Quit ye like men. Be strong!

By J. Michael Montgomery

Thesis:  In God’s Book there is a difference between a man and a woman, and men are to practice being men. Especially is this to be emphasized in the societies familiar to Scripture, those in which we live.

Aside:  There are, in fact variants within those m/f differences, as well.  Paul, Apostle to the gentiles, is not ‘anti-woman’ any more than he is against sexual relationships, but some come to his writings loaded with preconceptions that forbid them to hear him speak without hearing with prejudice.  Paul is, while writing Scripture, preserved from such error, even though under normal impulses he was imperfect as a thinker, as we all are.  That is the essence of the ‘Doctrine’, or ‘God-breathed Teaching’, of Inspiration. Hence, when reading Scripture, the student is to be liberated from fear that the words are culpable of error, though one’s own interpretation of the words may be impaired by h/his baggage of prejudice.

Paul challenges, “Quit ye like men; be strong!” (1Co 16:13)  The King James Version uses a grand old word from Elizabethan England, “Quit ye”.  And yes—in case you wondered, ‘quit ye like men’ is only a single verb in the Greek text; and it’s specific to males, constructing what is known to us as a ‘gerund’, a verbalized noun, of ‘aner’, Greek for ‘man’.

The word is “andrizo”, in the present ‘middle’ tense.  It means what the English intended, “to play the man, to keep on making a man of yourself”; the middle voice emphasizes the subjects addressed.  These have a personal responsibility:  “make yourself manly”, “be all the man you can be” is not far off. (check out W.E.Vine, Complete Expository Dictionary, “quit,” p. 504)

The idea comes to us this way: “Don’t let yourself become wimpish, a weasel, a girly-man!  Be real, authentic, a credit to your gender, a mentor of genuine believer-male masculinity”. This may have to do with being ‘politically correct’ at the expense of divine imperatives.

This word entails being a ‘macho-man’, in a worthy sense of the word.  It implys a male of initiative, leadership capacity, sexually alive, capable of passionate heat, determined ego, adventurous, calculated risk-managers and takers, rough-hewn by circumstance, necessity or upbringing. Here is a man who can do what he has to do to get the job done, whatever the job may be. At times he may overplay his role, bump some feelings, make mistakes, but at core his heart is good, his mind quick, his will submissive to learning and growth, and reasonable change.

This frontier kind of masculinity finds its virtue in carving out the wilderness, providing a clear distinction for its opposite, frontier femininity—which characterized its finest as more than ‘the wife’, or a ‘woman’—she was a ‘lady’. This masculinity forges raging rivers, scales mountains, and astonishes the fair sex with heroic courage, inventiveness, and tenacity. It is what makes a man a man, (and it has made women ‘men’ as well).

Such masculinity arguably has had its benefits (as well as its negatives) for both sexes. In its social hey-day in the English world it generated a society with prejudice against homosexuality, armored with clear-cut convictions and order. George Washington, Teddy Roosevelt, George Patton, and Winston Churchill, even the Apostle Paul, John the Baptist, and his younger cousin, Jesus, are citable as historic models of the clod-busting, stubbornly steady, frontier taking Macho Man.

To more fully express Paul, he should also be heard this way: “Be a mensch!”  That Yiddish word (‘mensch-li-kheit’:  man-like) describes an authentic individual, a ‘real person’, decent, honest, and responsible, groomed by training. Unlike Paul’s word,  mensch is not gender-based.  A woman can be described as a ‘real mensch’, authentic to the noblest of her kind. Paul always mentored men into mature expressions of Messianic Manhood, reflected in ‘whole man’ concepts of body, mind, and spirit. He wants these Corinthians, Messianic Gentiles, to be menches.

As if to clarify, Paul adds:  “Be strong”. The verb “be” here is in the Greek present tense, middle voice, and imperative mode/mood; each designation has significant thrust.  The present tense signifies progressive, continuous action, “be and keep on becoming”; the middle is reflexive, meaning, as the first verb, ‘YOU do it yourself’, personal responsibility; the mode is imperative, so it is volitionally possible depending on the subjects’ will. Paul is bracing these men not simply with a declaration, nor a mere instruction, but with an order!

