Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 16:13

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

13. quit you like men, be strong ] Rather, be strengthened, implying that the source of strength was not in themselves. “If you think Christianity a feeble, soft thing, ill adapted to call out the manlier features of character, read here.” Robertson.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Watch ye – The exhortation in this and the following verse is given evidently in view of the special dangers and temptations which surrounded them. The word used here ( Gregoreite) means, to keep awake, to be vigilant, etc.; and this may, perhaps, be a military metaphor derived from the duty of those who are stationed as sentinels to guard a camp, or to observe the motions of an enemy. The term is frequently used in the New Testament, and the duty frequently enjoined; Mat 24:41-42; Mat 25:13; Mar 13:35; Luk 21:36; Act 20:31; 1Th 5:6; 2Ti 4:5. The sense here is, that they were to watch, or be vigilant, against all the evils of which he had admonished them, the evils of dissension, or erroneous doctrines, of disorder, of false teachers, etc. They were to watch lest their souls should be ruined, and their salvation endangered; lest the enemies of the truth and of holiness should steal silently upon them, and surprise them. They were to watch with the same vigilance that is required of a sentinel who guards a camp, lest an enemy should come suddenly upon them, and surprise the camp when the army was locked in sleep.

Stand fast in the faith – Be firm in holding and defending the truths of the gospel. Do not yield to any foe, but maintain the truth, and adhere to your confidence in God and to the doctrines of the gospel with unwavering constancy; see the note at 1Co 15:1. Be firm in maintaining what you believe to be true, and in holding on to your personal confidence in God, notwithstanding all the arts, insinuations, and teachings of seducers and the friends of false doctrine.

Quit you like men – ( andrizesthe, from aner, a man). The word occurs no where else in the New Testament. In the Septuagint it occurs in Jos 1:6-7, Jos 1:9,Jos 1:18; 1Ch 28:20; 2Ch 32:7; Neh 2:1; and in 18 other places. See Trommius Concordance. It occurs also in the classic authors; see Xenophon, Oec. Neh 5:4. It means, to render one manly or brave; to show oneself a man; that is, not to be a coward, or timid, or alarmed at enemies, but to be bold and brave. We have a similar phrase in common use: Be a man, or Show yourself a man; that is, be not mean, or be not cowardly.

Be strong – Be firm, fixed, steadfast; compare Eph 6:10, Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

1Co 16:13-14

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

The requirements of the Christian warfare

The associations of war and battle breathe in every word of this exhortation. It touches the heart as the spirit-stirring address of a trusted leader touches the hearts of his comrades at some great emergency of the conflict. As the foe gathers in the distance, half hidden behind the brow of the hill or beneath the shadow of the forest, and it remains doubtful for the moment at what quarter the storm will break, his warning voice calls to vigilance–Watch ye. As the tide of war rolls its threatening masses onwards, and the advancing column of the enemy, grim and ominous as a thundercloud, threatens to overwhelm the slender line of defenders, the leaders clear voice is heard in the momentary hush of suspense, exhorting them to steadiness and constancy–Stand fast. As the opposing lines break in the shock of battle confusedly, like the meeting of two angry tides, and warrior contends hand to hand with warrior, the familiar voice still sounds amid the tumult, Quit you like men. As beneath the fury of the assault the line of the patriot host shakes and wavers, and the crisis calls for a courage prepared to die, but never to yield, I picture to myself the figure of the dauntless leader as he lifts his banner aloft and shouts, Be strong. (Canon Garbett.)

The demands of Christianity

I. Vigilance. There were many evils in the Corinthian Church–dissensions, heresies, unchastity, intemperance, etc. Hence the necessity for watchfulness. But where do not evils abound? Hosts surround us all; hence Watch ye. Watch and pray.

II. Stability. Do not be wavering, vacillating, tossed about by every wind of doctrine. Strike the roots of your faith deep into the soil of eternal truth. Firmness is no more obstinacy than the strong rock or the deep-rooted oak.

III. Manliness. There is nothing higher than this. There are great philosophers, poets, statesmen, etc., who are small men leagues away from the ideal.

IV. Charity (1Co 16:14). Mans life consists of many things done. Activity is at once the law and necessity of his nature. He only really lives as he acts. But while acts are varied, the animating spirit should be one, and that is love. (D. Thomas, D.D.)

Four points in the Christian life

The text contains four points that should characterise the Christian life.

I. Vigilance. It is of the utmost importance that we should set a watch over our minds; for error is, so to speak, in the air. And since the ruling ideas of the mind colour all our thoughts, and affect all our actions, we cannot be too careful, when ideas seek admittance into our minds, to test them, that we may know their character; for false and evil ideas corrupt good and healthy minds. We see every object presented to the mind in the light of our ruling ideas; like coloured glass they transform everything into their own particular shade. In religious matters this is specially important. Whenever any object is presented to the mind for our acceptance, as religious men and women let us at once betake ourselves to the law and to the testimony. This is all the more imperative since error can put on the manners of truth, and actually pretend to do truths work. There are many false teachers in our day, and error is exceedingly busy; let us, therefore, vigilantly guard the door of our minds, that no false principles take possession of them to pervert our thoughts and best feelings. We need also set a watch over our hearts. The majority of people are easier influenced through their emotions than by means of their intellects. That is the secret of the numerous fascinating shows that are so carefully and strikingly got up and presented to the eye; the exhibitors know that men are moved by such things, and that when they are in such an excited state, they may be carried away and made anything of, whether for good or for evil, just as they may feel disposed. Whenever any serious attempt is made to excite our hearts affections we should be very careful to ask ourselves the questions, Are these appeals to my heart true? Are the means used for this purpose true in the highest and best sense? We should also be careful to ask ourselves the question, Whether the objects that are seeking entrance into our hearts are pure? The wisdom that is from above, is first pure. We should also ask ourselves the furl, her important question, Whether the things that are seeking our hearts are character-making in the truest sense? Whether they are likely to make us true, just, honourable, pure, lovely, and thoroughly virtuous? Further, we must set a watch upon our spirits to guard our spirituality. The sharp edge of a knife, if pressed carelessly against a hard substance, will blunt and become unfit for use. Great care should be taken by Christian people to preserve the tone of the spirituality and vigorous point. Whatever lowers the tone of a persons spirituality hinders the progress of his higher and nobler life. If mingled with a given society; if going to the theatre; if reading a certain class of book; if either of these things, or any other practice, chills the spirit, and indisposes it to pray, it should certainly be abandoned as dangerous. We need, therefore, to set a vigilant watch over our spirits, that we may preserve a healthy and vigorous tone of spirituality that will thoroughly command our carnal passions and keep them in subjection. But I say, Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh, etc.

II. Steadfastness. Stand fast in the faith.

1. In our faith is the one true and living God. The bane of Greece was the multitude of her gods. The idolatrous upbringing of the Corinthians was, no doubt, a great hindrance to their spiritual growth. With many Christians God is a God afar off, it is to be feared; hence their apathy and inertness in regard to religion and the state of their fellow-creatures around them. There were daring unbelievers in Corinth when Paul wrote this Epistle who denied the resurrection of the dead, and who were scattering error broadcast amongst the people. Let us stand fast in our faith in God, then, that He is a very present God, who never leaves nor forsakes those who trust in Him.

2. Let us be firm in our faith in Christ as the only and sufficient Saviour. The Corinthians were in danger, from the special importance which the Greeks attached to wisdom. And if wisdom did not actually save humanity, according to them only the wise, in their sense of the term, would be saved. Paul combats this erroneous idea in the first chapter of this Epistle. So it is faith that saves, not wisdom–not true wisdom even. It is not morality that saves either. If it could have saved any one, it most certainly would have saved the rich young ruler in the Gospels.

3. Let us stand fast in the faith, that the Scriptures are the only and sufficient rule of faith.

III. Manliness. Quit you like men. These words have a martial air about them; they sound like the utterance of a great general on the eve of a critical battle that was to decide the destiny of a mighty nation. The manliness of which the text speaks includes several parts.

1. In the first place, it includes uprightness. Man was made physically erect that he might look heavenward with ease and pleasure. And mans moral conduct is to resemble his physical flame; it is to be upright. It must not have any twists in it, nor angles of any kind. The eloquent statesman, Henry Clay, propounded a political scheme to a friend once. It will ruin your prospects for the Presidency, suggested the friend. Is it right? asked Clay. Yes, was the answer. Mr. Clay continued, I would rather be right than President. Every Christian should do right; his Christian manliness demands it of him. Anything like unprincipled policy or time-serving is utterly out of place in a disciple of Christs.

2. It also includes truth. The manly Christian is a true man. He does not think one thing and speak another. His words as truly represent his thoughts as the sound of a correct key in an organ represents a particular part of music. The same consistency is apparent between his feelings and his actions. Among the important objects of his life are Whatsoever things are true.

3. And, further, it includes courage. Christian manliness is full of true valour. Fortitude is as prominent a feature of the genuinely good mans life as uprightness and truth. They will boldly enter a lions den rather than deny their God.

IV. True and manly vigour. Be strong. The spiritual life is capable of great strength–that is clear from the characters of the faithful of all ages. Intellectual greatness may only be possible to a few; but great spiritual might is practically possible to all true Christians.

1. Be strong in conviction. If we will but allow the light of the truth of the gospel to penetrate our minds, we shall be deeply convinced of its saving power, and the result will be that we shall be strong in our adherence to the truth. Let us be careful not to mistake mere tradition for troth.

2. Be strong in love. In the verse which immediately follows the text the apostle directs the Corinthians, Let all that ye do be done in love. Love is a special feature of Christianity. Love can do what no other faculty can; what many other faculties combined cannot do; hence our Lords new commandment. The loving man is a great actor–he is no dreamer, but a doer of the work of Christ.

3. Be strong in will. Strength of will is required in our struggles with the corruptions of our own hearts, and the sin that so abounds without and around us. (D. Rhys Jenkins.)

