Titus 3.1-3.
Back in the 1990s there were two popular fads among American men. There was Promise Keepers, an organization started by football coach Bill McCartney as a way to encourage Christian men to be faithful husbands, good fathers, and to fight racism. And there was the Mythopoetic Men’s Movement, founded by poet Robert Bly to help men “restore” what they felt were their “deep masculine” traits and urges—abandoned by our egalitarian society, rejected as toxic masculinity. (And to be fair, a lot of the things men call our “masculine urges” are really
Bly’s movement
I’m still a big fan of Promise Keepers. Not at all the Wild at Heart bushwa, which is
It’s a devilish spin on the scriptures, and the very same behavior Paul warns Titus against in today’s passage.
Titus 3.1-3 KWL - 1 Remind the people about rulers, about powers—
- to be submissive, to listen to authorities,
- to be ready for every good work.
- 2 To never slander. To not be “tough guys.” Appropriate.
- Showing every humility to every person.
- 3 For at one point we were just as stupid—
- unyielding, wayward, slaving for desires and various pleasures,
- spending our lives in evil and envy,
- hated and hating each other.
Y’notice it’s not just the people of Crete, whom Titus is ministering to, whom Paul is writing about. In 3.3, Paul points out both he and Titus used to be that way.
Because these traits aren’t “deep masculine” characteristics we need to rediscover and revive. They’re basic human depravity. Before we followed Christ, they were our fleshly human nature. We’re supposed to reject them in favor of the new, godly human nature the Holy Spirit is trying to develop us; in other words
Good luck telling the “wild at heart” bullies any such thing.