Some thoughts on talk v. action

Chapter 5 of the book we are writing is an explanation of this principle, and why the modern church rejects it:

A man can be masculine without being virtuous, but he cannot be virtuous without being masculine.

A defining trait of masculinity is activity. Men are active; not passive. Think of Paul’s exhortation in 1 Corinthians 16: “be watchful, stand firm in the faith—act like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.”

This passage is full of verbs. To be watchful and stand firm is to be manly; i.e., to be strong. It must be done in love—this is where virtue comes in—but more fundamentally it must be done.

This is hard for Western Christian men to get their heads around. We are so conditioned by the neo-Gnosticism and antinomianism and passivity of modern evangelicalism that we think virtue and wisdom, being spiritual, are therefore “internal”—not something we do but something we think or believe.

Not so in Scripture. Consider James’ view of wisdom:

Who among you is wise and unde…