Christian Man Laws

By Adrian Despres

Too many are watching this game called Christianity from the sidelines. Too many are sitting at home, on the couch, with a big bag of chips on our bellies and the remote in our hands. Walking every day with Jesus is HARD. No question about it. It's so much more than doing the typical Sunday morning thing and then you're done. So much more.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Forge: Kingdom Building Ministries
• Release date: Feb 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9798985412642

Adrian Despres

Adrian Despres serves as a vice-president and itinerant speaker with Forge. For 17 years, Adrian also served as Chaplain for the University of South Carolina's football team. Adrian's passion to see spiritually lost people saved and Christians called into a life of laboring for God continues to propel his ministry that reaches hundreds of thousands of people each year and has brought tens of thousands into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Adrian lives in Columbia, South Carolina, with his wife, Lisa.Along with being proud grandparents, they have four adult children: Rachel, Branson (Harlan), Kaitlyn, and Benjamin.Learn more about Adrian at www.adriandespres.com

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Introduction

Man Up!

Jerome Bettis, Burt Reynolds, and seven other men are seated around a large square table. The younger men obviously fail to command the same presence as their counterparts.

Men of the square table, is it cool for men to put a lime wedge in their beer? one of the younger men drawls as he holds up a lime. His other younger friends nod in approval.

Who knows what they’ll put in our beer next? another man asks. Banana slices? Kumquats? Where does it end?

I’ll tell you where it ends. Right here! a professional wrestler shouts as he pounds the table. No fruit in beer.

Don’t fruit the beer, an elderly man articulates as he inscribes his words into an oversized, dusty old book.

Man law? the wrestler asks.

Man law! the rest of the group responds in agreement.

I hate it that beer commercials are so good.

Christian Man Laws

Then it hit me! Christian men need a book of man laws to live by. Laws tailored specifically for men.

I’m sick and tired of men who are sissies for Christ. Men, society has feminized us. We have allowed our masculinity to be taken from us, and we have no one to blame but ourselves. We’re not tough enough.

Walking every day with Jesus is HARD. No question about it. It’s so much more than doing the typical Sunday morning thing and then you’re done. So much more.

Instead of focusing on the negative, let’s look at it from a positive perspective. Let’s turn the tables and be men. Tough. Let’s actually risk—R-I-S-K—our lives for Christ.

As men, the key to growing intimate with the Lord is to take risks that require us to MAN UP for the cause of Christ. And once we step out, we’ll discover that God gives us the power to live for Him.

What do I mean by risk? Risking your reputation, your pride. Sharing your faith. Obeying God’s Word. Laying down your life. The risk may not be as great as sharing your faith in the Middle East, but it’s still a sacrifice.

Jesus promised that his followers would be persecuted (John 15:20). Second Timothy 3:12 tells us, Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Now that’s a man’s man. So if we’re not being persecuted, we’re probably not living manly lives.

Men, it’s time to man up.

Women have become the leaders in the church. I’m not saying this is wrong, but I think they’re crying out for us to be leaders as well.

God has created and called us to be men. We need to be men for Him.

It’s Time to Stand Up!

The purpose of this book is to spur men toward love and good deeds (Hebrews 10:24). To call men who will stand up and be counted.

We have given those in the media the wrong picture of what a Christian man looks like, and they in turn have taken it to its logical extreme.

In the movie Major League, the owner of the Cleveland Indians pieces together a team of losers and misfits in hopes they will come in last so she can move the team to Miami. In one scene, the Christian man asks to say a prayer before the team takes the field. As the team waits in annoyed silence, he pauses for a moment and then in a wimpy little voice asks God to help them on the field. During his prayer, the pagan baseball player—who worships a god named Jobu—blows up something in his locker, triggering the overhead sprinklers. The movie portrays the Christian as an idiot and the pagan as a hero. But saddest of all, the scene subtly implies that prayer is a waste of time.

This is just one of many similar movie scenes. The media mocks Christians, so men are responding by not taking a stand for Jesus.

But this isn’t the true picture of the godly man. The manly Christian man loves his wife, respects others, works hard, shares his faith, and understands who he is in Christ. And this is just the beginning. We need to understand ourselves and follow God’s design for our lives as men. We are God’s call. God’s men. And God wants to use us.

In the same way that you can’t drive anywhere in a parked car, God doesn’t use men who aren’t willing to go where He wants to take them. He probably can if He wants to, but He doesn’t.

Paul expresses it this way in Romans 10:14: How can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?

This is the call God has given every one of us.

You have been called, by God, to take His message of love and forgiveness to the world. He’s called women, too, but this book is about you, and God spurring you on toward love and good works.

I write this book because men aren’t standing up and being the men God has called them to be. At the end of every chapter, I include a section called the Toolbox. Its purpose is to give you some practical tools to apply the principles in the chapter.

Please understand, I realize that I fall short every day. I’m still a knucklehead. But I’m trying to grow as a man, and this book reflects what God has shown me about what it means to be a man and love God.

You may be hurting. I rarely meet men who don’t struggle with low self-esteem or other serious issues. Sin may have entangled your thoughts and life. Don’t let these things send you—and keep you—on the sidelines. That’s what this book is about.

