We live at a time when a Supreme Court Justice either cannot or will not define what a woman is.

We also live at a time when men, especially white men, are vilified simply based on being men.

We also live at a time when it’s okay for a man to pretend he is a woman so he can compete in women’s sports.

Not long ago, all three of the above examples would be considered ridiculous.

Although the examples are from the culture and the liberal churches that support such nonsense, conservative evangelical churches have also lost what it means to be a Christian man.

Far too often, a feminized spirituality supported by egalitarianism dominates many evangelical churches. Egalitarianism in a church context means that there is little to no difference in gender roles in the church and that women can serve as pastors or elders. 

Richard D. Phillips, the author of The Masculine Mandate, notes we are losing the ideal of strong, confident Christian manhood (pg. xv) and that the purpose of the book is to provide straight, clear, and pointed teaching on what the Bible says to men as men (pg. xvi).

The book is organized into two major parts.

Part One is Understanding the Mandate, which lays the foundation for Part Two: Living Our Mandate.

The five chapter headings in Part One are:

1. Man in the Garden
2. The Masculine Mandate
3. Man’s Sacred Calling to Work
4. Man as the Image of God
5. Man as Shepherd-Lord

When I led a group of men through the book, we all realized that the five chapters were a clarion call for men to grow up and take their calling seriously. Each chapter goes back to the Bible to make the point. For those men who take the Bible seriously, the mandate to work and work hard is how men grow up and become responsible before the Lord.

Two significant principles are explained and applied in the first five chapters. They are Work: To Cultivate As A Gardener and Keep: to Protect As A Sword Bearer.

To cultivate as a gardener means to work in whatever field God has given us (pg. 17 investing our time, energies, ideas, and passions in bringing good things into being (pg.18.)

For married men, this applies to supporting a family with the motivation to glorify God in all we do.

To keep means to guard or protect. This means we are to watch over and keep safe all that the Lord has put under our care (pg. 20).

Part Two: Living Our Mandate is an application organized into eight more chapters.

6. God’s Astonishing Design For Marriage
7. Marriage Cursed and Redeemed
8. Marriage and Masculine Mandate
9. To Work: The Discipling of Children
10. To Keep: The Discipline of Children
11. Men in Friendship
12. The Masculine Mandate in the Church
13. Servants of the Lord

Questions for discussion and reflection follow each chapter in both parts. In the group I led, the questions provided resulted in a lot of discussion that functioned as training in real life training as applied to marriage and parenting.

As a certified biblical counselor, I encouraged the men to practice what they were learning immediately. For the married men, I said they should be talking the chapters over with their wives. The reason is that just as we are losing the vision of what it means to be a Christian man, we are also losing the vision of what it means to be a Christian woman.

At our church, we use The Masculine Mandate as one of our most basic books for discipleship. The book serves as a Scriptural model for being a Christian man, husband, and father. The dozen or so men I led through the book were enthusiastic about what was being taught because they believed it’s exactly what Scripture teaches about being A Christian man, husband, and father.

The book is by Richard D. Philips, who is a pastor. It was copyrighted in 2010 and published by Reformation Trust Publishing, a Division of Ligonier Ministries.

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