Love as Jesus Loved

I remember as a young teenager growing up how frustrated and angry I’d get at my single Mom when she would condemn or oppose my directed tendencies to do things in a very man-like manner.  Obviously testosterone had something to do with it as I was moving through puberty.  But I distinctly remember occasions where the rub was that I was being a guy and not doing something as a girl would.  I can’t blame my Mom for this.  She was married with a guy who left her for someone else while she had a one year old, two year old and a six year old at home.  No matter who I ask, no matter what the reason is said to have been, I can find no excuse worthy enough to do such a thing.  The simple fact is my Dad was irresponsible and didn’t want to a) be the man God intended him to be at that time and b) be that responsible at that time in his life.  He had made decisions he didn’t have the manhood to stand up too.  So who can blame my Mom for having a strong dislike or even a hate for having to put her whole life on hold to raise kids while the Dad runs off.

I am aware of another lady here in town through a friend, who is gay.  When I asked why, the friend told me that her husband had beat her so often and so severely that when she was able to get away (thankfully before she was killed) she didn’t want anything to do with another man.  I have to admit, no matter what I think about the aspect of being gay, that I have little support in me to tell her to trust another man.  My male friend is working on it though and has made progress, even getting her to see his belief in Jesus and have brief discussions about it.

My point, however, is to discuss my observance with the obvious attack on all things male.  Men are under attack by our society.  This is incredibly dangerous to our young men who are trying to discover who they are and where they fit in society.  As a Father of young males, I am very concerned about this aspect for them.  But for some reason, our society has a problem with testosterone, unless it is required to defend them in war or entertain them on a football field.  Yet, our Savior came to this physical world as a man.  People don’t seem to oppose that, but that’s because He was Jesus, the son of the one and only living God.

People tend to see aggression as the problem.  If they could just take away that inner explosion from a man the man would be a nice kind lovable person.  I say, if men didn’t have that, no one would like them.  Jesus had this same aggression and it became evident at times.  He ran the businesses out of the Temple (physical confrontation), He verbally assaulted the religious leaders almost every time He spoke to them (verbal confrontation),  He spoke directly to many regarding the kind of person they were (spiritual confrontation), and He would condemn His own disciples when their faith was not correct (family confrontation).  This is very aggressive.  It is incredibly difficult to be confrontive.  No one accepts this well and it takes big shoulders and a lot of confidence to stand in the face of people who reject your point-of-view and even make fun of you for it. 

Men need to learn to be responsible and secure for everyone who trusts in them.  They should use their natural aggression to protect, teach, and confront those either outside of their family who attack them or those in the family who knowingly do wrong.  However, as important as that might be, men must love as Jesus loved, with an intentional inner explosion of aggressive love.  This should be a fierce love for all to see.  If men were more like this, society would not be in this attack on men.