Such a question is too big to handle thoroughly in a short article like this, but I do hope to provide a brief outline to this very important question. 

In the last post, “What is a human?” I said that there is quite a lot of overlap between men and women—you might say they are both gardeners. But I made the claim that the distinct quality of a man is that God has made him a guardian. There are many things true about a man that are true about humanity in general. Men and women together are called to be fruitful and to multiply, and they share many traits as creatures made after God’s image. But that is not our question here. In this article we ask what is unique about being a man. The unique purpose entrusted to the man in this joint endeavor is to guard. Women, children, and communities depend on him to do this wisely. When a man fails to play this role, he compromises his manhood and the whole community suffers. 

From Genesis 2 we can form this definition of manhood: It is uniquely given to a man to guard truth and joy by laying down his life for others.

Now, I should say that some of the emphasis below is on a man’s responsibility in a family and in the church, and someone might think this only applies to a man who is a husband/father and a church officer. A single man might think, “Are you leaving me out of manhood?!” Not at all. But manhood is always for the sake of others, and so it is only natural that it is in the social contexts of family and church that manhood finds its best definition. And I believe the truths here can be applied into the work, church, and relationships of all men.

He Guards The Truth

In the creation story, there are a few important things that happened to our first father Adam before his wife Eve was created. 

The first is that he was put in the garden “to work it and to keep it.” These two words give a clue into Adam’s calling as a human being. They appear later in the Pentateuch, in Numbers 3, about the work of the Levites in the tabernacle who were to “minister” in and “guard” (same two Hebrew words) the sanctuary. If any unclean thing came into the court of the tabernacle, it was to be put to death (Num. 3:5-10).

This special calling makes sense of why the only commandment given in the creation story is given to the man before the woman is created

It is for this reason we say that a man is fundamentally a guardian. Levites were guardians of the tabernacle; Adam—the first man—was a prototype of Levite, and so men were made to be guardians.

It is also for this reason we know that the garden of Eden was a sanctuary, a place of worship, like the tabernacle. So when Adam encountered a serpent—an unclean animal—in the garden, speaking lies about God, he was supposed to kill it like a Levite would.

In a sense, Adam was made to be a pastor, and all men play a kind of pastoral role in the lives of the other men, women, and children entrusted to their care. They are to recognize lies when they hear them and then confront and replace them with words of truth. The key work of a pastor is to know the word of God and speak it at the right time and in the right way to the bride of Christ. 

The Bible says this is important for men especially because women are vulnerable to deception (1 Tim. 2:14). Women are trusting and submissive by nature, and they have a God-given (and beautiful!) desire to help and follow. Though they may resist this for various reasons, it has been woven into the very fabric of their being. So they need men who are trustworthy and loving—men who love what is true to guard God’s word for them. Women, too, are lovers of God’s word (our church is filled with women who love the Bible—praise God), but they flourish theologically in churches and homes where the men stand for what is true.

This special calling makes sense of why the only commandment given in the creation story is given to the man before the woman is created (Gen. 2:16-17). As head gardener, Adam was responsible to enact this command, and when he was given a wife to help him, it stands to reason he was to lead her in honoring this command. The man holds special responsibility to steward his authority by leading people in knowing, understanding, and obeying God’s word.

What this tells us is if a man wants to be masculine, according to the Bible he should become like the great scribe Ezra, who “set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel” (Ezra 7:10)—or become like the man of Psalm 1 who “meditates on God’s law day and night” and is like a fruitful tree that “prospers in all he does.”

God has given men a spiritual strength that is ready to face the lies of the age with wisdom and courage. As a Levite, man is to be a spiritual guardian of the church. That is why ordained officers in the church should only be men. There is a kind of combat that is involved in the ordained office (here is a good article on this), and men should enter combat on behalf of the women in their lives.

The responsibility to guard is also tied to a man’s physical strength. His body and his calling match each other. In the case of Adam, the killing of the snake would not just be a spiritual act, but a physical one.

