A Man’s Truth
AO: 3rd F
When: 08/04/2023
QIC: El Matador
PAX (3): Clickbait, Turbine
The Thang:
“Have you ever given serious thought to the consequences of believing what is false about the way the world really works?”
Through the first 4 chapters, we’ve talked a lot about false perceptions of manhood. Chasing the wrong dreams, loving the wrong stuff, then getting to the end of it all and finding out that we “climbed the wrong mountain.” So now we have finally started focusing on who and what a man should really pursue!
The author told us that he believes the answer is found in Romans 8:29 of the bible. If someone hasn’t read the book of Romans yet, there’s a ton of important info before chapter 8 that I would be happy to discuss anytime. But this verse says that God’s ultimate goal for us is to be “conformed to the image of Christ.” In other words, God’s goal for men is that we become like Jesus! So we see it’s less about what we have achieved and more about what type of man we have become.
Our discussion at this point caused us to ask the question, “do I believe this, is it really real?” My view on this is that not only is the bible true, but it is THE truth. So yes, I believe this is true! But does my life reflect it? Do my pursuits show that to be true?
Some might not say that Christlikeness is manly. But if you ask me, Jesus was way more of a man than any example I can think of! He didn’t cave into pressure, He was not scared to stand up for truth, and didn’t seek to please people just because of who they were. He never sacrificed character for success or wealth, and He laid down His own life for others.
The application may be obvious here – how do we emulate that? Sounds great, but Christlike character is not easy in this world. We just barely began to investigate this topic, and I look forward to understanding it further. But for now, we discussed that wisdom is essential. Also the quality of our relationships are a big factor. The chapter ended with “if you seek Him, He will let you find Him.”