A manly Christianity

is–

I. Watchful. Because it–

1. Is enlightened.

2. Knows the danger.

3. Provides against it.

II. Steadfast. Because–

1. It understands the faith.

2. Appreciates its value.

3. Resists unto blood.

III. Strong–

1. In experience and purpose.

2. Hence immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. (J. Lyth.)

Wise counsels

1. Guard against temptation.

2. Hold fast your principles.

3. Act with courage.

4. Persevere with constancy.

5. Do all in the spirit of love. (J. Lyth.)

Three kinds of temptation

There is an indissoluble connection between a mans character and his view of life. As a man is in moral quality, so will he conceive life to be. It is only the feeble and the worthless who ask, Is life worth living? The brave and the good live worthily, and so feel life full of worth. Sin produces despair. Holiness begets courage and faith. Take, as an instance, the man who writes these words. He had known hardness; his life had been a life of trouble and change, yet he had dared to brave it. And now, summing up the lesson of his life to the men he loved, he says, Watch ye, etc. He enforces the duty. They are to watch. That duty is personal, and involves another: stand fast in the faith. As they watch they keep the faith. As they keep the faith they quit themselves like men. As these three are together bound and realised in one character they are strong.

I. Watch. The duty of watchfulness implies its need, and the need of watchfulness springs from the manifoldness of temptation.

1. There are three great conditions or forms under which temptations come.

(1) Social. True society is better than it was. Public life is purer and its standard higher. Education is more widely distributed, and as men say no man shall be ignorant, so they must come to say that no man shall make for us laws unless he be a moral man. Our commerce, too, has much of its ancient character of honour. But while we have ranch cause for gratitude, we have greater cause for watchfulness. Our society is sadly destitute of true economy, which means labour wisely directed and applied, the power of gathering in and reaping its abundant fruits, the skill and the will to make of these the most equal, ample distribution, so that they make wealth not simply for the few, but the whole. Our dangers grow from accumulation in the hands of the few, without distribution into the homes and for the comfort of the many. We spend their thirty millions on instruments of war, their three millions or a little more on education and the forming of men. Yet where lieth the strength of a people? Not in its arsenals, not in its army or navy, but in its men. The supreme need of a people is the forming of the people. There is something higher than the making of wealth; there is the making of men. The highest of all social necessities is the making of new men; that is possible only by the preaching and the teaching of the gospel of Christ.

(2) Moral. There are dangers when conventional standards of morality are unreal and unjust. See a banker who has for nigh a whole generation lived on the savings of the hard-working man, the store of the widow and orphan. See him hardly punished–it seems a little more than a severe rebuke; and some tempted lad, in some hour of great need, for miserable theft stamped through years a criminal. Look at the seducer fresh from his guilt, judged to be fit by mother to wed the daughter. And see the victim, by the same, cast out, a thing unclean. There is nothing more mischievous than standards of that kind.

(3) Intellectual. These are often said to rise from increased knowledge and activity. Nay, they rise from ignorance and intellectual frivolity. Newspapers to have power must be spiced. People must be tempted to read. And the result too often is that the mind grows so shallow that it cannot reflect the infinite heaven, So ruffled in its shallowness that it answers to every breeze of wind, and faileth ever to settle into an eternal calm, is a mind lost to holiest things, closed to dearest realities. Look at truth as needed by men for living, for dying, for eternity; and then dare no longer to be frivolous, come to have the truth, to seek the holy, to love the good, that is only of God.

2. All these dangers must be guarded against. Watch! Where a man carries that which is precious he ought ever to carefully guard it. Crossed you ever the mighty ocean on board a steamship that travels so stately and bears its hundreds in comfort and in joy? But, while all is lightness, there walks alone, solitary, watching in the very sunshine for sign of coming storm, the man who bears in his spirit that stately ship, these hundreds of lives, all the wealth she carries in her hold. And think you ever man went to sea, ever sailor guided across the ocean bark half so precious as you carry? Gifted with a nature so rich, a cargo so precious, the spirit ought to be all directed to the watching of evil, to the discovery of the good, and the place that is the haven of rest.

II. Stand fast in the faith. The man that watches will stand. From him it will not be taken–faith in God our Father, yet our King; in Christ who is our Brother, yet our Priest; in that Spirit who is our Comforter, yet our Advocate. Stand fast therein. See that no man spoil you by vain deceit. See that no passion rob you by promised momentary pleasure. Keep the faith. God gave it you, and the faith cannot be kept pure without keeping pure the spirit.

III. Be men. What is it to be a man? It is to bear Gods image. Let the young man dare to be a man, let him, face to face with temptation, look to Him who only hath the power to save. Lost in the multitude, men in the multitude lose themselves. Quit you like men. Dare to be innocent of vice, shut up the impure book, close the paragraph that speaks the unholy thing, and to be virtuous in thought, in speech, in feeling, knowing this, that the man who keepeth his own spirit pure is the man most approved of the Father. (Principal A. M. Fairbairn.)

Watchfulness, steadfastness, manliness, strength

I. Watch ye.

1. What is it to watch?

(1) It is opposed to carnal security.

(2) It implies a care of our souls (Eph 5:15).

2. What must we watch over?

(1) Our thoughts (Psa 139:2).

(2) Our affections (Pro 4:23; Col 3:2).

(3) Our words (Psa 17:3; Psa 39:1; Psa 141:3).

(4) Our actions (1Sa 15:22; 1Co 10:31).

3. What must we watch against?

(1) Ourselves (Jer 17:9; Jam 1:22).

(2) Satan (1Pe 5:8).

(3) The world (1Jn 2:15).

(4) Men.

(a) That they seduce us not into sin (Pro 1:10-11).

(b) Nor into error (Act 20:29-31; Mat 7:15; 2Pe 2:1; 2Pe 3:17).

4. What must we watch for?

(1) For opportunities of doing good (Gal 6:10), and performing our duty.

(2) For death (1Th 5:2-3).

(3) For the coming of Christ (Mat 24:44).

5. When must we watch?

(1) In time of prosperity.

(a) That you be not proud of it (Jer 9:23; 1Ti 6:17).

(b) Nor trust in it (1Ti 6:17; Psa 49:6; Psa 52:7)

(c) Nor abuse it (Jam 4:3).

(d) Nor set your hearts upon it (Psa 62:10).

(e) To improve it to Gods glory (Pro 3:9).

(2) In time of adversity (Ecc 7:14).

(a) Not to be impatient (Ezr 9:13; Lam 3:39).

(b) But to be thankful (Job 1:21).

(c) Not to charge God with injustice (Job 1:22).

(d) Nor draw sinful inferences from it (Ecc 9:1).

(e) To be better by it (Psa 119:71; Heb 12:10).

(3) At all times (Luk 21:36; 2Ti 4:5).

6. Why must we watch?

(1) It is for your lives (2Co 6:5).

(2) Many enemies watch against you (1Pe 5:8).

(3) Unless ye watch, no sin but you may fall into (1Co 10:12).

(4) The more we watch over ourselves, the more God will watch over us (Psa 121:1; Psa 127:1).

(5) The more watchful we are, the more comfortably we shall live.

(6) We have but a short time to watch (Mat 26:40).

(7) Eternity depends upon it (Mat 25:12-13).

(8) We know not when our Lord will come (Mar 13:33; Mar 13:37; Luk 12:37).

II. Stand fast in the faith.

1. What faith must we stand fast in?

(1) That God is (Heb 11:6).

(2) That He is a rewarder of all that come to Him (Heb 11:6).

(3) That the way to come to Him is by Christ (Heb 7:25).

(4) That this Christ is God-man (Joh 1:14).

(5) And hath satisfied for our sins (1Jn 2:1-2).

(6) And now intercedes for our souls (Heb 7:25).

(7) That by His satisfaction and intercession our sins may be pardoned (Rom 8:33-34).

(8) That He will come again at the last day (Act 1:11).

(9) That He will judge all the world (2Co 5:10).

(10) That the wicked will then be condemned to hell, and the righteous received up into glory (Mat 25:46).

2. Why stand fast in this faith?

(1) Otherwise we can do no acts of piety (Heb 11:6).

(2) Nor have our sins remitted (Gal 2:16).

(3) Nor our souls saved (Act 4:12).

3. What are the means of this steadfastness?

(1) Search the Scriptures (Joh 5:39).

(2) Converse much with God in prayer.

(3) Entertain no doubting thoughts.

(4) Indulge no sin, lest it debauch your principles.

(5) Oft frequent the public ordinances (Rom 10:17).

III. Quit you like men.

1. What is it to quit yourselves like men?

(1) Carry yourselves like men.

(a) Like rational creatures. What more rational than that we should serve Him that made us (1Co 6:20); choose the best things before the worst (Isa 55:1-2); mind our own good and welfare (Mat 16:26); do to others as we would have others do to us (Mat 7:12); and submit to Gods will (Lam 3:39).

(b) Like those who have immortal souls (Gen 2:7).

(c) Like those who are capable of the enjoyment of God Himself (1Co 13:12).

(2) Be valiant and courageous as men (Eph 6:10-11).

(a) Be not daunted with afflictions (2Co 4:16-17).

(b) Nor drawn aside with prosperity (Mar 4:19).

(c) Press through all difficulties for heaven (Act 14:22).

2. Why quit ourselves thus like men?

(1) We have many potent enemies (Eph 6:11-12).

(2) Without spiritual courage we can never conquer them.

(3) The reward will make amends for all (1Co 15:58).

IV. Be strong–

1. In faith (Mat 15:28; Rom 4:20).

2. Love (Mat 22:37).

3. Trust on God (Job 13:15; Heb 13:5-6).

4. Why? Be strong and courageous.

(1) The stronger your graces are the weaker will your temptations be.

(2) The stronger your grace is the greater will your comfort be (Joh 14:1).

(3) Be but strong, and you need not fear but to press through all difficulties, and get to heaven. (Bp. Beveridge.)

Stand fast in the faith

I. The object indicated.

1. The gospel requires faith.

2. Has a right to demand it.

II. The duty enjoined.

1. Adherence to its doctrines.

2. Conformity to its precepts.

3. Advocacy of its claims.

III. The importance of this duty. In its bearing upon–

1. Ourselves.

2. Others.

3. The cause of God. (J. Lyth, D.D.)

Christian steadfastness

We address this to new converts, restored backsliders, and to Christians generally.

