Where Have All the Young Men Gone?

I am a Christian young man in my 20’s, newly out of high school, and attending university. All my friends are young men with similar stories (although many have joined the workforce). Personally, I look around the church and ask, where have all the young men gone? This may seem to be a very odd question to ask. But I don’t think it’s totally out of line for the church to ask this question. When I look at my friend circles, I see a shrinking amount of Christian young men: I have seen too many friends fall away from the faith they grew up with. I have seen the world use every trick up its sleeve trying to lure the faithful into its deadly snares. At the risk of being overly pessimistic it seems to be winning.

It saddens me to walk into Bible classes, chapels, or churches and see young men shell shocked and traumatized from the world around them. Or even worse to see young men there with absolutely no personal love or reverence for the God that they are outwardly worshiping. Even the faithful have been muzzled by fear, desperate to desire their God but feeling so far away from their divine Father. I want young men to find the way, the truth, and the life. I deeply want to see young men passionate about their faith, pursuing the truth wherever it would lead. But how can the church, or even more specifically how can I, help young men live a life worthy of their Fathers calling?

Fortunately for us we have help form the Bible.  The apostle Paul at the end of his life was getting ready to respond to the same problem. Paul took Timothy under his love, leadership, and  authority to show how to become a godly young man. And Timothy would eventually lead churches and honor God through his life.

Paul wrote two letters to Timothy instructing this young man in the faith. The first book seems to be dedicated to showing Timothy how to lead the church. The second book seems to be dedicated to guiding Timothy as a young man in the faith. So to find instructions for young men today, I believe we will find our answer by looking at what Paul commanded Timothy, as an old man to a young man. I believe that if we hear and echo the call for young men like Paul does to Timothy, we will see a resurgence of young men entering the church and becoming responsible to uphold the next generation of believers. Today I want to look at Second Timothy as a guide for how young men can live faithfully for God.

The Church can Help by Honoring Faithful Young Men (2 Timothy 1:3-7)

The first thing Paul does with Timothy is encourage him. Now this may sound counter intuitive, but actually shows a great secret into the hearts of young men. Paul encourages Timothy by encouraging and remembering the faith that Timothy displayed. Paul says that he longs to see Timothy that he may be filled with joy. After this he encourages Timothy to fan into flame the gift God has given him. Christian parents, elders, and leaders of young men alike, remember what Paul’s first words to Timothy. It is not how to act, it is not what he expects, although these will surely come. The first thing he talks to Timothy about is how proud he is of Timothy and how greatly he longs to see Timothy. You see this is what relationships with young men thrive on. Young men love to feel needed and worthy of honor. I have heard stories of soldiers, specifically navy seals (your welcome Rob), who were about to go through something difficult, and the thing that kept them willing to suffer some of the worst pains imaginable wasn’t the thought of being accepted into the seals, but rather that people would be proud of them for going through it. I would be willing to doubt this, but I have been around guys long enough to see multiple young men, absolutely melt when a young woman gives them a compliment. I have seen young men, remember encouragements they got in middle school. I have seen young men accomplish amazing physical and intellectual feats, just in hopes that they would be honored by somebody. The fact is young men want to be honored and valued. Paul seems to know this by addressing Timothy in this way, and I think the church can learn from this. Learn to praise young men when they do something good, if your son stands up to the school bully praise him, if your grandson is known to be a hard worker let him know God has blessed him with that gift. If the church is willing to praise righteous young men, you will see an outpouring of men trying to act righteously. If young men even start to accept that their good actions are worthy of honor, they will begin to push each other to act better and better.

To Glorify Christ is a Meaningful Calling (2 Timothy 1:8-18)

Paul than tells Timothy about the calling God has called himself and Timothy to. Of course, the specific duties of this calling will be followed after this throughout the second letter to Timothy, but I want to spend some time talking about what it means to be called. Paul explicitly talks about this calling in verses 8-12 which reads:

“Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher, which is why I suffer as I do.”

