How to Be a Man of Courage
Selected Scriptures
When you look at what makes a man a man in our modern society today, it can be pretty discouraging. Men are judged by their physic, their physical form. Men are judged by their looks. Men are judged by their money, their possessions, their success, their job. But when it comes to the Word of God, really one thing defines manliness there is a basic fundamental virtue of manliness. There is a trait that I think distinguishes a man most distinctively, the solitary foundation of manhood. And I want to sum it up in one word, it's the word fortitude.
Now I know that's not an often used word today and that's why I picked it. It's not one that has a lot of baggage. It's one that may come to you sort of from out of left field and you're wondering what it means. Let me tell you what it means. Webster's dictionary says, "Fortitude is that strength or firmness of mind, courage of soul which enables a person to encounter danger with coolness, to bear pain or adversity without murmuring, depression or despondency." And then we could sum that up by saying, "Fortitude is courage built on strength of soul." Fortitude is a good word because it combines courage with strength but it also has a third component and that is conviction. Fortitude is the combination of those three things: conviction, courage and strength.
Because a man is basically a man when he stands on principle and has the courage to uphold that principle, and the strength to sustain and attack against that principle, he has fortitude. It is the willingness, even the desire to face challenges, to attack difficulties, to bear adversity and to do it triumphantly. Women, on the other hand, seek to be protected. They seek to be nourished and cherished, to borrow biblical words. They seek to be made secure. That's natural for women. Men, on the other hand, are designed by God to be the protectors, to be the saviors, if you will, of their wives and families, to provide the security, to accomplish everything necessary to the well-being of the wife and children, all that is needed to provide the haven for the woman and the children. Manliness is really summed up with that notion of fortitude.
And if I can stretch it a little bit further, just remember these things. It is conviction, it is courage and it is strength, but there's one other thing that has to be added in the Christian environment and that is truth. The convictions, the principles that form the convictions for us rise out of the Bible. For a Christian man, he is a man of the Word who knows the truth, who has convictions about the truth and that is they are non-negotiable and non-compromising convictions. And because of those convictions he is courageous to confront anything that assaults those truths and he has the strength to withstand that confrontation. That's manliness. Just in general, men were designed by God to be the protectors and the providers and the saviors and the deliverers and the securers of their wives and their children. True manliness is summed up in words like conviction, courage and strength.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 16 there is an interesting verse. You might want to look at it for a moment. First Corinthians 16:13 and in that verse we have this same definition given us by the Apostle Paul. He says, first of all in verse 13, "Be on the alert." Another element of being a man is knowing that you are the protector and so you have to be alert. "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." Now this is a fascinating verse, it is one of those brief verses that embraces a wealth of truth. You will notice the faith is mentioned there, that's THE faith, definite article, the faith being the revelation of God in Scripture. So we start with the faith, that's the truth. We stand firm in the faith, that's conviction. Conviction means that I take my stand on the faith and I do not waver, I do not vacillate.
Then he follows that up with, "Act like men," the New King James translates it, "Be brave." Literally the verb means to conduct oneself in a courageous way. So you have the truth, then you have conviction, here you have courage, and finally be strong. There are all the components...truth, conviction, courage and strength. And that's how men act. That's why the translators said, "Act like men." Men are courageous. Men have convictions on which they unwaveringly stand. And men are strong. How do men act then? That's how they act, with conviction, with courage, and with strength.
Then verse 14 adds a wonderful balance. "Let all that you do be done in love." Now there's a man. Not weak, not vacillating, not fearful, and not unloving, but a man with fortitude in an environment of love. Real men are watchful of the dangers around them. They're very, very sensitive to the dangers that come against their wives and the dangers that come against their children. And they know how to protect their wives and their children. They know that they must have the truth, they must have unwavering conviction about the truth, they must have the courage to stand for those convictions and the strength to withstand the assault. That's what defines a man. A man is known by his character, by his fortitude.