I. The necessity for Christian steadfastness.

1. Many foes to contend against.

2. Much difficult service to perform.

3. Only the steadfast know true happiness and peace.

4. Lack of steadfastness is dishonouring to God.

II. Its means.

1. Prayer.

2. Watchfulness.

3. Use of every possible means of grace.

4. Faithful, open profession of allegiance to Christ.

III. Its end.

1. A place on Christs own throne (Rev 3:21).

2. A crown of life (Rev 2:10).

3. A call to the service of heaven. (John Stevens.)

Standing fast in the faith

We might infer from magazines and newspapers that orthodoxy, or steadfastness in faith, is becoming very unpopular. But philosophy, mathematics, etc., have their doctrines as well as Christianity. Note a few reasons for steadfastness in the truth.

I. The mind is so constituted as not to be satisfied with anything less than certitude. As nature abhors a vacuum, so the mind dreads doubt–dreads to be like a ship drifting in darkness and storm with neither star nor sun, compass nor rudder. What would one not give to be on solid earth, who, like Noahs dove, is thus driven? Stand fast in the faith! Buy the truth and sell it not.

II. This steadfastness is needed to withstand the influences working against us. A soldier in battle needs to stand, a tree in tempests needs to be rooted, and a ship needs an anchor; so we, in meeting the hostility of atheism and science, falsely so called, or kid-gloved, effeminate worldliness, or the supineness and apathy of the Church, need more than a feeble conviction of the truth, such as would be upset by some newly-discovered bone. Be rooted and grounded and able to give an answer, to him who asks you, of your faith.

III. Only by steadfastness in the truth can we render competent service to the cause of Christ. A man of negative opinion, though right, is a feebler power than he who is earnestly wrong. But, to be positively right, believing with all the soul, is to be an increment of might. Such were Luther and Whitfield. Such is Moody, who never even ventured to lean against the corner of a college. Truth did not run over such souls, but into them, becoming a part of their moral fibre, making them aggressive and progressive. Such are not literary Sybarites. (T. B. McLeod.)

Be strong

I. In body. Purity and (where God gives health) strength of body seemed ever to St. Paul one ingredient in his estimate of true manliness. What is brutal and sensual in your bodies Christianity tells you to conquer, so that that body and its merely animal propensities shall not become your master. All that is innocent and pure in the manly exercise of it, all that is fearless in the brave uses of it, you should cultivate, ennoble, strengthen. If you have to fight for country, truth, or right, then be utterly indifferent to danger or to death.

II. In soul, i.e., in intelleet. Be not children in understanding, but be ye men. The empty boast that there must be a divorce between intellect and religion is false. True unsanctified intellect has become too common a phrase; but there is such a thing too as unsanctified stupidity and perhaps the Church has suffered just as much from one as from the other. There is a poor weak thing that calls itself advanced thought–in which the thought is imaginary, and the advancement retrogressive–and which is, after all, merely the ghosts of old heresies, coming forth from their graves to frighten the nervous and unthinking. But real science, real philosophy, may ever win the homage of the holiest and most reverent souls. The truth they discover can never contradict the eternal truth of God. Antagonism between intellect and religion! Why the ablest thinkers have been Christians. The noblest high priests of science have also been the devoutest ministers at the altar of God.

III. In spirit. The influence of the spirit of man, acted on and illuminated by the Holy Spirit of God, will raise him to the true dignity of manhood in all his nature. There is nothing manly in being irreligious or indifferent. Would you consider him a man who was guilty of the basest ingratitude? And shall we consider the ingratitude less base–shall the unmanliness be diminished, because towards Him who emptied Himself of the splendour of the Godhead and died for us! (T. T. Shore, M.A.)

Manliness in religion

1. When Francis Xavier was passing through Navarre to his great life mission, he had to pass his ancestral castle. His companion asked whether he did not mean to visit his friends before he left Spain for ever. I defer that happiness, he quietly answered, until I shall see them in heaven. It was the manly utterance of a noble heart.

2. In the days of chivalry there was an ideal life, which our own matter-of-fact generation is disposed to despise. Underneath much that was over-strained and unnatural, there was taught a spirit of reverence, obedience, truth, and virtue, which it would be well for the world if they might be again brought back among us.

3. Even after the Fall man did not altogether lose the image of his Maker, and there is still left to him a portion which we call manliness. It is displayed by heroes on battle-fields, but the highest manifestation of it is in the consistent lives of devoted Christians. True manliness–

I. Is wholly incompatible with a half-way and reluctant obedience. If the religion of Christ be true, it is manly to confess it, and to act out our belief. They who receive the gospel in a manly spirit will shrink from no duty nor danger. Even the world will respect us when we are true to our principles. When Charles II visited Winchester during the building of his palace there, Dr. Ken was asked to entertain one of the kings concubines. This the good clergyman positively refused to do and Charles was much incensed. Again the application was made, and the stern response was, Not for his kingdom! Not long after, the bishopric of Bath and Wells became vacant, and Charles said, No one shall have it but the little fellow who would not give poor Nelly a lodging!

II. Supposes persevering persistency in the right, no matter what dangers may threaten. Soon after the Christian missionaries had settled in Fiji, the heathen held a cannibal feast in front of their residence. Shocked at the sight, the good men closed their doors and windows, when the savages insisted that they should come out and witness the custom. The captain of an American ship-of-war, hearing the startling tidings, came at once to the relief of the brave men, and offered to remove them to a place of safety. No, was the firm response; the worse these people are, the more need of our staying where we are to teach them better. When an insurrection broke out in Madagascar some time ago, before the soldiers set off, the great national idol was to be dragged forth to strengthen them for the conflict. It so happened that three hundred of the soldiers had cast off idolatry, many of whom began to waver, some through fear of death, others through love of wife and children. The leader of the party then read from the New Testament, He that loveth father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; He that loveth his life more than Me, is not worthy of Me. It was enough, and all agreed to stand the fiery ordeal. The commanding officer was much enraged, and said, in a threatening tone, The god will avenge himself upon them! The army marched forth to meet the insurgents, and came up to them in a deep ravine. Here the Christians were made to take the front rank, and their enemies believed that their destruction was inevitable. The hand of God so arranged the order of battle, that the expected course of events was reversed, and the Christians were left unharmed.

III. Means indifference to the shafts of ridicule. A poor man, being much laughed at for his religion, was asked whether these constant, petty persecutions did not sometimes half tempt him to abandon it. No, indeed, he answered; If Christians are so foolish as to let such people laugh them out of their religion, until at last they drop into hell, it is certain they cannot laugh them out again. A young friend was making his first trip in a steamer, when his acquaintance was cultivated by a handsomely dressed person, who did his best to play the agreeable. Toward the close of day, the stranger remarked, in an indifferent tone, Some friends of mine are to have a nice game to-night, in my state-room, and we shall be glad to have you join us. Taking out his pocket prayer-book, he answered, This is the only card I ever play with!

IV. Involves prompt and vigorous action. Good resolutions are not enough; they must be followed up closely and persistently by becoming deeds. A little boy in Holland was returning home one night, when he observed the water trickling through a narrow crevice in the dyke. He had often heard of the sad disasters which had happened from these small beginnings, and his first thought was to hasten home for help, but he remembered that even during his brief absence the opening might so increase as to defy all attempts to close it. Seating himself on the bank of the canal, he stopped the leakage with his band, and in cold and darkness sat by his post of duty until dawn of day. Assistance then came, the dyke was repaired, and hundreds of lives were saved. Do you ever think what a tide of wretchedness and ruin you may be the means of turning aside from multitudes of immortal beings, if you would faithfully use your daily and hourly opportunities of good? (J. N. Norton, D.D.)

The manliness of godliness

I. Things which are not manly.

1. To believe without evidence. Credulity, the readiness to receive every assertion for truth, is childish; and it is worse than childish, when evil reports are easily credited and at all welcomed. We must believe much which we can never comprehend, and therefore cannot prove; but we must be sure that the witness is true.

2. To neglect known duty. Excuses are not arguments. That servant which knew his Lords will, and did it not, shall be beaten with many stripes, etc. From which it is evident that every ones duty is according to the knowledge which he has, might, and ought to have.

3. To prefer pleasure to business. In this generation there is neither honour nor hope for the idler. And why should not this principle hold as to heavenly things?

4. To find fault with any one unless it be needful, and then face to face. I withstood him to the face, says Paul about Peter, because he was to be blamed. If mankind would but obey this rule, the happiness of the world would be doubled at once. The apostle is very severe against whisperers, backbiters and inventors of evil things.

5. To live only for the passing day. Brutes live for the present, men for the future. Forethought and prudence distinguish our nature from theirs. The wise man sent men to school to the ant: and that provident little creature is a very good tutor even for Christians.

II. Things which are manly. There are strange ideas abroad upon this subject, some concluding that scepticism, self-will, and swearing itself is manly. Some think that the more heartless, the more daring, the more manly. I give every one of sound mind at least the credit of knowing better. I am persuaded that there is truth in the saying, I dare do all things that become a man; and he who dares do more is none. It is manly–

1. To find out and hold fast the truth. All truth is precious, and the truth is of all things most precious. Little children, I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Surely in knowledge and discernment these little children were men.

2. To be serious about serious things. Men were made to laugh as well as to weep; but there is also abundant reason in the charge, Be sober. Some affect to smile at those who are religious for looking grave and speaking solemnly; but life and death, sin and holiness, are matters for deep thought; and the gospel which delivers from sin and death, and entitles to life through righteousness, is in its very nature matter to make men serious.

