When King David was about to wrap up his life on this earth, he called his son, Solomon, said this to him:

“When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. “I am about to go the way of all the earth,” he said. “So be strong, act like a man,” 1 King 2:1-2NIV

Wow! Wow! Act like a man? What was Solomon acting like? Or, what was David’s fear that his son, Solomon, would be acting like in the future?

Is there any other option for Solomon to act other than like a man? I hope and pray Solomon didn’t act like a woman, did he? The Bible doesn’t tell us that. Then what was King David saying to his son, Solomon, when he says, “act like a man?”

At the end of his age, the old king, King David, realized that there are two choices for a man to choose from in his life, i.e. to live and act like animals or to live and act like a man.

A man chooses to live and act like animals when he neglects and rejected his origin, how he was created. Listen,

“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and. . .God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him;” Genesis 26-27NASB

When a man knows his origin and creation, he lives and acts like a man. If not, he lives “like unreasoning animals, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like animals they too will perish.” 2 Peter 2:12NIV

Did you see that?

Hmm! We may even be able to conclude at this time that a man without God is nothing but an animal because man can find his honor, glory and “humanness” only in God. When a man rejects God or becomes a god of his own life, he looks for his honor, glory, joy, peace and rest in all wrong places, mainly in his sexuality. He consciously or unconsciously lives for his sexual fulfillment, trying to get to that fulfillment in one way or the others, vocationally or financially or both. His purpose of life centers and revolves around these. His views of life, how he views himself and his counterparts, women, become distorted and twisted. He starts claiming, “Food for the stomach and the stomach for food, and God will destroy them both.” He completely forgets why God gave him his body. “The body, however, is not meant for sexual immorality but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.” 1 Corinthians 6:13NIV

This young man, who tries to find his honor and glory in any other things than God, wants to get married.

You may probably say, “Praise God! That is good!”

And my question for you is, “What is good?”

“A man who seeks his honor and glory in things seeking the honorable institution called marriage?”

This is not good!

Right after “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Genesis 1:26NASB, God created an institution called marriage between one man and one woman.

Because God is the Creator of man and marriage, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” Hebrews 13:4NASB

A man may come to this world as a male but he can be a man only when he finds his honor and glory in the God who created him. When he knows God, he knows that his creation is completely different from animals and that he is created for the glory of God, “For a man. . . is the image and glory of God” 1 Corinthians 11:7NASB

Then how can a man who finds his glory and honor in God acts and lives like animals? He can’t!

When this honorable man comes into the honorable institution called marriage, he knows his call. His call is to lay down his life for his wife. Listen:

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” Ephesian 5:25ESV

Animals live for their instincts. They care less for anybody. When they get hungry; they look for food and eat. They are not rational or reasoning creatures. They don’t say, “Oh my! I am too selfish to finish this food all by myself. Let me share with my wife and kids!” No! They won’t say that because they are “unreasoning animals.”

The honorable man doesn’t live in his instincts. He has mind. He thinks and reasons. He strives to live according to “the instruction” written in the Manual (the word of God). He strives to love his wife to death through which he finds his life.

Jesus says,

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:24-25ESV

What does “hating life in this world mean?”

It means not living for self but living for the glory of God. A husband lives for the glory of God when he strives to love his wife. There is no other highest way of glorifying God for a man in his marriage as that. This is the highest call for all husbands: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,”

A man who loves his wife becomes a responsible father, provider and care-giver. He is not a jerk who lives only for himself like animals.

In short, “act like a man” means you are an honorable man created by God’s own image and likeness. Seek first your honor and glory in God before you find yourself in a spiritual and an honorable institution called marriage between one man and one woman. Marriage is created by God for only creatures of God created in the image and likeness of God, i.e. YOU! ///