What makes a man? Is it his age, his job, the car he drives, his style? These are the things that the media and our society tells us make a man. However, I know kids who have neither a car nor a job and wear t-shirts depicting cartoon characters on them that are more mature than most “men” in today’s world. This brings up another question. When does a boy mature into a man? Is it after he hits puberty? Or is it after he settles down with a woman and learns the rules of being a man? Personally I think it’s neither, but some may disagree. Some may further disagree when I say that you will not become a man until you have completely given all of yourself up to the one true man: Jesus Christ.
Pride keeps the youth from maturing into men. This is the problem with man. C.S. Lewis calls pride “the Great Sin” and he is completely right. Pride not only destroys oneself, but slowly destroys this world one life at a time. Pride keeps the greedy men in their high position without batting an eye at the poor. Pride makes a man leave his wife, whom he’s committed his life to “until death”, because he does not want to put in the effort of trying to right his wrongs and be uncomfortable for even a moment. Pride stunts our growth as believers. In order to live we must die. Paul helps us understand this paradox when he says, “For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body.” (2 Corinthians 4:11)
In order to let God break your pride and help you become mature you must kill off every thought, every desire, everyTHING that is of yourself. This is not an easy task, however. Since birth we have been rooted with pride, so to let Jesus uproot this from us is like having a teacher tell us that everything we knew about mathematics has changed and we must relearn all the formulas. We must allow Jesus to help us unlearn everything we once knew in order to learn his ways.
This is where the youth are separated from the “men”. Most men get all the way up to the point where it gets hard and quit because things get uncormfortable or they grow weak. However, men who have given their lives over to Jesus reach those hard spots in life and push on because they know that “blessed is the man who perseveres under trial…he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love Him.” (James 1:12)
Paul tells Timothy to “Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called…” (1 Timothy 6:12) This verse brings up my last point. Youth only focus on what will affect their emotions that day, but men make decisions based on their eternity. “How will this choice look when I am set before the Throne of Judgement? How will this action bring glory to God?” We must fix our eyes on what is unseen for what “is unseen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18)
I wish this were true among all men; that we could all fix our eyes on the glory of God and help bring his Kingdom to Earth. If we allowed Jesus to break down the walls of pride in our lives then all doors would be opened up. The rich would help the poor, marriages would last, love would spread like wildfire throughout the world. Start praying now and letting Jesus work in your heart. Go out today and do a kind act for someone. Make amends with the ones that you love. Love everyone. It may be uncomfortable at first, but in order to crush the self-conceit in our lives we must first raise our foot.
“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set and example for believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.” (1 Timothy 4:12) If you are young, don’t let anything stop you. Neither age nor position make a man; faith does. The more mature you are in your faith in Jesus Christ, the more of a man you truly are. Being a child of God does not mean we are naive or infantile. On the contrary, it means we are becoming fully developed. “In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.” (1 Corinthians 14:20)
Word to the Word 