What makes a man a real man?

My grandfather said you only become a man when you shoot an antelope. At university, one student claimed you are a man if you squash a brandy bottle’s lid with your foot and gulp down the contents. It goes without saying that his ‘manliness’ was a rather hazy foolishness. Men often have strange rituals that boys must undergo to become men and which distinguish ‘true men’ from others. This is why the creation story of Genesis 2 is so important, because it gives a fresh definition of what it means to be a man. This is where the human being is first called a man: when God creates a women and brings her to him. At that moment a lonely human, desperately looking for someone to help him, as Genesis 2:18 tells us, becomes a man. He immediately pledges to put his lifelong love relationship with his wife above all other relationships on earth. Love, God’s kind of love, lets men live and women be good helpers for their husbands. Love changes everyone. Whether we are married or not, Godly love is the key to being man, woman, or human. His love renews us.