Just to show you replete the Scripture is with this matter, turn in your Bible back to the last book of the Pentateuch, the writings of Moses, Deuteronomy chapter 31. And in Deuteronomy 31 Moses is speaking to Joshua. Moses says, you remember, was not allowed to enter the promised land. Joshua became the commander in chief of the nation Israel as they entered into the land of promise, the land of Canaan. And they knew they were going to run into formidable foes and enemies and they did, and they had many battles. And so in verse 6 Moses says to Joshua, "Be strong and courageous," exactly the same things that we just read in 1 Corinthians 16, "Be strong and courageous." This is how a man acts. This is how a man engaged in an absolutely unthinkable leadership responsibility with a generation of people, a whole nation of people going into a foreign land to conquer that land and establish itself, this is absolutely essential for the man who is the leader...be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, that is the enemies, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you. Then Moses called to Joshua and said to him in the sight of all people, first privately then publicly, "Be strong and courageous for you shall go with these people into the land which the Lord has sword to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance and the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you, He will be with you, He will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." Then again in verse 23 He commissioned Joshua, the son of Nun, and said, "Be strong and courageous for you shall bring the sons of Israel into the land which I swore to them and I will be with you." A formidable task, a formidable enemy and God instructs Joshua through His servant Moses that it demands all that a man is, it demands strength, it demands courage. Those defining virtues that are manly.
In 2 Samuel chapter 10, Joab speaks to the Israelites about going to battle. Verse 12, 2 Samuel 10:12, "Be strong and let us show ourselves courageous for the sake of our people and for the cities of our God and may the Lord do what is good in His sight. And so Joab and the people were with him drew near to the battle." That's what men need to be, strong and courageous.
In 1 Kings David speaks to Solomon, 1 Kings 2, verse 1, David's time to die drew near. He charged Solomon, his son, saying, "I'm going the way of all the earth," everybody dies. He says to Solomon, "Be strong therefore and show yourself a man." Literally, be strong and become a man, a man is synonymous with strong and courageous. And verse 3 he says, "And keep the charge of the Lord your God to walk in His ways, to keep His statutes, His commandments, His ordinances and His testimonies according to what is written in the law of Moses that you may succeed in all that you do and wherever you turn." You want to be a man? Obey the Word of God. You want to be a man? Don't waver. You want to be a man? Be strong...strong being attached to being faithful to the Word of God and unwavering in your convictions.
Again David spoke in 1 Chronicles 22, again to Solomon, verse 11. "Now, my son, the Lord be with you that you may be successful and build the house of the Lord your God just as He has spoken concerning you. Only the Lord give you discretion and understanding and give you charge over Israel so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God, then you shall prosper if you are careful to observe the statutes and the ordinances which the Lord commanded Moses concerning Israel...then this...be strong and courageous, do not fear nor be dismayed." There again is the same direction to Solomon, be strong, be courageous, be a man.
Second Chronicles 32, Hezekiah, the king, is speaking to his officials, his officers as he begins in verse 1 talking about the invasion of Judah, and down in verse 7 to the military officers mentioned in verse 6, he says, "Be strong and courageous, do not fear or be dismayed because of the king of Assyria, nor because of all the multitude which is with him for the One with us is greater than the one with him."
Well whether it's Moses to Joshua, whether it's Joab to the Israelite soldiers, whether it's David to Solomon, whether it's Hezekiah to the military officers, whether it's Psalm 27, "Be strong and let your heart take courage," whatever it is the idea of manliness is associated with fortitude, with courage, and strength. Men don't give into fear. Men don't give into pressure. Men don't give into intimidation. They don't cave in to temptation. They don't seek the easy way, the secure place. They fight the war, they fight the battle. They live on principle. They live on conviction. And they have the courage of those convictions and they stand strong against the opposition and they bravely face the challenges that those convictions bring and they have the strength to withstand those challenges. When we talk about being a man, as David talked to his son Solomon on being a man, we're talking about fortitude, contending with difficulty, facing the challenge, meeting the enemy, bearing the pain, maintaining self-discipline, upholding truth and pressing to the goal...that is what distinguishes a man.
