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Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Quintuple Commands to the Childish Corinthians

As Paul concludes his first letter to the church at Corinth, he quickly fires off five consecutive commands, as found in verses 13-14 in chapter 16. The Corinthians were being childish (13:11; 14:18-20), carnal (3:1-4), and quarrelsome (1:10-13). He counters their chaotic inclinations with these five faithful exhortations.

1 Corinthians 16:13–14 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity.

1. Watch ye.

  • Luke 12:39 And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched...
  • 1 Thessalonians 5:6 Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 
  • 1 Peter 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
  • Revelation 3:3 ...If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

Churches have no need for blind leaders of the blind. They need members who are not asleep but spiritually awake, who walk circumspectly & pay attention, who are ever on guard. Duty never ceases, and evil never sleeps.

2. Stand fast.

  • 1 Corinthians 15:58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
  • Colossians 1:23 …be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard
  • Luke 18:1 …men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
  • Ephesians 6:13 ...and having done all, to stand.

Church members must be firm and fixed, stedfast and unmoveable, if they will abound in the work of the Lord. Paul does not exhort to be stubborn for the sake of stubbornness. The Corinthians are encouraged to stand firm and stedfast “in the faith” and not be moved away from it (Galatians 1:6). The faith is the truth of God’s word as revealed in the Scriptures (Jude 3).

Stand fast ←We are in a battle→ Quit you like men

3. Quit you like men.

  • 1 Samuel 4:9 Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight.
  • 1 Corinthians 14:8 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?
  • 1 Timothy 1:18 ...that thou by them mightest war a good warfare;
  • 2 Timothy 2:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Quit you like men (act like men) is strong military talk, Buck up to the task; be brave. We are in a battle for the cause of God and truth. We are in a battle for the souls of men. The churches need courageous men and not cowards (John 10:12-13); mature men and not adolescents (13:11); strong men and not effeminate (6:9). The churches need men who will watch, who will stand fast, who will be strong – and act like men.

4. Be strong.

  • Ephesians 6:10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
  • 2 Timothy 2:1 Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
  • Joshua 1:6, 9 Be strong and of a good courage...
  • Isaiah 35:4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not…
  • 1 Corinthians 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
  • Psalm 27:14 Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!

The churches need grown men, not childish adults; strong men, but men who find their strength in the Lord and not themselves. We work through the power that worketh in us (Philippians 2:13). Without Jesus, we can do nothing, but in him we can do all things. Let us lay aside the faux human pretense of power, and find our strength in him (2 Corinthians 12:10 ...for when I am weak, then am I strong).

↑The Corinthians were being childish (1 Corinthians 1:11-12; 3:1), and they were not acting in love.↓

5. Let all your things be done with charity.

The fifth imperative subsumes the previous four: it encompasses them all, characterizes them all, and completes them all (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

  • Charity never faileth: watch ye.
  • Charity suffereth long: stand fast.
  • Charity ... endureth all things: quit you like men.
  • Charity ... beareth all things: be strong.

Charity … rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth … Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John 15:13).

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