The Men of this generation

“And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?” (Luke 7:31)

One need not be a sociologist to observe the peculiar asymmetry of the modern congregation. In the small, earnest assembly where I serve the Lord, the phenomenon is as visible as it is tragic. The pews are well-populated with women: faithful, engaged, and carrying the invisible weight of a household’s spiritual welfare. Beside them, however, sits a void. Or, if the seat is occupied, it is too often filled by a man whose body is present but whose mind has long since retreated to the trivial comforts of a secular twilight.

It is a sad reality that invites a sharp, clinical diagnosis. If these men were absent due to some great and noble exigency, if they were away fighting just wars, building cathedrals, or tending to the plague-stricken, one might view their absence with a certain honorable melancholy. But they are not. They are absent because they have surrendered the high drama of the soul for the low flickering of a screen. They have traded the eternal for the ephemeral.

Whereunto shall I liken the men of this generation?

They are like children sitting in the marketplace of life, distracted by toys while the funeral procession of a dying culture passes by. The modern man is under attack, certainly; the cultural currents run swift against him, eroding the banks of his traditional responsibilities. But we must be honest enough to admit that he is also willingly disengaged. He has not been conquered; he has capitulated.

The instruments of his surrender are banal. He is a creature captivated by the glowing rectangle of the smartphone, scrolling through the endless, narcotic trivialities of Tik-Tok or Facebook. He is the hunter who pursues the stag with a passion he denies his Savior; he is the quarterback of the armchair, analyzing the defense of a football team with a mental acuity he refuses to apply to the defense of his own family’s soul. If the choice is placed before him, the agonizing, bleeding Savior on one hand, and the anesthetizing comfort of a video game on the other, he does not violently reject the Lord. No, his rejection is far worse: it is a cold, polite indifference. He thanks the Savior for His blood, checks his watch, and informs Him that he is simply too busy being entertained.

This indifference is the spiritual gangrene of our age. It is a refusal to grow up.

Consider the historical precedent. From the dawn of the Christian era, from the very garden of the Resurrection, it was the women who were first at the tomb. They were there while the world was yet dark, driven by a devotion that defied fear. And the men? They were hiding, confused, or absent. Today, the dynamic persists. The wives and mothers in our churches are the spiritual Atlases, bearing the world on their shoulders, while their husbands remain in a state of perpetual adolescence, engaged in hobbies that are essentially meaningless in the economy of eternity.

To the young men, and those coming of age, let this be a challenge that pierces the heart: Is this the sum of your existence? Were you created in the image of the Almighty simply to achieve a high score, to bag a trophy buck, or to passively consume the creative output of others?

We are in desperate need of a revival, not of emotion, but of attention. We need men who will shake off the lethargy of this age. We need men who will look at the distractions of YouTube and the allure of laziness and recognize them for what they are: the shackles of a wasted life.

The Lord is calling for a generation of men who will engage with reality, the grim, beautiful, blood-bought reality of the Gospel. He is calling for men who will step out of the shadows of indifference and take their place as the spiritual guardians of their homes.

Lord, help us to re-engage the men of this generation. Disturb their slumber. Shatter their toys. And may they find, in the service of the Suffering Savior, a cause that is finally worthy of their strength.

Pastor Thomas Irvin 
Victory Baptist Church 
Coden, Alabama