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Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the
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Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the
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forces of evil. Your hosts are Jobimarton and Kyle Thompson, and they stand
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ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.
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Hi guys, welcome back. All week this week we're going to be looking at claims
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of toxic masculinity from our culture, and then we're going to see what the Bible
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has to say about those claims, and we'll keep hammering home the point of
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tethered masculinity as a counter to the claims of culture. So tethered
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masculinity, again our definition for this week, it's the identity and actions of
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a man submitted to the authority of scripture. So here's cultural claim
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number two, masculine leadership is oppressive. So you've surely heard this
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before, but this claim is not mostly said for the most part, it's mostly
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screamed out by people, you know, they'll shriek things like the patriarchy, the
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patriarchy, the patriarchy, which is ultimately just short form for the claim
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that masculine leadership is oppressive. You'll see a bunch of women with
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nothing better to do dressed up and handmaids, tail outfits outside the Supreme
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Court. If they make a decision that would make it slightly harder for women to
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kill their unborn children, but hey, the patriarchy or something. But if we're
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being honest, the cultural claims aren't totally false. I mean, there are
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forms of masculine leadership that are in fact oppressive. They don't lead to
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human flourishing. And yes, it would be okay to categorize those things as
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toxic. But again, the people yelling those claims are
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painting with too broad of a brush as they try to push masculinity to the
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fringes of society. So while I agree that masculine leadership can be
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oppressive, I want to remind them that tethered masculinity is never oppressive
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because a masculinity that is tethered to the will and word of God leads
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to life and flourishing. So let's actually go to Ephesians 5. Let's start in
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verse 22. The Apostle Paul says this, wives submit to your own husbands as to
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the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is head of
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the church, his body and is himself, its savior. Now as the church submits
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to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. To
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which all the men said, Amen, right? Well, fellas, you know, that section's
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for her. It's not for you. So let's actually keep reading verse 25, husbands
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love your wives. How has Christ loved the church and gave himself up for
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her? That he might sanctify her having cleans her by the washing of the
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water with the word so that he might present the church to himself and
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splendor without spot or wrinkle or any such thing that she might be wholly
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and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as
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their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated
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his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.
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Because we are members of his body. So that's, you know, that's pretty heavy
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stuff, right? Love your wives as Christ loved the church, which leads to the
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obvious question, how did Christ love the church? Well, he sacrificed for, you
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know, he washed feet, he touched lepers, he protected the vulnerable, he
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suffered for her, right? He rebuked wolves, he went silent under false
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accusation, he took the crucifixion, nails and all without retaliation, and he
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ultimately died for her. And in Ephesians 5 and other places in scripture, we get a
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picture of the right ordering of households and ultimately society. God is the
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creator and ruler of all. He has made the man the head of the family. The man is
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to be subservient to the will of God. God gave man a woman to be his wife, a
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helpmate, made fit for him. They are to be fruitful and multiply, which means
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children. They are to jointly raise those children up in the nurture and
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admonition of the Lord and children are to honor and obey their parents. That is
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order and that is tethered masculinity. I don't do what I want to do. I do what
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God wills me to do. I don't treat my wife. However, I see fit at the moment. I am to
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love her as Christ loved the church, which is a sacrificial love. And that's not a
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one-time sacrifice, guys. It's an enduring sacrifice. So yes, if a man leads a
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life that is untethered from God's right ordering of the household, then yeah. Of
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course, you can expect that man's leadership to be oppressive. But when a man
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submits to the will of God and loves his wife as Christ loved the church,
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there is flourishing and joy. So do you listen to this? Have you bought the
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cultural lie that your masculine leadership is somehow toxic? And if you
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haven't, have you tethered your masculine leadership to God's word and his
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will for your life? Keep those questions in mind today.
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Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help
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equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star
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rating and review. Stay sharp.