We need to get back in the game. Too many of us are watching this game called Christianity from the sidelines. Too many of us are sitting at home, on the couch, with a big bag of chips on our bellies and the remote in our hands.

Let’s get in the game, guys. Let’s learn what it means man up and to be a Christian man.

Let’s study the Christian man laws!

Christian Man Law #1

Christian Men Are Tough

I’m not afraid to kill you! I ain’t afraid to go back to prison! the gang leader shouted as he and his homeys circled around me like sharks sizing up their prey. You think I’m afraid to stab you? I ain’t afraid of nothin’!

While I was sharing the gospel with some teenagers in a parking lot, a van full of inner city gang members had pulled up and tried to start a fight with some of the guys. I didn’t appreciate them getting in the way of sharing the love of Jesus!

Get out of here, I told them. Can’t you see I’m talking to these guys about Jesus?

On the other side of the lot my fears were realized when the gang members got out of their van and faced off with the guys who were there. I knew what was going on because I used to fight before I became a Christian. I ran across the parking lot and jumped in the middle of the potential rumble.

Hey! I yelled. Before you fight, let’s pray! Then I closed my eyes. "Dear God, please bless these guys in this fight and don’t let them die. But if they do die, please don’t let them go to hell. Save them right now!"

That’s when the gang members began circling me. The gang leader was pretty imposing—about six foot three, thick, and tattooed from head to toe.

I have the gift of discernment, and I discerned that he had just gotten out of prison and that he wasn’t afraid of cutting me. He confirmed all of that when he told me he had just been released. Then he double confirmed it when he pulled a knife out of his back pocket and held it against my gut.

What do you say to a guy who was just released from prison and isn’t afraid to kill you? If he takes me out, he solidifies his position as the leader of the gang. I was six foot six and a defensive lineman at Furman University at the time. Do the math.

Go ahead and stab me, I replied, trying to remain calm. Go ahead. Jesus died for me. Why can’t I die for you?

Your only chance of knowing what Jesus thinks about you is by stabbing me, I said, as the intensity of my voice began to rise. Why can’t I bleed for you? Jesus bled for me!!!

Then I screamed, Cut me! 

Man, you’re weird! the young man said as he stuck his knife in his back pocket.

Don’t you want to give me a hug? I asked.

I’m not sure where that came from. But the guy reached up, hugged me, and whispered in my ear, No one’s ever hugged me before. 

That night four of those gang members—including that leader—gave their lives to Christ.

We Need Tough Men Who Are Willing to Lay Down Their Lives

Jesus was a man’s man, not because He was big but because He was unafraid to lay down His life for others. That’s what I call tough!

Jesus said, Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13). These weren’t empty words. Jesus laid down His life for you and me by dying on a cross.

Jesus also invited His followers to be like Him. He told them (and us), If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Luke 9:23).

After Jesus ascended to heaven and gave the Holy Spirit to the church, His followers acted the same way. In Acts 5, the religious authorities couldn’t get the apostles to be quiet about Jesus. They even threw them in jail, hoping to get them to quit telling people about Jesus. But in the middle of the night an angel unlocked the doors and set them free.

But get this: the angel told them to go preach in the temple courts, just across the street from where they were scheduled to stand trial (Acts 5:20).

That’s what I call tough!

So the authorities brought them before the religious court (called the Sanhedrin) and ordered the men to be flogged, which means they were whipped on their backs thirty-nine times. Then they were ordered not to preach anymore about Jesus.

After the pain and hassle of sharing their faith about Jesus, you’d think they’d be a little more careful. Not on your life!

The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ. Acts 5:41–42

The apostles rejoiced because they had been beaten for Jesus’ sake!!!!

The apostle Paul was no different. He wrote to the church in Philippi, "It has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for him" (Philippians 1:29, italics added).

The Greek word translated as granted here can also be translated given generously. Suffering is a gift from God, just like salvation! 

Paul understood suffering. In 2 Corinthians he wrote, Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one (2 Corinthians 11:24). That’s misleading, though. He didn’t receive just thirty-nine lashes. The strap the Jews used to whip Jesus had three more straps at the end. If you multiply 3 leather straps times 39 strikes, you get 117 lashes for every beating. Remember, Paul said he was beaten 5 times, so that makes 585 lashes.

We also know that Paul was flogged at least once with a cat-of-nine-tails by the Romans (Acts 16:22-23). This especially cruel whip was split into nine leather straps. According to archaeological findings, each leather strap was baked in clay with pieces of sharp metal or sharpened bones fastened every four inches. In addition, rocks or other ball-like objects were attached between the metal or bones. So the rocks bruised the muscles while the sharp metal tore the skin. Not only that, but the lash hit the back and then whipped around to the other side, tearing open both the front and back of the victim. The person was mercilessly beaten from the bottom of the neck to the top of the knee.

But that doesn’t come close to the many sufferings Paul experienced. If you want to read more, just turn to 2 Corinthians 11:23-33.

Shortly after this description of his sufferings in chapter 11, Paul remarks, That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:10).  

That’s tough, guys. And God called Christian men to be tough. It’s a Man Law.

Passion