Then one other Old Testament passage must be addressed, Joshua chapter 1. This is a magnificent sort of summation of the passages I read earlier. Joshua 1, the chapter begins as God says to Joshua, "Moses is now dead and you are the leader, you are now the man and I'm going to give you the land...verse 4...from the wilderness in this Lebanon, even as far as the great river, the River Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites as far as the great sea for the setting of the sun will be your territory." Everything from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates and north and south, the great fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, it's all going to be your land, "And nobody is going to be able to stand before you all the days of your life, just as I have been with Moses I'll be with you, I'll not fail you or forsake you." And then comes this in verse 6, "Be strong and courageous for you shall give this people possession of the land which I swore to their fathers to give them," repeats it, "only be strong and very courageous, be careful to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you, do not turn from it to the right or to the left so that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it for then you will make your way prosperous, then you will have success. Have I not commanded you, be strong and courageous? Do not tremble or be dismayed for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." What a great passage.
Joshua, you are the man, be strong, be courageous, don't be afraid and don't be dismayed. Stand firm. He says in verse 7, "Obey the Word of God." In verse 8, "Meditate on it and do everything written in it, then you will gave prosperity, then you will have success." You have the promise in verse 5 of the presence of God. You have the instruction in verse 6 of the right cause, the land that I promised to give you. You have the pledge of the sovereign providence of God in verses 7 and 8, I'll be there and I'll give you success. But through it all you have the duty of obedience, obey My Word, meditate on My Word, do everything that is written in it and you'll succeed. Now there is a formula for a man, a Christian man. He believes the Word of God because the Word of God is true he builds his convictions on the Word of God. He has the courage to live those convictions no matter how difficult and the strength to withstand the assault against them. That is a man. And let me tell you something. It takes a father like that to raise a son like that. Spiritual men are uncompromising. They are bold. They are strong. They are principled. They are courageous. Man like that is a haven for his wife, she feels secure, she feels protected, she feels nourished, and cherished. And the children of a man like that grow up to be courageous men and secure women.
And when you look at a family and you see insecure women running around trying to find their security by associating themselves with a peer group in the world, or when you see young men with no convictions playing on the edge of the sinful indulgences of the society, you have to ask yourself if the father had fortitude. Fortitude produces courageous men and secure women, men who don't need to run on the edges of worldliness and iniquity because they've been trained to be strong and have convictions based on the truth. And women who don't need to find their security in the affirmation of a peer group or the affirmation of some worldly person because they're so secure in the truth and in the home. And I'm like you, I hear, I read, I see so much nonsense about how to be an effective father. I mean, there are books, Christian books, Christian tapes and you've heard it on the radio and seen it on television, all this silly, shallow advice about how to be a good father, it's all about, you know, working in the yard together, playing catch, developing self-esteem in your children, etc., etc., etc., etc. What makes strong, secure children is fortitude in the man, fortitude balanced with love, as we saw in 1 Corinthians 16. What makes a strong courageous secure loving child is a father of fortitude.
In another evidence of how far our society has sunk into the morass of stupidity, there was a survey done recently at great expense, the results of which came out in the last couple of days and the result of this national study was that children raised in families with fathers do far better in life. Really! And God can overcome the lack of a father with fortitude, but it is a benediction of all benedictions of all benedictions to sons and daughters to have such a father. It matters little what the financial capability of what that father is, it matters little where his social status lies, it matters little what he looks like, how popular he may be, or how esteemed by the community. What really matters is does he have fortitude? Is he a man of truth? Does he have convictions? Does he have the courage of those convictions? And does he have the strength to stand when those convictions are assaulted? That is a man of fortitude, that's the legacy that man leaves to his family that produces a haven for his wife, courageous sons and secure daughters.
