Show Yourself a Man

The Winter 2005 edition of The Tie, the official magazine of Southern Seminary, tackles the all to important issue of Biblical manhood. In our present time issues surrounding gender are hotly debated and highly confused. As more people, dissatisfied with a binary gender, try to develop "different gender options" we are in a desperate need to have a clear and Biblical presentation of what it means to be a man.

The January 30th edition of Newsweek detailed the concerns that many have over the current status of young men. The issue's cover story, titled "The Boy Crisis," delineates the high rate of failure boys are experiencing in school. The reason for this, the article suggests, may have a great deal more to do with fatherly involvement and education than with merely adolescent nature. In The Tie, for this semester, President Al Mohler has crafted a brilliant article on the acheivement of manhood. "When Does a Boy Become a Man?" presents 13 marks of Biblical manhood that fathers should be educating and training their sons in. I list them below:

1) Spiritual Maturity Sufficient to Lead a Wife and Children
2) Personal Maturity Sufficient to be a Responsible Husband and Father
3) Economic Maturity Sufficient to Hold an Adult Job and Handle Money
4) Physical Maturity Sufficent to Work and Protect a Family
5) Sexual Maturity Sufficient to Marry and Fulfill God's Purposes
6) Moral Maturity Sufficient to Lead as Example of Rightouesness
7) Ethical Maturity Sufficient to Make Responsible Decisions
8) Worldview Maturity Sufficient to Understand What is Really Important
9) Relational Maturity Sufficient to Understand and Respect Others
10) Social Maturity Sufficient to Make a Contribution to Society
11) Verbal Maturity Sufficient to Communicate and Articulate as a Man
12) Character Maturity Sufficeint to Demonstrate Courage Under Fire
13) Biblical Maturity Sufficient to Lead at Some Level in the Church

In one bold faced quote the article says, " When does a boy become a man? The answer to this must go far beyond biology and chonological age. As defined in the bible, manhood is a functional reality, demonstrated in a man's fulfillment of responsibility and leadership."

You can request a free subscription to The Tie online at: www.sbts.edu/resources/publications/magazine.php