Journal: Eikon
Volume: EIKON 05:2 (Fall 2023)
Article: A Masculine Mandate For Today
Author: Richard D. Phillips

Eikon 5.2 (Fall 2023) p. 16

A Masculine Mandate For Today

Richard D. Phillips

Richard D. Phillips is author of The Masculine Mandate: God’s Calling to Men (Ligonier Ministries, 2016) and minister of Second Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Greenville, SC. He serves also as adjunct professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, where he is a member of the Board of Trustees. He is co-editor of the Reformed Expository Commentary series and has authored over forty books on the Bible and Reformed theology. Rick is married to Sharon, with five grown children. He enjoys reading historical fiction and passionately following University of Michigan sports.

I come from a cavalry family — as in horse soldiers. My grandfather commanded the US Army’s last cavalry regiment, until we shifted to tanks together with the rest of the twentieth century. Given this background, I am steeped in the old cavalry movies, the greatest of which is John Wayne’s She Wore a Yellow Ribbon. Portraying Captain Nathan Briddles, a grizzled Civil War veteran facing the end of his career, this cavalry classic unleashes a torrent of manly quips. According to Captain Briddles, true manliness can be summed up in two words: Never apologize.

When I became a Christian, I learned that not every manly saying in John Wayne movies should be adopted. “Never apologize” sounds great in theory, but in practice it may combine with a man’s sin nature to make him overbearing and arrogant. Yet it turns out that the biblical ideal of manhood may also be summed up in two words. They are found in Genesis 2:15, which contain the Lord’s calling to the first man, Adam, for his life in the Garden of Eden.

Eikon 5.2 (Fall 2023) p. 17

The creation account in Genesis 1 and 2 supplies a wealth of information regarding God’s design for human society, including men. Genesis 1:27 states that “God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them,” stating that God created two sexes of equal value and dignity. Genesis 2:7 says that “the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground,” showing that mankind is specially created by God and not the product of evolution. Moreover, God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,” so that man is a spiritual being designed for covenant union with God through faith and obedience.

Armed with all this useful information, Genesis 2:15 goes on to provide the how of biblical manhood: how is the distinctive male callin...