The Masculine Mandate: God's Calling To Men

A few years ago, I spent a couple of weeks staying with a friend in South Carolina. His church didn't have an evening service, so he would frequently attend the church pastored by Richard Phillips, and he took me along that first week I was there. He preached on the role and duties of husbands from Ephesians 5 – I don't remember much about the sermon, most of his points have been incorporated into the rest of the sermons/books/expositions I've heard/read on the passage. I do remember how humbled, convicted, and challenged I felt afterward. My friend told me on the way home that we were going back the next week for sure, because after all that directed at him, his wife needed to get preached at the same way (as I recall, instead of hitting wives with both barrels like he did husbands, Phillips only gave them one barrel and used the other one at husbands again).

The Masculine Mandate wasn't as convicting or powerful as that sermon was (books seldom are, if you ask me) – but it was definitely in the same vein. The Mandate that Phillips focuses on is God's purpose of the first man (and through him, all others descending from him) in Genesis 2:15, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.” His primary concern is to show how contemporary man can and should “work” and “keep” in every sphere of life, yet this book is very Gospel-centered, and he makes it clear that the only way to achieve this mandate is via Ordinary Means-enabled sanctification.

The initial chapters developed these doctrinal points to provide a foundation for the practical chapters. While I thought he was spot-on with his teaching, and frequently insightful, I did wonder why he picked the particular passages he built these chapters around, and why others were excluded, don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that he dodged passages/topics – not at all. All in all, Phillips did develop his teaching on “work” and “keep” enough that when he moves to the more practical chapters, the reader is prepared to see the application of doctrine, not just a list of “do's.”

Like any good preacher, Philips uses Biblical examples and exemplars throughout to illustrate his points. For example, Boaz is shown as the husband model we should aspire to. And a particularly strong and convicting chapter is about using John the Baptizer as a model for a servant attitude. This put some flesh to hid teaching beyond sound thinking and his own experience.

He spends more time on the role of man in marriage than in anything else – fittingly enough – and much of it echoes what I probably heard in that sermon years ago. He covers topics familiar to many, without being stale – he even finds fresh insight (or at least it doesn't seem stale) in the well-worn territory of comparing storge/eros/philo/agape. Speaking of man as protector (as part of keeping) in the marriage, the idea that struck me most profoundly is that, “The main threat against which a man must protect his wife is his own sin.” That'll keep you up at night.

From marriage, he moves on to speaking of working and keeping as father, friend, and church member (a good chapter that could have been made better if he included more on what we unordained should do, as there are many more of us than the ordained).

A helpful book, a thoughtful – and thought-provoking book. Not the last word on the subject (not intended to be, either). But well worth the time and attention of a man seeking to live according to biblical mandates.