There is a phrase in the King James Version translation of 1 Corinthians 16:13 that has always intrigued me, "quit you like men". Maybe a part of the intrigue is tied up in not entirely understanding what the phrase meant. I find the New American Standard's translation so much more clear, "act like men". That is one charge the men in America need to hear. But then, who is clear on what it means to be a man, a man of God?

I remember as Andi and I were rearing our boys (now men, 23 and 20), we frequently pounded in that notion, "the man of God is not a striker". For obvious reasons, we had need of that verse a lot as the boys grew up. Striking was regular fair. I think we derived that challenge from Titus 1:7 and the King James Version's take on the qualifications for the office of pastor. While we pushed hard on anti-striking, we could have filled out the rest of the profile of the man of God with more proportion. The striking part just seemed so relevant as they grew up.

What is striking is the influence a man of God can have over his home, work and community. In many families, I have noticed that there is more spiritual fervor in women than in men. While I applaud and welcome godly aspirations in a wife and mother's heart, an influence pattern I have observed (especially in the shadow casted in a son's life) is that an ounce of the husband/father's godliness seems multiplied in influence to that of a gallon of godly aspiration in the wife/mother. Now this is not some raw sexist comment as much as it an observation I have made about what seemed to be even the negation of a godly mother's influence in the home in the face of the ungodly role model of a father.

There are certainly always exceptions. I have seen some incredible single mothers and of course, the prophet Daniel and his three friends did not do bad surrounded by pagan and ungodly influences in the courts of ancient Chaldea. And they were all by themselves as young adolescent boys. God sets apart the godly for himself. But the argument of this paragraph is for the indispensible place a godly man has to play in his home. We need godly men.

This past week I spoke to man who worked through a really tough experience with a family member he loves. In the midst of working through the carnage that a "professing follower of Jesus"-male had wrought upon his victim, a counselor (a dear godly women) grabbed a hold of my friend and asked something like, "Where are the men? Where are they? How come a male can get away with this in the church? Where are the guys standing up to this man and saying, 'No, this is not the way to live. You cannot do this to women. This is not acceptable and you must change.'?"

Is that the kind of culture of expectation we are cultivating in our churches? Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Iron sharpens iron, as the scripture asserts. Too often we hold out little expectation for godliness, when it is our collective hunger together for righteousness that is a big part of maintaining our resolve to go on in the Jesus' way of life. In my weakness, it is both the power of Christ and the holy expectation of my brothers and sisters that goads me on to faithfulness to Christ. I am not advocating heavy handed moral policing as much as brotherly expectation articulated and expected and applied. We need it from each other. The church that is alive and captive to righteousness has it. We know better and expect it of each other. There is too much at stake not to stimulate each other onto love and good works and holy living. Like never before it is a time for husbands and fathers to "act like men". Men are loyal to their wives and clearly one-woman men. Men are faithful to their promises and commitments. Men lay down their lives for their wives. Men are pure and shun all sexual indulgence outside of marriage, physical and mental. Men take up the honor of their wives and affirm them and protect them. Men take up the duties of fathering creatively and with joy. Men don't let other males jack around in sin and indulgence without calling it what it is and levying a healthy expectation for repentance. Men it is time...time to rise up and "act like men".