Helping Men Become A Band of Brothers

All Christian men fight inner battles with their sinful nature. Lust, anger, selfishness, resentment, impatience, discontent, idolatry are just some of the forces that seek to overpower us as men.  Many times we lose these battles for a simple reason—we are trying to fight them by ourselves.

Whether fighting in the street or fighting in Iraq, men know they are likely to become a casualty if they fight alone.  The same principle holds true with the battles of our inner lives.  God has not designed Christian men to be able to walk closely with him without connection to the body of Christ. Jesus did not call his disciples into only a vertical relationship with him, meeting Peter for breakfast Monday and James for breakfast Tuesday, etc. Jesus’ call to follow him was also a call to horizontal connection with the band of brothers who became known as Jesus’ disciples.

Can you imagine what our churches would look like, if each man in our church met weekly for breakfast or lunch with another brother or two to discuss the spiritual battles they were fighting? Can you imagine the strengthening that would take place as iron sharpens iron, trust is built, men are encouraged, brothers begin to really intercede for each other’s spiritual battles, and men ask a trusted brother to hold them accountable on their issues?

The stakes are too high, the battle too fierce, the enemy too wily, the attacks too frequent, the cost of defeat too severe for any Christian man to fight his spiritual battles alone.