3 Lies – Manhood #2
Part 1B: The Muscles
LIE #1B – Your masculinity is tied to your ability to compete with other men and win in the areas of the muscles (sports – physical and spiritual competition).
This lie leads to:
- Disrespect for others
- People pleasing and over performing for the approval of men
- Envy, strife, self-glorification, vanity
- Arrogance, bullying and domination of other men
- Validation as a man is based on your size, weight and strength
- Low self-esteem because your body image or loss in a competition
- Unhappy with the body God has given you
- Training addiction, bigorexia and the abuse of steroids
- Trying to overcome spiritual problems in your own willpower, rather than God’s
God’s truth:
Physical fitness is important, and body builders are to be admired for their discipline, but it’s better to be strong in godliness rather than body (1 Tim 4:8). We as men should put our strength into loving God and obeying him, instead of competing and working against other men (Deuteronomy 6:5, Matt 6:1-4).
God curses a man who puts his confidence in his own strength (Jer 17:5 KJV). We must first acknowledge that you’re weak in order to be strong in God’s power (Joel 3:10 KJV, 2 Cor 12:10 KJV). Only God’s strength can overcome the sin in our lives (Deuteronomy 32:1-47). God blessed all who depends on his strength (Ps 84:5).