3. To be kindly to all, and most to the weakest. The manliness of Christ consisted largely in His gentleness.

4. To fear God more than any man or all men. Fear Him, ye saints, and you will then have nothing else to fear.

5. To overcome the devil himself by Gods help.

Conclusion:

1. You need not despair of doing this very thing.

2. By doing this you will recommend Christianity. (J. De Kewer Williams.)

True manliness

(To young men. 1Ki 2:2, and text). Buckminster says that the sublimest thing in nature is true manhood. But long before Buckminster, Terence said, I am a man, and I regard nothing pertaining to humanity as foreign to me. And long before him David said to his son and successor, Show thyself a man. And long since then we find Paul saying, Quit you like men, be strong; Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might. True manliness does not consist in–

I. The strength and size of the human body. This is the barbarian idea of manhood.

II. Intellectual greatness–which our Maker confers on very few persons in any age. We are not responsible for the lack of great talents, but only for the culture and use of what we have. True manliness lies in heart power and conscience power.

III. Chafing under wholesome restraints. It is no uncommon thing to find young persons who think an independent disregard of authority is manly, and when constrained by unavoidable circumstances to feel that the proper domain of their liberties has been invaded. This mistaken and unmanly feeling is apt to show itself, first of all, in opposition to parental authority. And the boy that frets under the restraints of home, will fret under the restraints of the school-room. And, having disregarded the wholesome restraints of home and of the school, he is now ready to disregard those of society; and it is no uncommon thing to see a young man, who commenced his unmanly course of disobedience in the family, graduating in prison. Show yourself a man, then, in living in harmony with the Word of God, your conscience, and your environment.

IV. Imitating, indiscriminately, the conduct or habits of others. There are many great men who have their eccentricities and defects; and yet it is just these that younger and smaller men almost always imitate. Many of the admirers of Alexander the Great imitated his intemperance, and not his chastity and liberality; and many of the pupils of Plato imitated his crooked shoulders instead of his philosophy. Show yourself a man, then, not by merely imitating, but emulating the virtues of others and by shunning their vices.

V. Following popular opinion, right or wrong, or any party, right or wrong. Popular opinion is generally fickle and very often wrong. It imprisoned Galileo, and erected the guillotine in France. In the Southern States it raised the standard of rebellion. There is a great deal of blind leading, and when the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Show yourself a man, by thinking and investigating for yourself. Study both sides of every important question.

VI. A reckless disregard of the opinions of others. It is not manly to say, I dont care what others think of me. Every true man cares, and ought to care. While every true man maintains his own independence of character, he is ambitious, at the same time, to merit the golden opinions of the virtuous and the good. When a man enjoys the love and confidence of a virtuous woman he enjoys, next to the love of God, the noblest thing on earth. Show yourself a man, then, by showing yourself worthy of such confidence and such love. Again, if you would have others respect you, you must respect yourself. If you would enjoy the friendship of your fellow-men, you must be a true friend to yourself. Often the worst enemy a young man has is himself. Show yourself a man, then, by being true to yourself and to your principles.

VII. It is in vain to look for true manliness where there is no virtue or honesty or honour. The word virtue comes from vir, which means a man; and to be virtuous, etymologically, is to be manly in the true sense; an honest man is the noblest work of God. In the modern sense, virtue means manly purity as well as manly dignity.

1. Now, then, he that would be honest in the much must be honest in the little. A young aspirant for office arriving at the hotel where the governor was stopping, and seeing a man whom he supposed to be the porter, ordered him to take his trunk to his room. The supposed porter charged him twenty-five cents, which he paid with a marked silver quarter worth only twenty cents. The young office-seeker then said, Here, porter, take my card to Governor Grimes room and tell him I wish an interview with him at his earliest convenience. I am Governor Grimes, sir. Oh! I did not know you were ,Governor Grimes! I beg a thousand pardons! None needed, replied the governor. I was rather favourably impressed with your letter, and had thought you well suited for the office you desire; and holding up before him the defective quarter, he said: Any man who would swindle a poor labourer out of the paltry sum of five cents would defraud the public treasury if he had the opportunity. Good evening, sir. Again, it is dishonest and unmanly to try to sell an article for more than it is worth, or to try to buy an article for less than its market value.

2. Show yourself a man, too, by respecting your own rights and honour, even if others do not; and at the same time remember that others have rights which are entitled to respect. Be courteous. St. Paul shows what should be the deportment of a true gentleman or a true lady in these few words: In honour preferring one another.

3. Show yourself a man, by your moral courage and stability of character. Dare to do right, dare to be true. Dare to say No, when you are tempted to do wrong, or to go to a wrong place.

4. Show yourself a man, by emulating the virtues of the great and the good.

5. And at the same time that you are developing and using aright your own manly resources, do not fail to recognise the real source of your success in life, to wit: the grace of God. The inspired apostle who says, Quit you like men, also says, Stand fast in the faith. And it is a fact that the great men of the world–the men whose names and whose deeds stand brightest on the scroll of fame, were men of faith in God. Conclusion: Diogenes is said to have gone through the streets of Athens, in broad daylight, with a lighted lantern in his hand, and when asked by a citizen for the object of his search, he replied, saying: A man, sir, a man. I have found children in Sparta and women in Athens, but I have not found a man. Now, I grant that since man fell from his climax in Eden, a man, a perfect man, has not been found save in the humanity of Jesus. Do you want a model of true manhood? You have it in Him. He has won His title to our heart-faith and our supreme regard by His God-like character. Christ died for us. Then show yourself a man, by showing yourself capable of appreciating such love as His; by giving Him your heart. Then and only then will you be in the line of your own true manhood. (W. B. Stewart, D.D.)

True manhood

What, then, is manliness?

1. First, it is self-respect. I need hardly warn you that self-respect has an analogy to pride, or to the wretched vulgar ape of pride which is self-conceit.

2. And next to self-respect, manliness is resistance. The true man will not bend like a reed to every passing gust of that insolent ignorance which sometimes in the light-headedness of nations arrogates to itself the name of public opinion. He will not swim with the stream either in the Church or in the State, but will strike out against its fiercest waves. He will not spread his sail to the soft breeze of flattery and self-interest, but even when menaced with shipwreck will oppose his constancy and his convictions to the fury of the storm. Resist the temptations to be idle, self indulgent, vicious, and all the more if those around you are so. Resist the prejudices and the littleness of your own profession or school or party; resist the temptations of the impulses of your lower nature; and so far from being weakened by the struggle, the strength and fire of the conquered temptation shall be to you an added element of force, even as the Indian warrior believes that the strength of his vanquished enemy passes into his own right arm. Resist difficulties! Show that you have some iron in you, and are not all of straw! There are many spurious forms of courage, and that which is often most admired is the lowest and poorest, like that of the brutes. The manliest courage is that which rises superior to the fear of man. The manly youth will have a certain disdain and impatience of evil, a certain violence of truthfulness, a certain impetuosity of principle, conquering and combating all that is hollow and base and mean. He will not be at the mercy of a wicked code of a few silly or depraved companions for a few brief years, at the cost of having to reproach himself as a fool all the rest of his life.

3. And again, manliness is self-mastery. It sits self-governed in the fiery prime of youth obedient at the feet of law. And this self-mastery cannot be had without self-sacrifice. Any fool, the weakest, dullest, paltriest that ever was, can make a drunkard or a debauchee. There is no human clay so vile, no sludge and scum of humanity so despicable, but out of it you may make an effeminate corrupter, or lying schemer; but it takes Gods own gold to make a man. No lacquer work, no tinsel suffices for the cherubim of the sanctuary. They must be hammered out of pure gold, seven times purified in the fire. (Archdeacon Farrar.)

Manliness

Manliness is not popularly associated with Christianity, and it is not difficult to see how this mistake has arisen. First of all, it has arisen because of the very prominence that is given in the New Testament to what it calls the virtues of meekness and forgiveness. Again, another cause for this popular misunderstanding arises from the mannerism of religious people. They get into a weak, maudlin condition, and adopt a voice and manner that repels any person who has got a spark of manliness in him, and thus there comes a certain smallness of mind, and a morose stupidity, that does much to strengthen the idea that to be a Christian is either to be a fanatic or an effeminate person. Another cause is distinctly attributable to the characters so often drawn by novelists of what a religious person is. They represent a man as a brave, generous, fine fellow, who was no religion at all. Furthermore, people have become accustomed to think of religion as something connected with deathbed scenes, with sickness, or as bearing an aspect of grim severity, and not at all enticing to any one who likes the free breezes blowing across the sea and across the moors, who likes a manly life, and wishes to take a manly part in it. What is Christian manliness? I answer that Christian muddiness is the courage of duty, according to the Christian ideal. Now let us try to understand this. Manliness is the courage of duty, because duty is the essence of all manliness. Courage separated from duty ceases to be manliness. There is a great deal of courage even in the criminal. That is the courage of the madman or of the devil. So mere physical courage may not be the courage of manliness in its best sense. The ferocity which makes the pugilist or the prize-fighter refuse to give in, that is not a bit more wonderful than what you find in brutes. The bulldog will do the same thing, so will the wild-cat, so will the ferret. That species of courage is not necessarily a high standard of courage. There is a certain spirit of self-assertion which is sometimes mistaken for manliness. The rough, impudent, I am as good as you, is no indication of the possession of a manly spirit. There is a spirit of arrogance which has nothing to do with manly independence. It is little more than rude incivility, arising from want of consideration from others. Manliness, as the courage of duty, must forbid such things as degrade a man. Look at Christ, the ideal man! There was a life of courage under duty to God and to others, with no thought of self. Christs life was one continual self-sacrifice. Duty to God and man is the climax of manliness. The great test of character is to be found in the manner in which the common details of life are met. It is far easier for the soldier in the rush of battle to do noble deeds than to live a faithful life in the barrack-yard, or in attending to dally drill. (D. Macleod, D.D.)

Christian warfare

I. The enemies with which you have to contend.

1. The devil.

2. The world.

(1) The men of the world engage on the side of the devil.

(2) The things of the world–honours, profits, and pleasures, how dangerous are these!

