THAT is the world's definition of a man, not God's - God's definition of man is Jesus Christ. (What a Powerful Name!)
Jesus typifies God's standard and expectation of mankind - both male and female.
He was thoughtful, kind and gentle.
He played with children, had time for men AND women.
He chose to be honest, transparent and true - a man of integrity.
And when righteous judgement was required, he was firm and passionately decisive in his words and action. Yet, he was moved by deep feelings of compassion such that he wept openly more than once in the scriptures.
In all this, we should not forget to put into consideration the kind of society in which he functioned at the time:
A society where the example of a man was either the distant, hypocritically religious Pharisee or the cold, hard, bullying Ceaser/Roman soldier. Both demanded absolute subservience.
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Jesus, however, did not try to conform.
He came to set the standard- the highest standard of humanity.
His authority, was approachably intimate, selflessly pure, firm but kind.
It was true power (An act of a Real Man).
He redefined Authority as the liberating confidence to serve.
This definition of a Man in turn, allowed submission to be what it should be - An informed choice borne out of love and trust.
Because, where the Spirit of God is, there is (true) liberty
For all.
John 11:35, Luke 22:25
Conclusively, the message should not be lost in these few paragraphs of mine, we definitely acknowledge the fact that a man has to be strong and all but most importantly, A Man is a real man when he portrays that his action are Christ Like. The Holy Bible gives the perspective of Man - "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness....." (Gen. 1:26 - KJV), which makes it a necessity that a Man is known to be a Man when in all his endeavours and behaviours, he/she must first consider asking this very important question -
After attempting to answer that question and evaluating your actions, and it matches that of Christ then you can proudly say that You are a Real Man.