And perhaps getting a little bit deeper into the detail of that, this is a man who has learned to resist temptation to sin personally. This is a man who isn't a hypocrite. This is a man whose wife and children see consistency, a resolute strength no matter how much the society, how much the world and the flesh and the devil get cranked up to a fever pitch, he doesn't waver, he doesn't fall. He has the strength, he has the fortitude to resist the temptation to sin personally because he has built his life on a belief that the Word of God is true, that's where his convictions come from and on those convictions he stands with courage and by the grace of God and the strength of the Spirit he stands against all assaults against that.
I don't believe there's any reason to assume that a man necessarily needs to fall into sin that destroys his testimony, destroys his life. I think the grace of God and the truth of Scripture and the power of the Holy Spirit is given to us with the promise of God that if we appropriate those things, it doesn't have to happen. But a man with fortitude is seen by the people closest to him as having the strength to stand personally against temptation.
Secondly, a man with fortitude is seen by the people closest to him as a man who never compromises his convictions. If something is a conviction, if something is a non-negotiable, he never vacillates at that point. Whether the appeal to him is for money or for more power, or for prestige, or whatever, to waylay some level of conflict, a man with fortitude does not compromise his convictions.
And a third thing you would say about a man of fortitude, he not only stands against assaults on him personally, he not only holds to his convictions courageously, but thirdly, he is able to resist the temptation to tolerate sin around him. That is to say it negatively. Positively he has the strength not to tolerate sin around him. Once he has affirmed something is wrong, it's not only wrong for him, it's wrong for everybody in his family and it's wrong for everybody around him. And so he holds the standard high at every front. He isn't a man who says this is right, and I will do it, this is wrong and I will not, and then says to his family, this is right and I will do it, this is wrong and I will not and I want you to follow me in that, and then goes to his office or goes into his relationships and tolerates the wrong in others. He's not that kind of man. He has fortitude and he is intolerant of what violates the Word of God and what dishonors God whether it's himself, his family, or his friends.
See, being a good father is not related to some gimmick. I mean, you really just can't sort of do it with smoke and mirrors, you know. It's a matter of character. It's the product of fortitude and that, I have to say, is an alien concept in our world. I don't think our society, for the most part, even knows what a man of conviction is like. We don't have any of them, or many of them in the public view, do we? A man of conviction would be branded in most cases in our society a bigot. He would be silenced, sued and pushed out of the public discourse. I mean, you don't get to a prominent place in our society if you're a man of conviction. You're gone long before we ever know about you. Certainly that's true politically, since politics is the art of compromise, you start compromising at the very beginning and by the time you get where anybody knows you, you aren't a man of conviction. There are few cases where that is different but those people never seem to be able to achieve the offices they desire. We're not used to people with conviction. We redefine those people as scandalously bigoted. And we don't know about men of courage. We have a whole generation of men growing up free from war, free from the conflicts of war and therefore they don't know what it means to be in a battle for life and death, to be following a leader who has courage. We live in a world of compromise. It seems like in our world everybody has a price, everybody adjusts their morality according to the latest survey.
Now compromise is the point at which you sell your conviction. Compromise is the point at which you sell out your ideal or the point which you stop obeying God. Fortitude is connected also to integrity. Integrity is a great word. The dictionary defines it as the quality of being undivided. That's good, a quality of being undivided. In other words, you're just absolutely whole, you are one. It's from the mathematic term integer, one, a whole. Integrity means everything is whole. There's not two things about you, speaking out of both sides of your mouth, we often say, or having duplicity or being double-minded, or being hypocritical. I think personally that is an absolute disaster for a father to tell your children there is a standard according to the Word of God but not to live it. This not only destroys your credibility, but it destroys the credibility of the scriptures because if you're not even serious about the Word of God, why would you expect your child to be? The legacy of hypocrisy for a child is devastating, absolutely devastating as well as for a wife. If a wife can't trust her husband to be the protector not only physically but to be protector of the spiritual life of the family, the moral purity of the family, then she can't find a haven there for her and her children.