He first tells Timothy we are called not because of our works, but only because of God’s own purpose and grace. He then talks about what Jesus has done, and all Jesus has fulfilled, and because of this Paul is suffering as he is. It is crucial that young men understand that they fit into something bigger than themselves, that they are doing all this not for selfish gain but rather for God. When young men don’t understand the reason why they should act good they don’t have any sense of responsibility to act good. But when they understand the ‘why’, when they understand their calling, when they see something bigger than their own desires, then they are willing to do courageous things in the service of that bigger calling. Look throughout the world today and you’ll see young men, become enthralled and willing to suffer for the causes they submit themselves to if they truly believe it is for a noble cause or purpose. Whether it be the good of the nation, the success of their political party, or even to protect a friend, young men are excellent at buying in whole heartily when they believe something is truly good and noble. To do all this though they have to believe that their calling is worth it. Which is why Paul shares his suffering and talks about the calling of the Lord. Paul makes clear that Jesus is the only thing truly worthy of living our lives for. We have the duty to convince young men that Jesus is worth every ounce of their being, that Jesus is worth their faith, because Jesus is the only one who loves them enough to die for their sins and bring them to live in heaven with Him. If we can start to show young men what they are called to, we will see masses of young men do what ever it takes to live up to that calling.

Perseverance in struggle (2 Timothy 2:1-13)

In this chapter Paul encourages Timothy to endure suffering for the sake of the grace of Jesus and for the Church of God. There is something about people, and particularly young men, that joins them together in suffering. I can think of my days playing basketball. I think of the games we won by blow out compared to the games we come out winning by just a single point, those single point victories where everybody has had to put their body on the line always make me feel proud to be one of the guys on my team. Even though we had to go through suffering, bruises, blood, sweat, yelling, and trash talk, we all went through it as one, through the suffering we became bonded to each other. And that’s basketball the smallest of scales. When we look at the Christian life there is something special about suffering for Christ. We become bonded with our fellow Christian brothers and sisters. We are united as one church against the world. Young men know of the suffering of the world, and the righteous among them are willing to suffer for the glory of God. We need to encourage those suffering for the glory of God. Whether it be those taking a stand against the world, or those risking their hearts by forgiving a friend again, or whether it be those who are just going through suffering as a part of God’s plan for their life. If we can encourage young men to embrace their suffering for the glory of God, they will be strengthened and once again be living lives in service to God.

Unity in the Spirit (2 Timothy 2:14-26)

Paul advises Timothy not to stray from the faith in “irrelevant babble.” We should instruct young men not to stray from doing God’s will through worldly philosophies and dividing the church. Rather young men should strive to unite the church and to be devoted to living for the glory of God. Sometimes the pride of young men arguing can lead to splits in the church, or to turning away from the Bible and instead to philosophy for ethical answers. Young men should be loyal to the church and one another, truly trying to unite for God’s glory. They should be attacking sin and the world, not their Christian brothers for credit. Although if their Christian brother sins they should do everything to reveal his sin and have him repent and fix his sin, in this way saving him from being tricked by the devil. When young men are united so deeply, for the purpose of glorifying God through their lives they become a force that changes the world for the glory of God. We as a church need to start encouraging good, loyal, Christian friends-particularly with young men, one’s who will be united to do the will of God in the world. If the church community can help create more deep friendship bonds, we will see such an upside, when they start to act in unison to change the world. Christian friends will also keep our young men from feeling alone, helpless, or pointless in the world. We need to intentionally be making strangers as close as David and Jonathon and keep even the most dysfunctional brothers like Jacob and Esau from splitting up.

Standing Against Evil (2 Timothy 3:1-9)

Paul advises Timothy here to stand against those pretending to be godly but really are lovers of pleasure. Paul tells Timothy to stand against “lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power,” but rather instructs Timothy to be holy. Paul tells Timothy to watch for such people “for among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women.” You see young men aren’t supposed to be the people who just show up and do the bare minimum to look like they are saved. Young men are supposed to be battling the evil in the world. Young men are supposed to actually be godly and battle against just following their pleasures. Young men are to be protecting women from bad men. Young men are called into faith not to simply become mundane Christians, but rather to be passionate in living out the faith entrusted to them. As a church we are called to hold our young men to such a standard. We should not expect from them to simply not do evil, but rather be doing God’s will and bringing God glory within the world. Look at the young men of the past unafraid to call out the church when it was not being godly. Expect young men to care about what is being said about the church. Expect young men to care that the truth is being declared, expect them to stand up against heresies. A bad soldier after all is just one that follows orders, a good soldier cares that his orders are righteous. Expect young men to care for the women in their lives, to defend them from dangerous men. The only way to stop bad men is to have good men willing to battle against evil. Young men used to be the people courageous enough to battle against evil, for some reason we have told them to stop battling, and when the battle stopped, they saw they had no purpose and they left, and because of this the devil has been beating us in almost every battle since. If we want them back, arm them, prepare their minds for battle against the enemy. A good man is not a man who does nothing, a good man is one who does something when everyone else does nothing. If we expect young men to lay down their lives in defence of the truth, we will be amazed at the courage that our young men can express, amazed at how many men will rejoin the church when they see their friends working against the evil in the world.   

