What Makes Men Passive?

 I am working through a book with men from church, “The Titus Ten” by Josh Smith. 

In discussion this morning the question was posed, “What causes Christian men to be passive?”

This question gave me pause and I think is worth breaking down an attempt at an answer. 

Simple answer, Sin. 

Many understand the first Sin in scripture to be Eve’s disobedience by eating the forbidden fruit; however, the text says that that she ‘also gave to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.’ Gen 3:6. 

Adam was with his wife, who he was given by God, while she was tempted by a serpent. He watched while the snake twisted the words of the creator, and watched as his wife did the one thing God had forbid her to do, and yet he did not enter the arena. Passivity. This is truly the first Sin that I see in scripture - Adam’s failure to act. That was HIS wife that he was instructed to tend and keep. 

In Officer training with the Marines a phrase was hammered into my psyche - ‘Indecision is a decision.’ That phrase haunted my brain as I slept at night. It was a warning. If you don’t make a decision, you are deciding to lose your men to the enemy. Death will visit your platoon if you fail to decide and act. The phrase stays with me today. Every time I watch one of my children do something that requires discipline I hear it in the back of my mind, ‘indecision is a decision’ - will I decide to discipline? If I passively let the situation melt away without doing so, am I inviting death to visit my child? That may seem extreme but we know that when Sin is allowed to fester in our soul, death is indeed what awaits. 

So what caused Adam to be passive? What tempts me to be passive today? What lives inside of every man on earth that whispers, ‘it’s not a big deal, it’ll be okay’?

Fear? Do we fear making the wrong decision so much, do we fear the rejection or the thoughts of others so dearly, do we love so much to be liked, that we fail to act? The devil does not create, he distorts. Fear is actually a requirement and it is a good thing.. when it is rightly placed. Fear of anything but God is misplaced fear.

“Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matt 10:28

When you fear something you are recognizing its power over you - rightly align your fear. There is only one who holds this power and is worthy of your fear. 

Weariness may be another reason. We may be so tired of trying and failing that we become passive. A man in our book group shared an example of trying to lead someone who did not want to be lead and he grew so tired that he stopped leading. 

-As Christian men, we do not have the liberty to get tired- Matt Truax

Spurgeon - “By Perseverance the snail reached the Ark.”

Paul urges the church in Galatia, “do not grow weary while doing good”. 6:10

Passivity can be self preservation. We may think that to survive comfortably we must remove ourselves from situations. Well firstly, where did we get the notion that comfort was something to be desired? But I will draw in a concept from warfare. Self preservation is at times necessary - but it is a means and not the end. MCDP 1 dives into this with the notion that we defend out of weakness - in order to build strength, momentum, planning, in order to once again take the offensive. Sure the defense is the strongest form of warfare - you risk the least, but you gain no ground. You defend so that you can attack. Which means there is an objective you are after, and it is not just keeping the high ground. 

Christian men are not called to simple maintain the ground, we are called to advance. 

My takeaway from our discussion this morning is this. That in order to act, in order to make sound decisions, in order to root out passivity, we must be so rooted in scripture and in the Gospel that it is an automatic part of our analytical process. It must be the filter through which every decision must pass, and yes even that harrowing decision that is indecision.