When I was in high school I got the bright idea to write a subject guide of the Bible for my own personal use. The idea was that I was going to read through the entire Bible and write down the reference of every verse to every issue I knew. It was a herculean task for me, and I did get quite a ways through it, but I stopped on it for two reasons. The first problem was that it simply took too much time, and the second was that I did not know how people with different doctrines interpreted specific passages of Scripture. There were simply too many times when I wasn't sure what issues should be linked to what Scripture passages.
When I started that guide I thought that, if the Bible is directly from God, I would be able to get a specific picture of the type of life God expected from me using such a guide. I thought that if I noticed a pattern of specific virtues and vices showing up a lot, then those were the important things to pay attention to in my life. As I noted, this was easier said than done. There are many passages of Scripture that are infuriatingly difficult to interpret in a way that they can be referenced in a subject guide.
Tonight, though, I started thinking about a similar project that I am seriously considering undertaking. I am thinking about reading through the Bible and marking down different people's virtues, vices, and all of the in between, then seeing what the Bible says about that specific person. What behaviors marked the people who were close to God and what behaviors marked those who weren't? There is a very simple reason I want to do this.
Probably the thing that most struck me in the book that I read, Why Men Hate Going to Church, was that the number one thing that men who were polled would like to learn in a church setting is what true manliness is. I am one of the men who wants to know. Most of what I know the church expects of men is summarized in the Promise Keepers' seven promises. If this is the true definition of what God expects from me, though, that is quite depressing. Something about it all feels inadequate. I just can't quite put my finger on what is inadequate.
I think that conflicts among my nature as a man, what I learned in church, and what I read in the Bible are what ultimately drove me to start the subject guide. I have long known that many of the men in the Bible who were the closest to God would never have come anywhere near fitting the model of manhood that I understood to be Godly. Outside of Moses and Joseph almost no Old Testament men would fit in a modern church. Because of that, I want to know what I know to be right about what God expects that is wrong and vice versa.
I want to know why deeply flawed people like Abraham, David, and all of the disciples were able to be close to God in a way that few else in history have ever dreamed. I want to know if there are specific traits that God consistently expected in everyone He used. I want to know if there are specific vices that always resulted in God's refusal to commune with that person. I want to know what personality changes God expected of key people in the Bible.
We'll find out over the next few years whether this is all talk or whether I actually put some effort into this initiative. I do hate starting things unless I know that I will finish them. This would be a useful reference to have, though.
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3 comments:
That does sound like a pretty large undertaking but it could be worth it in the end.
I think that you are on to something good. You are right that all the Promise Keeper stuff and expectations of men in church is something that the Godly men in the Bible couldn't live up to.
My main problem with the seven promises is not that they are difficult, but that they feel incomplete. I actually think that they are very good promises that most men should do everything in their power to keep. It is probably unfair that I am using them as an example, but they do pretty much encapsulate all I know about Christian masculinity.
The problem is that I feel that there really isn't any definition of manhood in church that goes beyond those promises. I want to have a vision of manhood to aspire to rather than just a definition of duties to fulfill.
My biggest problem here is that I don't exactly know how to put this all into words. Something about the church definition of manhood feels empty, but I don't exactly know what it is.
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