This physical protection is also related to a man’s work, which most men will find closely tied to their identity; and if a man has a family, it is a part of his provision for his wife and children. Adam was called to “work” the garden. The Levites were not only the teachers of the Scriptures in Israel, but they were also builders. They hauled the materials for the tabernacle and constructed it. This corresponds to working in the garden. Adam had a lot of work before him—beating back thorn bushes and killing off snakes. Men do not do well when they are not working, accomplishing things, building things, designing things. (I think this is true of teenage boys—they do best when they go to bed exhausted.) The physical strength of men is a part of his creation design, and it has made him a builder of the church, a builder of society, and a builder of homes.

He Gives Himself For Others

Related to a man's role as a guardian—indeed, an extension of it—is man's responsibility to lay down his life for the flourishing of those who have been entrusted to his care. In a home, this is his wife and children—but this is true more broadly as well. What are two ways we see this in the Genesis creation story?

First, he sacrifices so others can live. One of the things we learn about unfallen masculinity is that Adam was called to “die” for his wife, so that she might have life. 

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man (Gen. 2:21-22).

Men have the power to determine the whole mood or atmosphere of a household.

In this verse Adam is a type of Christ who literally died for his bride (the church) on the cross. Jesus’ side, too, was cut open, out of which flowed blood and water. Through his atoning blood and the water of baptism his Bride came into existence. Sacrifice has been a part of manhood since before sin even entered the world.

I read an article recently (somewhere!) that said getting married is a huge risk for men, especially financially, because they are providing for a wife and children. (That is actually not true, as it turns out that married men do better financially than men who are not married.) But it is hitting on the truth that fulfilling manhood involves sacrifice. This is just evidence of Jesus’ words, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6). Sacrifice for a family and, generally speaking, earthly blessings will follow. 

But this aspect of biblical manhood has been criticized as well, as if men are assigned a depressing lot: to give up all the things they love for the sake of their wives and family. This can be a fair warning. Is it really best for a family if the father sacrifices all the things he loves—his hobbies, his dreams, and ambitions? Is he just a servant? Is it just that men need to suffer all the time? Does that really help the people under his care flourish if his whole life is only sacrifice?

Well, the sacrifice of Adam is balanced with another quality of manhood we see in Genesis 2:

He Sets The Tone Of Joy

I think the best way to describe the goals of guarding and sacrificing is that a man takes responsibility for the well-being of those under his care. The best indicator of well-being is an atmosphere of joy and delight. The only words we have in the Bible of a human being speaking before sin entered the world is a man’s joyful exclamation about the goodness of his wife:

Then the man said, 

“This at last is bone of my bones 

and flesh of my flesh; 

she shall be called Woman, 

because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23).

It has been said this is the first song or poem in the Bible. The tone of the early family is one of joy—and that tone of joy is set by the man.

Men have the power to determine the whole mood or atmosphere of a household. If I am grumpy or critical with my family, a heaviness hangs over everyone. If I am laughing and playful, the aroma of joy spreads to every member of the family. The overall atmosphere is created by the man.

The same is true for the church. The elders of a church should be men of joy so that the women and children learn that Christianity is a world of joy. I believe this is one of the most important things for Christian children growing up in the church. When they see that the truth (faithfully guarded by the men) leads to joy, they are compelled to love and commit to the church, for why would they want to leave a place of joy and flourishing? 

Imagine communities where the men followed this calling. When we hear these three things—guarding the truth, sacrificing for others, and setting a mood of joy—who does it make us think of? 

It makes us think of our Lord. “Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17), who “laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16) and who was “anointed with the oil of gladness beyond [his] companions” (Heb. 1:9). Jesus was neither austere nor trivial. He was neither passive nor overbearing. Rather, he was a man of love and joy who guarded the truth and worked to secure the everlasting flourishing of his bride, the family of God.

In an era like ours, there is a huge temptation to be reactionary to the current cultural climate around gender. That is certainly the case with teaching on masculinity. Being reactionary tends to mean just saying the opposite of what the world thinks. We say what offends and gets a reaction. When we do that, it means we are taking our cues not from God’s word, but from the culture; and as a result, our versions of masculinity can be just as much of the “flesh” as the world, as opposed to heavenly wisdom.

Being a man is about being like Christ, especially in this unique way: as a guardian, who guards both truth and joy by laying down his life for those in his care.