Today is a celebration of fathers and everything that role of a man represents.  Men who are fathers shoulder a great responsibility in bringing up their children to follow after the Lord Jesus Christ.  In today’s culture, being a man and a father is not held to the proper place it should be.  

Men were created by God to be the head of their house including their wives and their children and this is a great responsibility.  As the head men are held accountable to the decisions that are made as well as ensuring their family is provided and cared for.  Men are also to be role models of Christ before their wives and children.

Man was created to be the provider, caretaker and leader of his family.  We see that when man was first created in Genesis 2:14-17 before Eve was created, God gave Adam the commandment to not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Once Eve was created it was then Adam’s responsibility to explain this commandment to her.

“Then the LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

God made Adam out of the dust of the ground but Eve he made from Adam.  Genesis 2:21-23 “And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”

When Adam and Eve broke God’s commandment and ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, Eve was tempted and sinned but Adam made a conscience choice to follow Eve and sin with her and rebel against God.  Adam tried to blame Eve but Adam is who is responsible for plummeting all of mankind into sin, death and separation from God.

Genesis 3:6 “So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.”

Genesis 3:17-19  “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; In toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, nd you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

Today, men have the responsibility to lead their households.  We see Joshua near the end of his life after conquering the land of Canaan for the Israelites, make this statement in Joshua 24:15 “But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”

Men also have a responsibility to train their children and in Proverbs 22:6 we have this promise.  Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it. Training up children in the fear and admonition of the Lord is the biggest responsibility someone can have.  

We also see that a husband has a responsibility to love his wife as Christ loves the church.  Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,” This command is actually saying that husbands need to be willing to lay their lives down for their wives because it is what Jesus did for the church.  This is a daily sacrifice and one that shows that when a husband is willing to lay down his own life that he is also willing to make any sacrifice necessary to show his wife that he loves her.

So in spite of all of the negativity that we see today with the “toxic masculinity” narrative, that is coming against men and fathers, it is more important than ever that men and father’s step up against this culture and lead their families in following Jesus Christ.  Let’s celebrate this Father’s Day with realizing what an awesome responsibility is placed on fathers by God and let’s encourage them to be the man who God created them to be.