3. The flesh, by which is meant the corrupt nature, is the most dangerous enemy of all.

II. This exhortation implies–

1. That you banish unnecessary fears, and engage in the warfare with boldness and resolution.

2. That you fight in Divine strength.

3. That you persevere in the combat.

III. Motives.

1. Your cause is good and highly important. It is the good fight of faith.

2. You are engaged in the presence of many spectators.

(1) God, whose eye penetrates into the inmost recesses of your hearts. He will be your impartial judge.

(2) Angels. Shall we disgrace ourselves in the sight of heaven?

3. You fight under Jesus Christ, the Captain of salvation.

4. You are sure of victory in the end. (W. Linn, D.D.)

Christ satisfying the instinct of courage

I. Paul here appeals to the instinct of courage. In becoming Christians we do not cease to be men.

1. Courage lies midway between timidity and recklessness. In matters of daring there is a deficiency which is cowardice, and an excess which is foolhardiness.

(1) Timidity is common. Many shrink from pain, fly from danger, and in matters of principle more afraid of man that shall die than of God who must judge.

(2) Foolhardiness is common. What mad prank cannot a schoolboy be dared to do? Who has not been culpably indifferent to health, influence, and character? But often the foolhardy is a coward. The man who will undermine his constitution by vice is afraid of infection. We refuse to either of these the sacred name of instinct. They are perversions, distortions of nature.

2. Nature is brave. Nowhere is cowardice honoured.

(1) Greeks and Romans had but one word for courage and virtue. The coward in battle had better not return to face either his country or his home. The man who left wife or child a prey to violence or fire was henceforth an outlaw.

(2) Courage is the idol of the young. It is this which underlies the hero worship of the river, the course, the field.

(3) Nor will either young or old, so long as England is free or Europe Christian, fail to honour the sincerity that must speak the truth, and the conscience that would go to the stake for duty.

3. Yet courage has its abuses.

(1) There is an intellectual foolhardiness seen in the upsetting of established convictions, the inversion of established convictions, the establishment of some exploded error. Many heresies have sprung out of intellectual bravery. It has seemed so manly to contradict traditions and beliefs. But there is a mental audacity as perilous as and more culpable than that which flings away life in Alpine climbing or in the circus or hunting field.

(2) The same false courage has a more fatal place in things spiritual. What is it that sends the young traveller without arms, map, or guide on the journey of life? What is it that induces one who has been vanquished fifty times on a particular battlefield of temptation to try his chance there again? It was this instinct of courage that Satan appealed to in the wilderness. He had found it in its perversion in the fallen, but not in the perfect Man.

4. Though there is an instinct of courage in us, there are many counteracting instincts, insomuch that it must be, practically, either a rare gift, or else an acquired grace.

(1) Few soldiers probably go into the battle eager for the fray. The very faith of our immortality forbids it.

(2) We reverence and ought to reverence more the grace than the gift. If we know a person naturally sensitive, delicately organised, we admire far more in that person acquired courage, than the stolid acquiescence of one who has neither brain to throb, nor nerve to quiver. Christs courage was of this nobler, less constitutional kind, as we see from His natural shrinking from death, and yet His persistence in the path of sacrifice.

II. Christ satisfies this instinct–

1. Of physical courage by showing in Himself how they who may have not the gift may have the grace. Wonderful has been the issue. Witness the martyrs. But excitement of love, hate, bigotry, etc., have had their martyrs. But there is a courage unsupported by excitement and sympathy, in the strength of which Christians have endured in unmurmuring patience lifelong pains, want, etc.

2. Of moral courage. There is nothing in Christs character more pervasive than this. We see it in His fearless antagonism to the doctors of His age. He dared to speak the truth regardless of consequences. And thus He taught us courage. He bade us never fear truth–a thing necessary to remember in the face of the present attitude of Faith and Science. The moral courage which He showed in His teaching He also showed in His conduct; and it is here that we want most to cultivate it. Think of His solemn warnings against moral cowardice. How He bade us not be ashamed of Him and His words, and not to fear them who kill the body.

3. Of spiritual courage.

(1) The courage of enterprise and aggression.

(2) The courage of resistance. (Dean Vaughan.)

Be strong

1. Weakness is always miserable; sometimes sinful. If a man, e.g., abstain from food, having food before him; if he neglect necessary exercise and become, through inaction, enervated; if he pamper the body; if he curtail rest; under such circumstances, to be weak is to be sinful. It is to such weakness that the apostle refers here.

2. Our prayer for you is that you may be strong; and our hope of your strength is not entirely in our prayer, nor in yours. Something more is necessary. In answer to such prayer, God would say to you, You must lay aside that weight, and that sin, which doth so easily beset you. If you would be strong, you must nourish your spirit with that food which I give you. Suppose that, instead of laying aside that weight, you retain it, and refuse the food offered you. God has answered your prayer in the directions He has given you, and in bringing before you the provision for your strength. The apostle had his eye upon these provisions and directions when he said, Quit you like men, be strong.

I. The things that are necessary to spiritual strength.

1. Right and sound principle. God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but the spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind. Fear is a source of weakness, and love is a source of strength. If your religion is based upon dreading God, you will never be strong, if it is built up upon loving God you will be strong.

2. Mental and emotional nutriment. To have a strong mind, you must get Gods thoughts into it. To have a strong heart, God must be the supreme object of affection.

3. Work. The doing that which God bids us to do, for inactivity invariably brings weakness. The more you do, the more you will be able to do. You find this in prayer, and in the ministrations of benevolence.

4. Self-control and government. I keep under my body.

5. Seasonable rest. You must have repose; and if you do not get it, your power of doing sinks and dies out. You see this everywhere, and nowhere more than in the Christian Church.

6. Genial influences upon us. That which we may call light and sunshine–the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit given unto us. Flowers will not bloom in darkness; and you cannot get a strong character, except in the love of your God. Thy gentleness hath made me great. There are those who expose their children to all sorts of rigors to make them hardy, and perhaps sink them to the grave. The genial influence of real love makes the strongest character.

7. A good atmosphere.

8. Help wisely administered. If, in teaching a child, you do everything for him, he will do nothing. In helping the poor, if you do everything, you impoverish them. God never does this; but He so helps us as to bring out our own resources.

9. Abstinence from all enervating influences. From the principle of fear, e.g., and from carefulness run to seed, Casting all your care upon Him. Fear not, say to them of timid heart, be strong. 10. A will to be strong.

II. All which is essential to strength we have in possession, or within reach.

1. Right principle is given by God in revelation, and by His Spirit.

2. Bread of life has come down to us from heaven; the well of the water of life has been opened to us.

3. There is work God requires us to do.

4. We have directions for self-control, and we have examples.

5. Rest is divinely promised.

6. There is pure air in the house of prayer, in the Church of Christ, and always on the mount of religious meditation.

7. Help may be always obtained of God. We can lay aside every weight, or it would not be commanded. All that is necessary to make you strong is provided. Do you suppose the Saviour has left His work half done? or that He is doing it now partially? Conclusion: Be strong in your whole spirit, but especially in faith, in hope, and in love. (S. Martin.)

Christian strength

I. The exhortation: Be strong.

1. It is not natural, but moral strength that is here intended. A man may be as strong as Goliath, and at the same time quite as wicked. He may have the courage and magnanimity of an Alexander or a Caesar, and yet be a slave to his own lusts. The strength which Paul speaks of, like wisdom, it cometh from above, and consists in our being strengthened with all might by Gods Spirit in the inner man (Pro 16:32; Jam 3:17; Eph 3:16).

2. The exhortation is addressed to all Christians, whatever be their circumstances or situation, whether in a public or private capacity (Isa 35:4; Zec 10:6).

3. We need to be reminded that our strength lies not in ourselves, but in Christ our head (2Co 12:9-10).

II. The particular cases to which the exhortation is applicable. We must be strong–

1. To labour. The Christians work is constant and complicated; it is not the work of a day or two, as Ezra said respecting the reformation to be wrought in Israel, but of a whole life. As to the things of this life, he is not to be slothful in business, but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. But the labours of the spiritual life are still more arduous, and require greater efforts and greater self-denial (Act 20:24; 1Co 15:10; 2Co 1:8).

2. To conquer. Christians are not only labourers, but soldiers; and as such they are called to endure hardness. Seeing that so many forces are combined against us, it is necessary that great strength be exerted. We must not indulge a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind (Eph 6:11-12).

3. To suffer (Rom 5:3; Col 1:11). Gods grace is sufficient for us, though nothing else is. If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

4. To die. In order to obtain the victory and to die happy, we shall need–

(1) A strong and lively faith, well founded and brought into vigorous exercise (Gen 49:18; Psa 23:4; Psa 73:26; 2Ti 4:6-8).

(2) A well-founded and animating hope.

(3) Great strength of affection, desiring to depart and be with Christ, which is far better (1Th 1:10; 2Pe 3:12).

(4) Strong consolation, and a joy that is unspeakable and full of glory. (B. Beddome, M. A.)

Strength

Never would Christianity have made any impression upon the godless world which, eighteen centuries ago, it confronted and withstood, had its first teachers and disciples not been men of strength. It may be well, therefore, to consider–

1. The nature.

2. The extent.

3. The source of Christian strength.

(1) What kind of strength is required? Mere physical courage is not enough: we share that with the lower animals. Nor will intellectual power alone suffice; that may be sadly perverted and misused. Both of these are good in their way; but nothing save spiritual strength will carry the Christian triumphantly through the battle of life. This may co-exist with great natural timidity.

(2) When do we need to be strong? At all times and in all circumstances: more than ever before, now that the line of demarcation between the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God is so finely drawn. To live a consistent Christian life in these days, steering clear of the dishonesties practised in the name of business, and the shams countenanced in the code of society; to denounce, heedless of self-interest, with firm faith in the ultimate victory of goodness and truth, will assuredly tax our strength to the utmost.

(3) Whence are we to derive this strength? In ourselves it cannot be found; its source lies beyond the range of our natural abilities. It comes only from God, the Lord of all power and might, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy. He waits to infuse into each soldier of His the invincible strength which carries all before it. Those who profess to serve Him have no excuse for weakness. The weaker the instrument is by nature, the more splendid is the triumph of Divine grace and the testimony to the sovereign power of God. (J. H. Burn, B.D.)

