There's kind of a war on masculinity, and it's on two fronts. The first front is probably the one

that we're most poised to talk about today, which is that modern culture often frames all forms

of masculinity as toxic. If you try to talk about masculinity today, there are places where

immediately to try to be a man, to try to be masculine, that's oppressive. So to your point, kind of the title, the result is that men,

unknowingly with this God-ordained assignment of being men, they feel confused, ashamed,

afraid to express basic God-given masculine traits. And this leaves them stuck disconnected

from the calling that God has on them. But there's also another form that is an attack on

masculinity. It's what I would call the romanizing of masculinity, masculinity, the hyper-ind individualistic masculinity. This is the John Wayne,

pick yourself up by your bootstraps. Don't ruin what I was going to talk about. Conquer the world

version, the autonomous self-made, emotionally detached, conquest-driven man.

This is also a toxic distortion.

It's strength without compassion.

It's independence without community.

It's leadership without sacrifices.

We need to reject both of these extremes.

Biblical masculinity is neither passive nor performative.

It is shaped by Christ. And first and foremost, the foundation of biblical masculinity is knowing Christ.

You cannot, men, listen to this. You cannot become biblically masculine

without first becoming a godly man. Masculinity is not primarily about personality traits or

cultural scripts. It's about Christ likeness. And the starting line for biblical masculinity is surrendering your

life to Jesus.

John Wayne.

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