Boys to Men is more than simply the name of a recently popular singing group. It also accurately describes the pathway God desires all males to travel.
Watching recent events unfold in the Middle East reminds us of the courage required to fight. Yes, God is good. However, there is still evil in this world. Edmund Burke, in his “Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” (1770) famously wrote, “When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
The Apostle Paul instructs: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit ye like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity” (I Corinthians 16:13-14; King James Version). At an earlier age, “quit ye like men” was a popular phrase in English-speaking countries. Today, quit means “to stop” or “to give up,” but also “to conduct oneself in a specified way.”
The Bible translator James Moffatt renders “quit ye like men,” as “play the man”; the Revised Standard Version, “be courageous”; and in The Amplified Bible, “act like men.” The popular Phillips paraphrase translates the verse: “Be on your guard, stand firm in the faith, live like men, be strong! Let everything that you do be done in love.”[1]
Andrizomai is the Greek word translated as “quit ye like men,” which is used just this one time in the Bible. It is an imperative, a word of command, literally “be men!”
Many men’s ministries have adopted this specific verse as the theme verse for their ministry. They see the verse as contrasting men vs. women as if women are not also called upon to live a courageous Christian life. I don’t believe the apostle Paul here is dividing men from women but rather mature men vs immature men … grown men vs young boys. Paul is not saying, “Don’t be a female … be a male!” Rather, he is saying, “Stop being immature … grow up in Christ … don’t act like a young boy, act like a man!”
Unfortunately, many men fail to progress from boyhood to manhood. The journey is a perilous one. Age alone fails to make a boy a man. A 40-year-old male may be living as an immature boy. Shirking responsibilities … avoiding conflicts … or continually chasing pleasure and leisure are symptoms of a failure to progress. My mentor Howard Hendricks used to say, “Teaching school for 40 years does NOT mean you have 40 years of experience as a teacher. You may have taught the same lessons in the same way each year for 40 years which means you have one year of experience, which you’ve repeated 40 times!”
Joshua used this same biblical root word in Josh. 1:6-7, 9, 18) “Be strong and of good courage … Only be strong and very courageous … Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage … be strong and of good courage.” In the book of Joshua, andrizomai is translated as “be … of good courage.” A literal interpretation of andrizomai being, “play the man,” “live like men,” “act like men,” or simply “be men!” Some scholars also believe the word refers to stage plays where female actors wore male masks and male clothing to “play the role of the man.”
In these days of rising crime rates and threats of terrorism, Christian men need to live with courage. Ask yourself, “What area of my life do I need to mature, stop acting like a boy, and live as a mature man?”
© Dr. Paul Pettit
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
[1] https://www.bibletools.org/
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