True strength

We mistake strong feelings for strong character. A man who bears all before him–before whose frown domestics tremble, and whose bursts of fury make the children of the house quake–because he has his will obeyed and his own way in all things, we call him the strong man. The truth is, that is the weak man: it is his passions that are strong; he, mastered by them, is weak. You must measure the strength of a man by the power of the feelings be subdues, not by the power of those which subdue him. And hence composure is often the highest result of strength. Did we never see a man receive a flagrant insult, and only grow a little pale, and then reply quietly? That was a man spiritually strong. Or did we never see a man in anguish stand as if carved out of solid rock, mastering himself? Or one bearing a hopeless daily trial remain silent, and never tell the world what it was that cankered his home peace? That is strength. He who, with strong passions, remains chaste–he who, keenly sensitive, with manly power of indignation in him, can be provoked, yet can restrain himself and forgive–these are strong men, spiritual heroes. (New York Observer.)

Vigilance needed

If we travel by river steamer we are admonished by an inscription just below the steersmans platform not to speak to the man at the wheel. A momentary distraction from attention to his duties might, in some circumstances, involve a deviation from the vessels course full of danger to all on board. Like vigilance is needful in spiritual things. The soul must look right on, undistracted by the vain conversation of a babbling world, if she would steer her course well for eternity, and avoid making shipwreck of her faith. (J. Halsey.)

Watchfulness needed

A thoughtful scholar of a generation that is passing away was once asked if he would take some bread and a glass of wine. His answer was, No; I will take some bread and a glass of water. His friend smilingly answered, Bread and water–that is prison fare. No, said he, not prison fare, but garrison fare. And it is garrison time down here. We cant afford to be off our watch, not keeping a constant look-out for dangers that are very real and imminent. What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch!

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 13. Watch ye] You have many enemies; be continually on your guard; be always circumspect:-

1. Watch against evil;

2. Watch for opportunities to receive good;

3. Watch for opportunities to do good;

4. Watch over each other in love;

5. Watch, that none may draw you aside from the belief and unity of the Gospel.

Stand fast in the faith] Hold in conscientious credence what you have already received as the truth of God; for it is the Gospel by which ye shall be saved, and by which ye are now put into a state of salvation: see 1Co 15:1; 1Co 15:2.

Quit you like men] Be not like children tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine; let your understanding receive the truth; let your judgment determine on the absolute necessity of retaining it; and give up life rather than give up the testimony of God.

Be strong.] Put forth all the vigour and energy which God has given you in maintaining and propagating the truth, and your spiritual strength will increase by usage. The terms in this verse are all military: Watch ye, , watch, and be continually on your guard, lest you be surprised by your enemies; keep your scouts out, and all your sentinels at their posts, lest your enemies steal a march upon you. See that the place you are in be properly defended; and that each be alert to perform his duty.

Stand fast in the faith – . Keep in your ranks; do not be disorderly; be determined to keep your ranks unbroken; keep close together. On your unity your preservation depends; if the enemy succeed in breaking your ranks, and dividing one part of this sacred army from another, your rout will be inevitable.

Quit yourselves like men – When you are attacked, do not flinch; maintain your ground; resist; press forward; strike home; keep compact; conquer.

Be strong – . If one company or division be opposed by too great a force of the enemy, strengthen that division, and maintain your position; if an attack is to be made on any part or intrenchment of the foe, summon up all your courage, sustain each other; fear not, for fear will enervate you. Your cause is good; it is the faith, the religion of Jesus; he is your Captain in the field; and, should you even die in the contest, the victory is yours.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Watch ye: watching, in its usual acceptation, signifieth a forbearing of sleep; and that in order to some end. Sin is set out under the notion of sleep, Eph 5:14; so that spiritual watching signifies a diligent abstaining from sin, and from whatsoever may be to us a temptation to sin against God, in order to the perfecting of holiness, and the obtaining life and immortality.

Stand fast in the faith; be steady in the profession of the truth, and holding close to the doctrine of faith.

Quit you like men, be strong; you are as soldiers fighting against the world, the flesh, and the devil; do not behave yourselves like children, whom the least opposition will terrify and throw down; but like men, with a spiritual courage and fortitude, becoming such who have so good a Captain, and so good a cause.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

13. He shows that they ought tomake their hopes of salvation to depend not on Apollos or any otherteacher; that it rests with themselves. “Watch ye”: for yeare slumbering. “Stand”: for ye are like men tottering.”Quit you like men; be strong”: for ye are effeminate (1Co16:14). “Let all your things be done with charity”(1Co 8:1; 1Co 13:1):not with strifes as at present [CHRYSOSTOM].”In the faith” which was assailed by some (1Co 15:1;1Co 15:2; 1Co 15:12-17).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Watch ye,…. The apostle in the mean while, before he closes his epistle, thinks fit to give some proper and pertinent exhortations, which might be of general use to this church; and first exhorts them to watchfulness, not for the coming of Apollos, and a convenient season for that; but over themselves, over their hearts, thoughts, affections, words, actions, and their whole conversations; and over one another, that they go not into bad principles, and evil practices; and also against sin in general, every appearance, and the first motions of it, and particularly unbelief; and against Satan, and his temptations, who is an indefatigable enemy, and whose wiles, devices, and stratagems are many and cunning; and against the world, its charms and snares; and likewise against false teachers, who lie in wait to deceive, and therefore to be guarded against; many of which were among these Corinthians, and made this exhortation very necessary. It became them likewise to watch daily at wisdom’s gates, to wait constantly upon God in the word and ordinances, and especially to watch unto prayer, and in it, and after it; to all which it is necessary that they should be awake, and not asleep, to which the wise as well as foolish virgins are subject; that they should be sober, and not be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and the cares of this life; and that they be in their proper station, on their watchtower, keeping a good lookout, and being ready armed, to attack an enemy when descried. Many are the reasons why the saints should be upon their watch and guard; as because they have many eyes upon them; the eyes of the omniscient God are upon them, who sees and takes notice of all their actions; the eyes of angels are upon them, and even in their solemn assemblies; the eyes of saints are upon them, though watching for their good; and the eyes of evil men for their halting; and the eyes of devils are upon them, waiting an opportunity to do them hurt and mischief, if possible. Moreover, unwatchfulness exposes to many evils, temptations, and snares; to which may be added, as an inducement to watchfulness, the uncertainty of Christ’s coming either at death, or to judgment.

Stand fast in the faith: which is proper to those that are watchful; for men asleep cannot well stand. This exhortation may respect either standing in the grace of faith, in opposition to doubting and unbelief, and design a continuance in the exercise of it, notwithstanding all the corruptions of nature, and the various sins and infirmities of life, the frequent temptations of Satan, and the many afflictions and trials in the world, which may occasion diffidence and distrust; for standing in this grace, and in such a constant exercise of it, greatly glorifies God, is what is wellpleasing in his sight; and in this way saints have communion with God, peace and comfort in their souls, and much spiritual joy and pleasure: it is the grace by which they stand, and therefore should stand in it, and by which they overcome the world. Or else it may intend standing in the doctrine of faith, in opposition to a departure from it, or a giving up any part of it, or wavering about it; it becomes saints to be steadfast in it, and abide by it, whoever is against it; let them be ever so many, or ever so wise and learned, and whatever may be said against it, as that it is a novel one, a licentious one, and a set of irrational principles, and whatever is the opposition that is made against it, though bonds and afflictions, reproach and persecution in every shape attend it, yet none of these things should move them from it. Perhaps that particular doctrine of faith, the resurrection of the dead, may be greatly regarded. Moreover, standing in the profession of faith, both of the grace and doctrine of faith, may be intended; for as this is to be made, it is to be held fast, and stood fast in, without wavering, by all true believers, who have great encouragement so to do from the person and grace of Christ, and from the love and faithfulness of God, and the many gracious promises he has made. Wherefore,

quit yourselves like men, be strong; a like phrase is often used by the Septuagint interpreters, as in De 31:6, from whence the apostle seems to have taken it. It answers to the Hebrew word

, in Isa 46:8.

Quit you like men; like men of wisdom and understanding; be not like children for non-proficiency, instability, and weakness; see

1Co 14:20; act the part of men; believe not every spirit; be not carried and tossed about with every wind of doctrine; search the Scriptures, and try every doctrine by them; and having found what is truth abide by it, and be proficients in it, instructing and establishing yourselves and others. In which sense the Jews use this phrase, saying b,

“in a place where there are no men, , “study to be a man”, or to show thyself a man;”

which one of their commentators c explains thus;

“use and accustom thyself to obtain excellent things, and afterwards when there are no wise men to teach, then do thou teach thyself.”

And another d after this manner;

“”in the place where there is no man” to sit at the head and teach doctrines,”

do thou. Or play the man, as in 2Sa 10:12; act like men of valour and courage, stand fast, keep your ground, and contend earnestly for the faith; be valiant for the truth on earth; fight the good fight of faith: it is a good cause believers are engaged in; they have a good Captain and Commander at the head of them; they are provided with good weapons, may be sure of victory, and of having the crown of righteousness, life, and glory: wherefore

be strong; that is, for the faith: so the Targumist on Jer 9:3 renders the phrase, “they are not valiant for the truth,

, they are not strong for the faith: be strong”; not in themselves, but in the Lord, and in the power of his might; in the grace that is in Christ Jesus; believe in him, look to him for strength as well as righteousness; trust in his power, whose arm is not shortened; depend on his grace, which is always sufficient; take heart, be of good courage, and fear no enemy; see Jos 1:6, which seems to be particularly referred to here.

b Misn. Pirke Abot, c. sect. 5. Vid. T. Bab Beracot, fol. 63. 1. c Maimon. in Misn. ib. d Bartenora in Misn. Beracot, fol. 63. 1.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Particular Directions.

A. D. 57.

      13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.   14 Let all your things be done with charity.   15 I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,)   16 That ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth.   17 I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied.   18 For they have refreshed my spirit and yours: therefore acknowledge ye them that are such.

