agenda to ensure I am actively and intimately involved in the lives of my children: Read, Pray, Work, Play. I must read God's Word to and with my children regularly. We must bear each others' burdens in prayer and worship the Lord together at His throne of grace. My children need my positive, encouraging involvement in their work (and they need an invitation into some of mine). And we need to bind our hearts with laughter and joy in shared play, both one-on-one and as a complete family. This all requires time, for time is the currency with which I purchase the right to say, 'My son, my daughter, give me your heart'" (p.103).
Phillips begins the chapter by looking at King David's sons. What may come as a surprise about the "man after God's own heart" was that his sons were not godly men. What could have been the reason for this? Phillips points to 1 Kings 1:6 that says, "his father had never at any time displeased him by asking, 'Why have you done thus and so?'". David failed to discipline his sons. The call to "keep" is the call to the father to protect his children through discipline. Discipline protects the child from the threat of their own sin and the threat of a sinful world. A father exercises discipline through two primary means: physical reproof and verbal reproof. The father maintains a clear focus on the care and growth of the child as he exercises discipline. As Ephesians says, the father is not to provoke his children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. The father and mother's authority is grounded not in physical superiority but in divine command (Eph.6:1). The father's call to "keep" his children is carried out "through the loving discipline that preserves them from harm" (p.109).
Men must live out their mandate in friendship with other men. It is one of the critical marks of godliness in a man. One of the best pictures of a godly man in friendship is portrayed well by Jonathan's friendship to David. The essence of his friendship is captured in 1 Sam. 23:16, which says, "Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh, and strengthened his hand in God". David is in trouble so Gonathan goes to him in his time of need. He makes a personal sacrifice, seeks to understand David's situation and strengthens David's faith in the Lord. Our most important role as men in friendship is to sacrificially serve our friends in order to strengthen their faith.
Quotes from the chapter:
One mark of a true godly man is his faithfulness in friendship to other men, especially to Christian brothers (p.122).
It is worth noting that this man [Jonathan] who is considered the greatest of friends was also a man of vibrant faith and purity of heart (p.123).
A friend who is not willing, and even eager, to sacrifice time, labor, and hardship is not worthy of being called a friend at all (p.125).
What friend will come alongside, seeking to understand and to minister out of that understanding? Jonathan knew how great is the gift of companionship to a struggling friend (p.125).
Jonathan came and strengthened the grip of David's faith and hope in the Lord (p.126).
Quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together, "The Christian needs another Christian who speaks God's Word to him. He needs him again and again when he becomes uncertain and discouraged... He needs his brother man as a bearer and proclaimer of the divine word of salvation... And that also clarifies the goal of all Christian community: they meet one another as bringers of the message of salvation" (p.127).
The Masculine Mandate in the church is like the work of Nehemiah to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. With a "sword" in one hand and a "trowel" in the other, men are called to build and protect the church. This is synonymous with the mandate to work and keep. It is important to understand that God designed the church to be lead by men. This is a clear teaching of Scripture. Churches led by strong, godly men are places where women and children can thrive in the Lord. Men are called in every way to work and keep within the church so that all its members are growing in godliness, with a focus on the future day when the bride will be presented to the Lord in purity, holiness and maturity. Phillips calls godly men to focus on the building and protecting of two things in the church: practice and doctrine. Building and protecting church practice is to promote godliness in all activities and to keep out the corrupting effects of sin and the world. Building and protecting church doctrine is the very serious calling to guard and proclaim the truth of God's word through all generations.
Quotes from the chapter:
Within the church, men are called to work and keep in service to God (p.131).
[On male leadership] But the positions of authority - the roles of teaching and ruling - are restricted to men. To become convinced of the truth and authority of Scripture, and then to read the plain words of the New Testament, is to come to this conclusion easily and naturally (p.132).
To the degree that men fail to assume these roles gladly and exercise them diligently, we end up with feminized churches that can quickly become fruitless and unsound because they are not being led as God intended (p.133).
The calling of Christian men to work in the church includes the ideas of building and strengthening the body of believers. This is the first aspect of the Masculine Mandate, the calling to work (p.135).