To have integrity is to have honesty, simplicity, incorruptibility, the absence of hypocrisy. The opposite of integrity is compromise. Compromise is the abandonment of principle to gain some end...the abandonment of principle to gain some end. That's how most people live their lives. When Solomon finished building the temple, according to 1 Kings 9, the house of the Lord, the Lord appeared to him and said this, "I have heard your prayer and your supplication which you have made before Me. I have consecrated this house which you have built by putting My name there forever and My eyes and My heart will be there perpetually. And as for you, if you will walk before Me as your father David walked in integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep My statutes and My ordinances, then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, just as I promised to your father David, saying, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel."
Now we all know that in David's early life he had his problems, didn't he? But he got his act together and he was a man of integrity. And here is the Word of God, 1 Kings 9, right out of heaven and God says you need to walk in integrity like your father did. Now let me take you back to when David was speaking to Solomon and said, "Be strong and of good courage and do everything that is written in the law of God and obey it all." David was saying that to his son and it was being spoken out of a life of integrity so that Solomon could hear what his father said against the backdrop of the way his father lived. And God says if you'll live the way your father lived and walk in integrity, that is in singularity and wholeness in honesty without duplicity and without hypocrisy, if you'll be a man of fortitude, be strong and courageous and you will keep my statutes and my ordinances, then I will bless you. Those who are uncompromising have the promise of divine blessing. You make the choice in life. Oh you're worried about what the boss thinks, you're worried about what somebody else thinks, you cave in at some particular point, you put yourself, you think, in their better graces and you've just taken yourself out of the place of the blessing of God. Take your choice. "O Lord," says Psalm 15, "who may abide in Your tent? Who can dwell on Your holy hill? Who can live with You? He who walks with integrity and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart." People of integrity are the ones who please God.
And I'm telling you, it's such a sad day in which we live. We not only have the absence of fortitude and courage and manliness among men in the public eye but even in the church. I'm continually amazed at even those in church leadership, even pastors, I would like to be able to say to you, "Well if you want to see a man of integrity, if you want to see a man of fortitude, if you want to see a man of courage, a man of conviction, a man of principle, a man whose life is built on truth, a man who lives that and has the strength to fight against the onslaught, if you want to see that kind of man, go to a church and find a pastor," but I can't say that.
Men say they believe the Bible, yet they don't teach it. Men agree that sin must be punished, they say it from the pulpit but if those are the sins of their children, it's a different story. Men oppose dishonesty and corruption until they confront their bosses and risk losing their jobs. If confronting the dishonesty of your company might bring the loss of your job, would you say something? A man with fortitude would. Men maintain high moral standards until their own lusts are kindled by some illicit desire and then all of a sudden there's another standard for them. Men are honest until a little dishonesty would save them some money. Men have a conviction until it's challenged by someone they admire, or someone they fear.
Even Scripture is full of people who compromise. Adam compromised by disobeying God's law following his wife's sin, lost paradise. Abraham compromised the truth, lied about his wife Sarah and nearly lost her. Moses compromised God's command, lost the privilege of entering the promised land. Samson compromised his vow to God and lost his strength, lost his eyesight and lost his life. Israel compromised the commands of the Lord, lived in sin, and, as you'll remember when fighting the Philistines, lost the ark of God...eventually lost the homeland. Saul compromised God's divine word by not slaying the animals of the enemy, you remember, and lost his kingdom. David compromised early with his terrible sin with Bathsheba and lost his infant son. Solomon compromised his convictions by marrying foreign wives and lost the united kingdom. And so it goes. Judas compromised his supposed devotion for Christ for 30 pieces of silver and lost his soul forever in hell. Peter compromised his conviction and his devotion to Christ, denied Him, lost his joy, and so it goes. There are always those who will compromise.
But manliness, even in a human realm, is defined as courageous, strong conviction, certainly for Christians because all of that is built on the truth of the Word of God. We should define manliness. People...it's a strange thing, you know, in some ways, but people will ask me, "Does it worry you when you say something that's very strong? Do you worry about people's response?" I can honestly say to you that I don't worry about anybody's response, personally I don't even think about it because I am bound by my conscience to the truth of God.&