      In this passage the apostle gives,

      I. Some general advices; as, 1. That they should watch (v. 13), be wakeful and upon their guard. A Christian is always in danger, and therefore should ever be on the watch; but the danger is greater at some times and under some circumstances. The Corinthians were in manifest danger upon many accounts: their feuds ran high, the irregularities among them were very great, there were deceivers got among them, who endeavoured to corrupt their faith in the most important articles, those without which the practice of virtue and piety could never subsist. And surely in such dangerous circumstances it was their concern to watch. Note, If a Christian would be secure, he must be on his guard; and the more his danger the greater vigilance is needful for his security. 2. He advises them to stand fast in the faith, to keep their ground, adhere to the revelation of God, and not give it up for the wisdom of the world, nor suffer it to be corrupted by it–stand for the faith of the gospel, and maintain it even to death; and stand in it, so as to abide in the profession of it, and feel and yield to its influence. Note, A Christian should be fixed in the faith of the gospel, and never desert nor renounce it. It is by this faith alone that he will be able to keep his ground in an hour of temptation; it is by faith that we stand (2 Cor. i. 24); it is by this that we must overcome the world (1 John v. 4), both when it fawns and when it frowns, when it tempts and when it terrifies. We must stand therefore in the faith of the gospel, if we would maintain our integrity. 3. He advises them to act like men, and be strong: “Act the manly, firm, and resolved part: behave strenuously, in opposition to the bad men who would divide and corrupt you, those who would split you into factions or seduce you from the faith: be not terrified nor inveigled by them; but show yourselves men in Christ, by your steadiness, by your sound judgment and firm resolution.” Note, Christians should be manly and firm in all their contests with their enemies, in defending their faith, and maintaining their integrity. They should, in an especial manner, be so in those points of faith that lie at the foundation of sound and practical religion, such as were attacked among the Corinthians: these must be maintained with solid judgment and strong resolution. 4. He advises them to do every thing in charity, v. 14. Our zeal and constancy must be consistent with charity. When the apostle would have us play the man for our faith or religion, he puts in a caution against playing the devil for it. We may defend our faith, but we must, at the same time, maintain our innocence, and not devour and destroy, and think with ourselves that the wrath of man will work the righteousness of God, James i. 24. Note, Christians should be careful that charity not only reign in their hearts, but shine out in their lives, nay, in their most manly defences of the faith of the gospel. There is a great difference between constancy and cruelty, between Christian firmness and feverish wrath and transport. Christianity never appears to so much advantage as when the charity of Christians is most conspicuous when they can bear with their mistaken brethren, and oppose the open enemies of their holy faith in love, when every thing is done in charity, when they behave towards one another, and towards all men, with a spirit of meekness and good will.

      II. Some particular directions how they should behave towards some that had been eminently serviceable to the cause of Christ among them.

      1. He gives us their character (1.) The household of Stephanas is mentioned by him, and their character is, that they were the first-fruits of Achaia, the first converts to Christianity in that region of Greece in which Corinth was. Note, It is an honourable character to any man to be early a Christian, betimes in Christ. But they had moreover addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints, to serve the saints. They have disposed and devoted themselves—etaxan heautous, to serve the saints, to do service to the saints. It is not meant of the ministry of the word properly, but of serving them in other respects, supplying their wants, helping and assisting them upon all occasions, both in their temporal and spiritual concerns. The family of Stephanas seems to have been a family of rank and importance in those parts, and yet they willingly offered themselves to this service. Note, It is an honour to persons of the highest rank to devote themselves to the service of the saints. I do not mean to change ranks, and become proper servants to the inferiors, but freely and voluntarily to help them, and do good to them in all their concerns. (2.) He mentions Stephanas, and Fortunatus, and Achaicus, as coming to him from the church of Corinth. The account he gives of them is that they supplied the deficiencies of the church towards him, and by so doing refreshed his spirit and theirs,1Co 16:17; 1Co 16:18. They gave him a more perfect account of the state of the church by word of mouth than he could acquire by their letter, and by that means much quieted his mind, and upon their return from him would quiet the minds of the Corinthians. Report had made their cause much worse than it was in fact, and their letters had not explained it sufficiently to give the apostle satisfaction; but he had been made more easy by converse with them. It was a very good office they did, by truly stating facts, and removing the ill opinion Paul had received by common fame. They came to him with a truly Christian intention, to set the apostle right, and give him as favourable sentiments of the church as they could, as peace-makers. Note, It is a great refreshment to the spirit of a faithful minister to hear better of a people by wise and good men of their own body than by common report, to find himself misinformed concerning them, that matters are not so bad as they had been represented. It is a grief to him to hear ill of those he loves; it gladdens his heart to hear the report thereof is false. And the greater value he has for those who give him this information, and the more he can depend upon their veracity, the greater is his joy.

      2. Upon this account of the men, he directs how they should behave towards them; and, (1.) He would have them acknowledged (v. 11), that is, owned and respected. They deserve it for their good offices. Those who serve the saints, those who consult the honour and good esteem of the churches, and are concerned to wipe off reproaches from them, and take off from the ill opinion fame had propagated, are to be valued, and esteemed, and loved. Those who discover so good a spirit cannot easily be over-valued. (2.) He advises that they should submit themselves to such, and to all who helped with the apostles, and laboured, v. 16. This is not to be understood of subjection to proper superiors, but of a voluntary acknowledgment of their worth. They were persons to whom they owed peculiar respect, and whom they should have in veneration. Note, It is a venerable character which those bear who serve the saints and labour hard to help the success of the gospel, who countenance and encourage the faithful ministers of Christ, and endeavour to promote their usefulness. Such should be had in honourable esteem.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Watch ye (). Stay awake. Late present from second perfect of , to awake.

Quit you like men (). Play the man. Middle voice, show yourselves men. From , a man.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

1) “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith,” (gregoreite, stekete en te pistei) ‘ Watch ye, stand ye in the faith.” This is a Pauline imperative of fatherly instruction in a long farewell letter in which he advises caution in morals and doctrine, 1Pe 5:8; 2Th 2:15

2) “Quit you like men,” (andrizesthe) “Play the man, or act in your own behalf like a man,” not a child. Be done with fickleness of a child and exert energy with mature judgment; it is a parting reproof for their contentious, immoral, divisive behavior before the world.

3) “Be strong.” (krataiousthe) “Be strong,” In order to bear, share, and endure the childish, fickle weakness others, the Corinthians are called to manly strength, See Rom 15:1.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

13. Watch ye. A short exhortation, but of great weight. He exhorts them to watch, in order that Satan may not oppress them, finding them off their guard. For as the warfare is incessant, the watching requires to be incessant too. Now watchfulness of spirit is this — when, free and disentangled from earthly cares, we meditate on the things of God. For as the body is weighed down by surfeiting and drunkenness, (Luk 21:34,) so as to be fit for nothing, so the cares and lusts of the world, idleness or carelessness, are like a spiritual surfeiting that overpowers the mind. (169)

The second thing is that they persevere in the faith, or that they hold fast the faith, so as to stand firm; because that is the foundation on which we rest. It is certain, however, that he points out the means of perseverance — by resting upon God with a firm faith.

In the third exhortation, which is much of the same nature, he stirs them up to manly fortitude. And, as we are naturally weak, he exhorts them fourthly to strengthen themselves, or gather strength. For where we render it be strong, Paul makes use of only one word, which is equivalent to strengthen yourselves.

(169) “ Sont comme vne yurongnerie spirituelle, qui assopit et estourdit l’entendement;” — “Are like a spiritual drunkenness, which makes the mind drowsy and stupid.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(13, 14) Watch ye, stand fast.These words of stirring exhortation come in here somewhat abruptly. It is possible that they conclude the epistle so farthe Apostle intending to add immediately before sending it, the verses which follow, and which contain messages from, or commendations of their friends who were with him. Living in a profound consciousness of the uncertainty of life, St. Paul might wish not to have such references to friends with him added until the last moment along with his own autograph (see 1Co. 16:21). The Apostles mind is full of the hope of beneficial results following from this letter and from the exertions of Titus; yet, after all, everything depends upon the Corinthians themselves. Chrysostoms Note on these words brings out their meaning well. Now in saying these things, he seems indeed to advise; but he is reprimanding them as indolent. Wherefore he saith, Watch, as though they slept; stand, as though they were rocking to and fro; quit you like men, as though they were playing the coward; let all your things be done with charity, as though they were in dissensions. And the first caution refers to the deceivers, viz., Watch, stand; the next to those who plot against us, quit you like men; the third to those who make parties and endeavour to distract, let all your things be done with charity, which thing is the bond of perfection, and the root and the fountain of all blessings.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

c. Paul’s final interjected admonition, 1Co 16:13-14 .

Paul must utter a few more words of rousing admonition before he closes. His words are almost all of military force.

13. Watch Like a wakeful sentinel when the enemy is near.

Stand fast in the faith Whether foes assault or deceivers seduce you.

Quit men A single word in the Greek be men; exert your Christian manhood.

Be strong Strain up your nerve and sinew.

With charity Rather, in love; a caution against factions, and a reminder of chapter 13.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

‘Watch you, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all that you do be done in love.’

He pleads with them to be both men of strength and men of love. Strong against both what is within and without that would challenge their faith and their lives, and loving to all who are within. They are to keep alert and watchful against all spiritual dangers and in readiness for Christ’s coming (1Co 15:58), they are to stand firm, they are to behave as true men in the face of battle, they are to be strong.

‘Watch, (be alert, be vigilant).’ This word was regularly used by Jesus of what our attitude should be to His coming. It may specifically mean that here, while at the same time indicating the need to be vigilant about maintaining purity of doctrine and avoiding being led astray.

‘Stand fast in the faith.’ This is another exhortation which is constantly repeated elsewhere (compare 1Co 15:58 and 1Co 15:1-2). They are to stand firm against the Enemy, holding true to the faith, and themselves being strong in faith (compare Eph 6:10-18).

