There’s been a lot of talk recently about how men talk about women when no one else is around. Call it locker room talk, bro code, or boys will be boys, but there seems to be a narrative building that its normal for men to speak about women in un-flattering terms. While this may be big news today, its not exactly anything new. Television and films have portrayed men as sitting around objectifying women for years, so much so that it seems like a given that whenever two or more men are gathered the conversation will rapidly turn south. Now, my focus today is not on calling out any individuals for their behavior. Rather, I want us to look at how God desires us as men to treat all the women we encounter in our lives.
- Women are to be treated as family: Checkout 1 Timothy 5:2: Treat older women as you would your mother, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters. Women are not objects to be judged, critiqued, and lusted over, but are to be treated as we would our closest family members. While our society tends to tell us otherwise, God makes it clear that such talk and behavior is contrary to His plan.
- Words Matter: In our hyper-connected world nothing seems to stay private and secretive for long. When we let our words fly about someone there is a strong chance they will hear about them, and the results can be devastating. I can’t even begin to relate the stories of immense pain I’ve heard from women who have been ridiculed by men. God never intended for our speech to inflict pain, but rather to lift others up. As Paul writes in Ephesians 4:29: Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. Men, lets start watching our every word so that only words we speak are those that uplift and bring honor to God and others.
- Honor Your Wife: As a man of God our first priority should is bringing honor God in all we do. But very close behind should be honoring our wife, whether they be a future spouse, our current wife, or a wife that has passed on. We need to constantly ask ourselves: “are my actions honoring my wife and our marriage?” Ephesians 5:25 sets the bar incredibly high in this regard: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. Think about EVERY action of your daily life. Are your truly living your life in a way that models Christ-like love to your wife?
Men, its time we stand-up and destroy this caricature of manhood that the media has thrown at us. Let’s start modeling Biblical manhood for our world by treating women as family, using our words wisely, and honoring our wives in ALL that we do.
