A man’s man

Posted by Gary on January 23, 2007

Our Sunday School lesson this past Sunday was in Acts 10 the account of the Apostle Peter at the home of Cornelius. Cornelius the Bible tells us was a Roman soldier, a centurion (commander of 100 men). In every way we would say that Cornelius was a man’s man. He must have been a man of varied strengths and courage and accomplishments. When we consider the fact that he had been given charge of 100 men, we can be convinced that he was all that most would say a real man is. But these are not the only things the Bible tells us about Cornelius, most importantly, according to the Word of God Cornelius was:

Acts 10:2 “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.”

Immediately I wonder if the world considers Cornelius a man’s man now. Yes he is a soldier and a leader of soldiers but he is a leader of soldiers who fears God. Real men don’t fear anything, let alone God. To fear God means that a man recognizes he doesn’t have all the strength he needs. A man who fears God is also concerned about how his actions will be viewed by God, he does not live for himself and his desires but according to the law and standards of God. How unlike the world’s man this is. The world’s man lives for himself and declares as he pounds his chest, “I did it my way.”

As we read Acts 10 and came to the portion where Peter arrived at Cornelius’s house I was struck as I read the account:

Acts 10:24-26 “On the following day he entered Caesarea. Now Cornelius was waiting for them and had called together his relatives and close friends. When Peter entered, Cornelius met him, and fell at his feet and worshiped him. But Peter raised him up, saying, “Stand up; I too am just a man.”"

What do you first think of when you read these events? Like me you probably say, “He did something very wrong, he worshiped a man.” This has often been my first reaction when reading these verses, without question his falling down before Peter was wrong. But on Sunday as I thought about these things two things stood out: Cornelius’s humility and his hunger for God.

Imagine this scene, we are told that all of Cornelius’s relatives and friends are present when Peter arrives and here this soldier, this centurion mind you, this man’s man gets up, walks across the room and falls down at Peter’s knees. I wonder what the others in that room thought as they watched Cornelius? Whatever they thought Cornelius didn’t care. Without question his reverence was misdirected, yet it was reverence just the same. Cornelius did not have a full and proper understanding of who God was but he had a great desire and longing to know God and Cornelius knew that this was the man the angel commanded him to send for. Cornelius’s kneeling was a declaration of his desire for God and his humility before God and whatever else we might say about it, God was pleased to reveal Himself to this man and all those with him.

I came away from this passage reminded that God is pleased to reveal Himself to those who humble themselves and who desire Him. How many men will never come to know God because of their pride, their unwillingness to fear God and seek Him. Many men who have no where near the level of manliness that Cornelius had refuse to fear God, refuse to acknowledge their need of Him, will not bow their knee in front of others or in private. Men who do not fear God nor will acknowledge their need of Him will spend eternity separated from Him in hell. The day will come when God will strip the scales of pride from their eyes and they will see what they are and will mourn forever.
As my life progresses I see more and more my pride, my hardness. I think it is manliness, it isn’t; it is sinfulness. Men often want to be like other men they know, may God help me to be like Cornelius.

Isaiah 66:2 “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.”