What is the one thing all these ministers have in common? Their labor focuses on the communication of God's Word (p.136).
Through His Word, Christ provides all that His people need. Faithful preaching and teaching of the mighty, holy, and lifegiving Word of God equip the saints for the work of ministry and build up the church (p.137).
[Know the Word] So it is the Word of God - by the grace of God taught, heard, understood, and applied - that accomplishes all progress within the church. From this, one conclusion is abundantly clear: any Christian man who wants to serve the Lord, in any role and at any level, must begin by devoting himself to God's Word. A man who is weak int he Word of God will be of little use for service, for we cannot truly serve God effectively in our own knowledge and strength. But God's Word stirs up in us the faith and spiritual strength needed to serve Him (p.137).
[The second part of the Masculine Mandate, to keep] We are not only to labor for the growth and health of the church, but we are to stand watch for the safekeeping of the church and its people. Like Nehemiah's builders, some working and some guarding, and like Adam in the garden, called to wield both the gardner's trowel and the warrior's sword, Christian men are called to safeguard the church even as we are laboring to build it up (p.139).
Doctrine must take precedence above all matters of aesthetics or personal preferences (p.140).
In the final chapter, Phillips focuses on one passage of Scripture and a simple concept. In light of the certainty of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, we ought to live to serve Him above all other things - to be His disciple and make other disciples. The verse in focus in this chapter is John 3:27,29-30. It is John the Baptist saying, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given to him from heaven... The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease". Phillips describes this as the model of service to Christ. It includes three things: a key principle, a joyful attitude, and a humble resolution.
The key principle is found in John's statement, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven". A key principle of service to Christ is embracing that everything anyone has is a gift meant to be employed faithfully and without envy or pride. My "lot" in life is to the exact measure that the Lord has determined. I am called to use it all to the very fullest for His glory. This ought to encourage us to celebrate others' success in ministry and pray for others. "What has the Lord decided for you to do?" asks Phillips. Do it with all your heart.
The key attitude is joy. John says, "Therefore this joy of mine is now complete". John is the "friend of the bridegroom" in that he rejoices to see the marriage fulfilled. The joy of serving Christ with your life is the primary emotion every Christian must experience. And it comes from the privilege of performing our service to the Lord. Serving Christ brings great joy.
Humility is the key resolution. John says, "He must increase, but I must decrease". The Christian is resolved to make little of himself as he makes the most that he can of Christ. Seeing and savoring the glory of Christ produces humility in us as we see Him increase. Sin is self-exaltation. Humility is Christ-exaltation. Jesus Christ Himself is the ultimate picture of humility.
Phillips closes with an encouraging picture of humble service in the character of Mary, Jesus' mother. She humbly and joyfully embraced the plan that God had for her to carry the Savior of the world. Every Christian man is called to work and keep with all their heart and strength to serve the Lord in their little garden that God has providentially placed them in.
Quotes from the chapter:
I believe fruitfulness in ministry requires a long-term commitment to people and place (p.143).
Many people, I realize, live and work with their eyes on retirement. Everything is thus measured by its contribution to the IRA or another retirement fund. But I believe a Christian man should live, work, and play with an eye on the coming glory of Jesus Christ. His return in glory is not fable, a fantasy, or science fiction. It is certain future history - it is going to happen, and relatively soon. How should we then live? How should we measure things happening in our lives? The answer is that we should live now in the light of the future that is certain to come... With this in mind, it does not matter whether I am successful as we measure things in this world. It does not matter if the world embraces or despises me. It does not matter if I abound or am abased. What matters is that I be found faithful and hear those words from Jesus Christ, my Savior and Master, the Lord who is coming again to reign forever (p.144).
[A key principle] John's point was that men must content themselves with the place and provision the sovereign God gives them, seeking only to be faithful to one's particular calling (p.147).
[A joyful attitude] His [John's] joy came not from being seen, but from the privilege of performing his service...(p.150).
[A humble resolution] In the same way, Christians who are useful and make a difference in this world are resolved to make little of themselves so that Christ will be exalted, believed, and followed (p.151).
Humility is a glorious grace that is a key to true greatness (p.152).