By Scripture Alone (2 Timothy 3:10-17)

Paul than tells Timothy who his authority is, and that authority is scripture. Paul goes on to say in verse 16-17 that “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” The man of God is made complete by scripture. The man of God is taught, corrected, and trained by scripture. Upon scripture is the young man’s foundation built, scripture will be the guide for his life. With scripture young men will teach the church. With scripture young men will correct the failings of the church. With scripture young men will train their followers and children, so that every generation will submit to its holy authority. Scripture will equip the young man to live a holy life. I believe that this is one way the modern church has failed young men, we have made scripture trivial, obeying it means your legalistic or extreme. To desire to live out what the scripture says is to be rebellious to the tolerance of sin our culture wants us to have. We have made learning about scripture and the truths it has as something reserved for colleges or universities. We abandon scripture to become red-letter Christians, or those who only revere the new testament and because of this we start to let sin come in and it pulls our young men with them, pulling them into the world that eventually kills them. Look at history, look at the reformers. When Martin Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin, stood up to the catholic church, they stood up in defense of the scriptures. Through the scriptures they argued for change, looking at the scriptures they reformed their towns in obedience to each verse they read. They definitely got some stuff wrong, but they truly strived to be as obedient to scripture as possible. Now look at the young men of today, the modern young man doesn’t read his Bible unless persuaded to at church or youth group. Let alone actually try to live by its commandments. Jesus said, “If you love me keep my commandments,” (John 15:14), the young men aren’t passionate about there faith, not loving their Father in heaven, all because they aren’t reading their Bible. Because we haven’t stressed to them the value of the scriptures. They can’t keep their Father’s commands because they have not read their Father’s commands. Our young men are incomplete because their Bibles have a layer of dust over their beautiful lifegiving words. If we want to be intentional about the young men that will grow to raise the next generation, we must have them be obsessed with the scriptures.

Declaring the Truth (2 Timothy 4:1-8)

Paul then instructs Timothy to preach the truth and rebuke false teaching. Young men are to be those who think deeply about what they are being told. They are to battle heresies when they see awful lies starting to convince others. They are to have sound minds relying on clear thinking so that they are not swept into foolishly following the world or false teachers of the faith. They are to demand that their teachers teach them and not merely tell them what they want too here. Not only are they to battle false teaching, and rebuke those distorting the gospel message, but they are also to be the ones spreading the gospel message around the world. The young men of history knew this, and spent their blood, sweat, and tears, in lands they did not know in hopes that they could bring Jesus to all humankind. Like Jim Elliot who died trying to convince indigenous people in Ecuador of the God who loved them. Like William Carey who spent all his time and effort trying to get Christians in India. Like Hudson Taylor who saw the Chinese people’s souls as more important than his comfort and lived his days dressing like the Chinese people around him, trying to reveal the glorious message of Christ. The church does good if we can unite young men, in passion and wisdom, and send them out to share the message of Christ into the world.

Conclusion: a Final Call 

Church, I know the faults of young men, being one myself I am around them more often than pretty much anyone else. I know they are reckless, overly confident, brash, disrespectful, loud, awkward, foolish, and too focused on the moment. But I also see the possibility of the church using what these young men have to offer. What if we had a whole group willing to be courageous where no one else was willing to be, what if we had a group that cared more about Jesus than their own personal safety or security, what if we had a group willing to speak out and stand against heresies and wickedness, a group willing to lay down their bodies and comfort for what is righteous and true. Can you imagine a church willing to gather and unite young men, then send them to battle the world together? Could we possibly welcome young men back, and show them how to be responsible and show them how to live godly lives? Could we create the next faithful generation? Or will we continue to let our young men fall away and encourage them to stay on their current trend to living lives that are ultimately meaningless in every sense of the word.