He commands them, in the same spirit as those wonderful “Gird up your loins” type challenges.  Jd 3:16: “Ehud was left-handed, so he strapped (girded) the dagger to his right thigh where it would be hidden beneath his robes.”;1Sa 25:13: “They all strapped on their swords …”;Jb 38:3,7 God tells Job, “Gird up now thy loins like a man ….”;  Ps 45:3 Messiah will yet come, ordered to “Gird Thy sword upon Thy thigh, Oh Mighty One, with thy glory and majesty!”. How are we men to be strong? The answer is reflected in many passages, those above and more:

Peter, in light of heavy anti-Semitic sufferings coming on his readers, the Diaspora Messianic Jews, writes:  “Gird up the loins of your mind; be sober, viz., ‘be alert and think straight’.  Do not luxuriate in anguish, self-pity, and depression. The Pub’s alcohol irrigates more problems than it solves. If you sit with a drink, Peter would say, then sit responsibly; open up to God Who can offer guidance, rather than men, who so often are like the ‘skunks who went to church, and sat in their own pew.’ By all means, do not get drunk on emotion.  “Self-pity is crying on the Devil’s shoulder!  Deal with it.

Jesus “Waxed strong in spirit”, even as a child (Lk 1:80). “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” using the full armor of the Lord against Satan (Ep 6:10).

“Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus,” Paul counsels Timothy. Jesus expressed “strong crying” in the passion of prayer, fighting through self-preoccupation (Hb 5:7).

The secret of spiritual, mental, even physical strength is empowerment by the Holy Spirit, not the strength of soulish personality or by the ‘stiff upper lip’ of the flesh. That’s just plain stubbornness, often a child of anger. We cannot win spiritual battles with fleshly weapons (2Co 10:4).  “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God ….”

But why would Paul write to Christian men such a ‘stiff-arm’ command?  They were vacillators, half-believing, woman-led, carnal in their orientation—in short, just like us!

We live in increasingly matriarchal societies and the momism so sharply diagnosed by psychiatry in WWII has overwhelmed our mental environment.  It was that way in Corinth. Pornography, sensuality, spiritism, psycological religions, child-centeredness, self-indulgence, materialism, gossip, et. al., ruled the neighborhoods of the Empire, but Corinth offered benchmark levels of these debilitating features. Men were needed to deliver the family and fellowship from this degrading influence. The social decline of Romans 1 was familiar to Corinthian lifestyles.  This is the very world which is now being re-shaped in our times of culture-war.  Genuine faith, sincere love, hard-headed obedience—these by themselves are NOT enough.  We must be empowered by the filling  of the Holy Spirit above all, so that the living Word will be quickened to our carnal lifestyles.  We must reclaim our place as men among men, women, boys, and girls.  May God help us to:

1. Ask Paul’s words, make them a ‘request’ to your Father:  “Thy Kingdom come, Oh Father!  Enable me to become the “Man after Your heart, Lord, a King David to my household, occupation, and neighbors.”
2. Knowing 1Jo 5:14—15, immediately take the second step to receiving your request: “Boldly let us come into the Throne of Grace, to receive mercy (for failures) and to find grace to help (strength) in time of need (Hb 4:12).”
3. Learn to Rejoice in the Lord in everything and for everything. Ps 5:1, “Let them ever shout for joy”; 16:11, “In Thy Presence is fulness of joy!”; 27:6, “Above my enemies all around, I will offer … sacrifices of joy.”; Ps 51:12, “Restore the joy ….”; Nh 8:10, “The Joy of the Lord is your strength.” 1Th 5:16, IN every CIRCUMSTANCE give thanks”; Ro 5:2,3, “Rejoice in expectancy of the glory of God, and not only so, but let us (an imperative) rejoice exceedingly in our tribulations ALSO ….”; Ep 5:20, “Giving thanks always FOR all things….” Never, never give up!
4. Meet with God’s men who will learn and bring this objective to overtly every meeting.  Discuss successes, failures, and define measures to take for growth.
5. “Just do-it, Hewitt!” Be bold, be generous, be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.  Cease from and fight off all known sin in your life.  Die to the culture that compels others to worship false gods.  Determine if no one else will join me, I will be God’s Man anyhow!

One last word.  Commit to this before and with your wife. She is given as your ‘help-meet’, one gifted to stand before God with and for you.  She wants you to become what she needs in a man, and that’s halfway home.  Your relationship to her IS your relationship to Jesus Christ. You can usually tell what a man makes by the car he drives; you can always tell who he is by the woman he marries (or fails to marry).  God’s best in the adventure of a lifetime! “Quit ye like men; be strong.”

Copyright, Rev. J. Michael Montgomery, Th.M.,  Chaplin, MDRT-Member Christian Fellowship Study Group since 1970;  Founder and Pastor of Upward Bound, Inc., a non-profit Messianic Gentile ministry, teaching the Whole-Man Gospel, since 1969.

PO Box 53, Ormond Bch, Florida, 32174-4915, USA.