"A Wanted Man"

"Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?"   Proverbs 20:6

 This sentence ends with a question mark.  Surprising because one would think that with so many men proclaiming faithfulness a faithful man would not be that hard to find. But apparently they are a rare commodity.  Homes across North America need such men, but where are they?  Churches need such men, where are they?  Obviously the answer is not going to be found by talking to men, they will just keep proclaiming their own steadfast love, keep saying  there is no problem.  They  will tell you repeatedly to listen to what they are telling you.  However, despite all the talk of faithfulness and steadfast love, the search in many homes still goes on.
Sadly, many wives could echo the frustration generated by such a question, many a child has left home angry and disillusioned by such harsh realities..   Far to many homes today are filled with absentee husbands and fathers.  Men who are present in the home physically, but have checked out emotionally.  Men who make lots of promises and are full of good intentions, but that’s all it ever amounts to.  They are not engaged in the lives of their spouse or their children.  There is a lot of talk, a lot of someday,  but someday never comes. Many men today are in their own little world and the wife and children know it despite the grand  proclamations to the contrary.
It is so easy to say things, to make moving affirmations of steadfast love, but words without action are hollow, meaningless and worthless.
Steadfast love is a sacrificial love, it is a love that considers others before itself.   Steadfast love is a love that is going to persevere in spite of a thousand excuses it may have to stop.  It is like the Energizer bunny, “It just keeps on going.”  It is a stubborn, others centred love.  It is not a love that just talks a good talk, it is a love that walks the walk.  But above all it is a supernatural love.  It is God’s love flowing through us by the power of His Spirit which lives indwells every believer.   As the saying goes, “talk is cheap”, especially In the home.  Steadfast love is a love that cherishes, protects, nurtures and delights in the one being loved.   It is a love that shows itself not in creeds but in deeds.  Not in talk but in the walk.

We have  the greatest description of steadfast, stubborn love in these verses from Corinthians.

 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
 Love never ends.  - 1 Corinthians 13:1-8

To paraphrase our verse in Proverbs.  Many a man talks about the love described in vs 4-8 but what they deliver is just a whole lot of noise vs 1-3.  Noise which is about as helpful,  meaningful and soothing as crashing cymbals.  Who can find a faithful man? The world does not produce such men, the Spirit of God and the Word of God are the creators of such men.  Families, churches and society need  such men.  

  “Be men! In courage; not cowards, turning our back on the foe, or giving way in danger, or reproach, or evil days. In solidity; not shifting or shadowy, but immoveable as the rock. In strength; as the man is, so is his strength. Be strong! In wisdom. Foolishness is with childhood, wisdom with manhood. Speak and act with wisdom, as men. In ripeness. The faculties of men are ripe, both for thinking and working. They speak ripe words, think ripe thoughts, plan and execute ripe things. In understanding be men! In all things – what you do, and what you refrain from doing, be men. Act the manly part – let nothing effeminate, luxurious, sickly, childish, puny, little, narrow be seen about you. Christianity makes men, not babes. Adorn the doctrine of Christ by your manliness. In the Church, in the world, in business, in conversation, in prosperity, and adversity, [act] like men! Let no man despise you; and let no man despise the Gospel because of you.”
Horatius Bonar

Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful. - 1 Corinthians 4:2