Idiots. Fools. Self-centered dunces who are unnecessary for families. Sadly, these are the ways men are often described in our modern, Western nations. Why is there such a concerted effort to denigrate men? While individual situations can vary, there are two major reasons why men and boys (boys are included because they grow up to be men) are under attack.

First, husbands have not always provided loving leadership within their families. Cheating husbands, deadbeat dads and abusive men have given men in general a bad reputation.

Second, there is a very real spirit called Satan the devil who wants to destroy the role of male leadership within the family. The Bible reveals that God has a family to which He is adding children (Ephesians 3:14-15; John 1:12). Physical families mirror what God is doing spiritually. Satan hates God's plan and tries to get men and women to reject their respective roles. He subtly trashes what God describes as holy.

The family, with unique God-given roles for husbands and wives, is a very special, holy institution. Studies continue to show that the best environment in which a child can grow up is within a happy home where his or her biological parents live together and love each other. This is the environment in which a child feels secure and the one in which he or she has the best opportunity to succeed in life (compare Malachi 2:15).

Leadership

The role of men includes leadership within the family. God says that the husband is the head—the one who bears the primary responsibility for the state of the family. "For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church" (Ephesians 5:23). This is not superiority but responsibility. And coupled with this responsibility is authority to fulfill God's directive.

This authority that God gives husbands is not to be abused. Instead, husbands are expected to provide loving leadership. As Ephesians 5:25 explains, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her." Verse 28 adds, "So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself."

Godly husbands will gently treat their wives and children with affection and provide spiritual leadership that will lead to peace and happiness within their families. This is a noble and honorable role—one to which godly men aspire and willingly commit their all.

In harmony with God's instruction that husbands are to be the heads of their families, God further explains that men are to serve as the ones who do the preaching in church services (1 Corinthians 14:34-35). God gives these responsibilities to men not because they are better than women; it is simply the role God has given them in this physical life. In the life to come, both men and women will be serving God and others as spirit members of God's divine family. In other words, there will be no difference between them, in terms of male and female, at that time (Matthew 22:30). Because of this common destiny, men and women are called "heirs together" of the coming Kingdom (1 Peter 3:7). VT