I got to thinking, this is a men’s group. Maybe we should discuss what it means to be a man in God’s eyes.
Genesis 1:26 – ESV
26. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
So what does it mean to be created in Gods image?
We could speak on this verse for three weeks alone, but I just wanna point out a few things quickly. Look at the first line us/our/our – three times he uses a plural pronoun. Is this in accordance with the holy trinity God/Jesus/Holy Spirit?
(The Bible is just filled with correlations between the words used and deeper meaning. I love them and will point them out from time to time.)
Right after this line got a immediately says, and we have dominion over the fish and birds and animals. Why does he immediately go from our image to dominion over the animals?
He is stating that man is different from every other creature that has been created. There’s an unbridgeable gap between a human being and other animals. Just like God’s image has an unbridgeable gap between us and him. We have a personality, a thirst for the divine, a conscience, and a soul. No other animal has this.
What are some things a Christian man, or a man created in God’s image must do for himself and his family?
For this question, don’t think of a verse, just answer for yourself. Just give me some one-word answers of what a Christian man, created in God image, must do for his family.
-Provide
-Protect
-Teach
-Example
-Be a father
-Love wife
-Spiritual leader
-Honor
-Wise
-Share the Lord
PROVIDE:
2 Timothy 2:15 – ESV
15. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
1 Timothy 5:8 – ESV
8. But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
Colossians 3:23 – ESV
23. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,
PROTECT:
1 Peter 3:7 – ESV
7. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
Nehemiah 4:14 – ESV
14. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
1 Corinthians 16:13-14 – ESV
13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done in love.
Luke 10:19 – ESV
19. Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you.
Jeremiah 20:11
TEACH:
2 Timothy 4:2-5 – ESV
2. preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4. and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. 5. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
Titus 2:1-2 – ESV
1. But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. 2. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness.
Ephesians 4:13-15 – ESV
13. until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14. so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
EXAMPLE:
Psalm 37:23
The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way;
Psalms 112:1-3 – ESV
1. Praise the Lord ! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who greatly delights in his commandments! 2. His offspring will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed. 3. Wealth and riches are in his house, and his righteousness endures forever.
1 Timothy 3:2-5 – ESV
2. Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3. not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5. for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?
BE A FATHER:
Proverbs 22:6 – ESV
6. Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Ephesians 6:4 – ESV
4. Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Proverbs 23:13-14 – ESV
13. Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. 14. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol.
LOVE YOUR WIFE:
Genesis 2:21-24 – ESV
21. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Ephesians 5:25 – ESV
25. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
1 Peter 3:7 – ESV
7. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
SPIRITUAL LEADER:
1 Corinthians 11:3 – ESV
3. But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.
Joshua 24:15 – ESV
15. And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord .”
1 Corinthians 11:1 – ESV
1. Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
HONOR:
1 Timothy 6:11 – NIV
11. But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
Micah 6:8 – ESV
8. He has shown you, O man of God, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
James 5:12 – ESV
12. But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
WISE:
1 Corinthians 13:11 – NIV
11. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
James 1:5 – ESV
5. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
Proverbs 27:17
17 Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another.
SHARE THE LORD:
Acts 1:8 – ESV
8. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Mark 16:15 – ESV
15. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.
Isaiah 6:8 – ESV
8. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
And last…
1 Timothy 6:10-12 – ESV
10. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. 11. But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
Who is this last verse directed to?
Yes, it is directed to Timothy, but it is also directed to everyone of you in this room. Verse 11 “but as for you, oh man of God…“
It says to stay away from the love of money. You could also say your hobbies, your toys, the things that could take your focus from God and from your family. It doesn’t mean these are bad things, it says stay away from “the love“ of these things.
That’s what I have for this week. Have a great summer. Do your devotions daily!