‘Quit you like men.’ They are to show by their behaviour that they are truly strong. Such an order as this might well be given before a battle, and Paul is aware of the battles that lie ahead for the churches. Even the weakest of them is to be like a mighty man in the face of troubles that might arise (see Rom 5:1-5).

‘Be strong.’ This reinforces the previous phrases. They are to be strong, strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might (Eph 6:10). In watching, in standing firm, and in battle they are to be strong with that inner strength that comes from Christ and that never yields against the Enemy and his forces. Psa 31:24 may well be in mind here.

‘Let all that you do be done in love.’ But lest any misinterpret his words he now stresses again the importance of Christian love. They are not to be hard with each other, but loving and tender. They are to show the love of chapter 13 towards each other.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Final Words (16:13-24).

Paul comes to the end of his letter with an exhortation. It has similarities to that in 1Co 15:58. This is then followed by a further exhortation to take note of their leaders and honour and obey them, and all who truly serve Christ, a commendation of them for sending these men to him to encourage him, and a greeting to them from the wider church, including people whom they knew. He then finishes with a word in his own handwriting, demonstrating that he has been using an emanuensis (a kind of secretary) to actually write the letter.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

A concluding exhortation:

v. 13. Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong

v. 14. Let all your things be done with charity.

v. 15. I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the first-fruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,)

v. 16. that ye submit yourselves unto such, and to everyone that helpeth with us and labors.

v. 17. I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus; for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied.

v. 18. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours; therefore acknowledge ye them that are such.

According to his custom, the apostle here gives the gist of all his admonitions in a few brief sentences. The unusual and abundant gifts of grace which the Lord had given to the congregation at Corinth had produced a carnal and dangerous sleepiness in their midst. Hence the call: Watch, stand firm in the faith, prove yourselves men, be strong, manfully, mightily active. Watchfulness is necessary, lest they yield once more to the sins which Paul has reproved in his letter to them, to the attack of treacherous foes, both from without and from within. This watchfulness goes hand in hand with steadfastness in faith, a faith not dependent upon man’s wisdom, but upon God’s power. This faith was a gift of God’s grace, and, as such, must be held with all firmness. It brought about, in turn, a courageous, manly attitude, and a summoning up of strength to resist the might of every foe. It is the same admonition which we find Eph 6:10-17. On the other hand, however, it behooved the Corinthians to remember that all their doings should be carried on in love. All divisions and strife must be abandoned where the real spirit of Christ lives, where the spirit of unselfish service has the undisputed mastery.

The Corinthian Christians would have a good opportunity to exercise the proper brotherly love, according to the exhortation of Paul, in the case of the household and family of Stephanas, whom he calls the first-fruits of the province of Achaia. There were earlier individual converts in the province, Act 17:34, but this family as such was the first to be received into the Christian Church by Baptism, thus becoming the nucleus of a subsequent Christian congregation. The apostle gives them the testimony that they all, the entire household, set themselves for ministering to the saints, were always ready to give their ability and their time in the interest of any service of the brethren. In return for such services, which the Corinthians had enjoyed, the apostle wants to see them willing to submit themselves to such as these, since they were probably holding offices in the congregation, Heb 13:17, and to everyone that shares in the work and labors. This admonition does not establish a hierarchy, but merely “enjoins spontaneous submission to the direction of those that are able and disposed to lead in good works. ” The gift of proper, tactful service ought to be recognized by every congregation, and the brethren and sisters that possess it ought to be honored accordingly.

As for the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, it had given great joy to the apostle. At the present time they were in Ephesus as delegates of the Corinthian congregation, and Paul was very glad of the fact. When they would return to Corinth, the brethren would surely show them that respect in love which was due them. These men were probably the principal, if not the only bearers of the present letter to the Corinthians. Paul rejoiced at their presence, because his lack of them (the Corinthians) these men had filled up. Here is another evidence of Paul’s delicate tact; for his words imply that the believers of Corinth, were they only present, would cheer him by their love and kindness; this being impossible at present, their delegates were representing them also in this respect, filling the place of their congregation in a very acceptable manner. And in doing so, they were giving recreation both to Paul’s spirit and to that of the brethren whom they represented; for such is the restful effect of friendly converse and sympathy: it cheers the receiver and reacts upon the giver. Therefore the Corinthians will surely acknowledge such men as these, not only to regard them according to their abilities, but also to treat them with due affection and respect a fine example for Christian congregations at all times.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

1Co 16:13. Stand fast, &c. There is no need of seeking a different sense of each word in this verse. If there be any difference, the word may refer to a strength of resolution; and the word to that cheerful and courageous expectation of a happy event, which the consciousness of so good a cause would naturally administer. The meaning of the next verse is, “Let all your affairs be transacted in love, and under the influence of that noble principle of unfeigned benevolence which I have so largely described,” ch. 13; the Apostle’s main design being to put an end to the faction and division which the false apostle had made among them, it is no wonder that we find unity and love so much and so often pressed in this and the second epistle.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Co 16:13 f. In conclusion of the whole Epistle, and without connection or reference to what has immediately preceded, there is now added a concise exhortation which compresses closely together, in five imperatives following each other asyndetically, the whole sum of the Christian calling, upon which are then to follow some personal commendations and greetings, as well as, lastly, the proper closing greeting and the benediction.

The summons to Christian foresight and soberness , without which stedfastness in the faith ( . . .) is not possible; and , again, to the manly (“muliebris enim omnis inconstantia,” Pelagius) and vigorous resistance against all dangers, without which that stedfastness cannot continu.

] to bear oneself manfully , to be manly in bearing and action; only here in the New Testament, but often in classic writers, see Wetstein, and in the LXX. Comp. the Homeric , Il. v. 529; and see, also, Valckenaer, ad Herod . vii. 210; Heind. ad Plat. Phaedr . p. 239 B. Comp. . . ., Ast, Lex. Plat. I. p. 165.

] be strong . Comp. Eph 3:16 : . The verbal form occurs in the LXX. and Apocrypha; not in Greek writers, who say .

] as in the life-sphere of the whole Christian dispositions and action, chap. 13, and, in particular, of mutual edification, 1Co 8:1 .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1996
CHRISTIAN COUNSEL

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

OF all the apostolic Churches, not any one seems to have been so corrupt as that at Corinth: at least, St. Paul reproves more evils there than in any other. In this epistle to that Church he addresses himself to the consideration of several abuses which had crept in among them: and now, in the close of it, he gives them, in few words, his pastoral advice; but evidently, I think, with a special view to all his preceding remarks. They were in the midst of manifold temptations; and therefore he bids them watch. They had amongst them false teachers, who, under a specious garb of sanctity and superior illumination, sought to turn them from the truth; and therefore he tells them to stand fast in the faith. They had trials of various kinds to encounter; and therefore he says to them, Quit you like men, be strong. At the same time, there were great contentions among them; and therefore he adds, Let all your things be done with charity. Now, as these subjects are worthy of universal concern, we will adopt the same line of instruction as was pursued by him; and, just changing the words, in order to convey more clearly what I conceive to be the meaning of them, I will say,

I.

Guard against temptations of every kind

[Of course, every Christian must watch against all the more open assaults of his three great enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil: and I must therefore, in the first place put you on your guard against them But, as the caution was given to persons who might he considered as on the whole pious, it may be proper rather to advert to such temptations as are peculiar to Christians, whether in their collective capacity as a Church, or in their personal experience as saints.
Now Christians, as collected into a society, have many things in their temper and deportment against which it becomes them to guard with all vigilance. Pride, envy, prejudice, uncharitableness, are very apt to disturb the harmony of those who ought to be united in the bonds of brotherly love: and they should be checked, by all, in their very first risings in the soul: and not only in ourselves should we watch against them, but in others also, so as to arrest their progress before they have had an opportunity of spreading to any great extent their malignant influence; ever bearing in mind, that a little leaven, if suffered to spread, will soon leaven the whole lump.
Against secret evils, too, must every one be on his guard; yea, and against the means and occasions of evil. There are many things that, when kept under proper restrictions, are innocent; which yet, through unwatchfulness or excess, are productive of great evil. The exercises of Christian affection may degenerate into feelings of a very unhallowed character; and lawful indulgences may gain an undue ascendant over the mind. It is not easy to draw the precise line between good and evil, especially when the quality of an action depends on its accidental circumstances: we should therefore scrupulously, and as before God, examine our whole deportment, and try it with severity by the test of his holy law. And against every deviation from right, and every declension from what is good, we should guard with the utmost vigilance; well knowing, that Satan will take advantage of our unwatchfulness, to ensnare and defile our souls.]

As materially assistant to you in the discharge of that first duty, I would say,

II.

Hold fast your principles

[It is by the adoption of Christian principles that any one is brought to the performance of Christian duties: and any dereliction of the one will infallibly introduce a relaxation of the other. God himself asks, Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God [Note: 1Jn 5:5.]? The high standard of Christian morals and of Christian piety is observed by no other person under heaven. Nothing but love to the Saviour ever did, or ever can, lead to an entire surrender of the soul to God. But let a person be drawn aside by vain philosophy or Jewish superstition, and he will soon lose the ardour of his soul in divine exercises, and the delight attendant on close intercourse with God; and a correspondent change in the whole tone and temper of his mind will soon follow. In proportion as the eyes are turned from the Lord Jesus Christ to any matters of doubtful disputation, will a stop be put to a progressive transformation of the soul into his blessed image [Note: 2Co 3:18.]. To every one, therefore, I would say, Hold fast the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, and live entirely by faith on him; receiving continually, out of his fulness, additional supplies of grace. And this is the very advice which St. Peter, by his own bitter experience, learned to give to the Christian Church, as the only effectual means of overcoming their great adversary: Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; whom resist, steadfast in the faith [Note: 1Pe 5:8-9.].]

In this course, however, you will meet with opposition; against which you must,

III.

Act with courage

[All who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. You may watch as much as you please, and yet suffer no persecution, provided you will relax, as it respects your giving honour to Christ: or you may exalt Christ as much as you please, provided you will relax in your watchfulness against the evils of an ensnaring world: but if you will live godly in Christ Jesus, giving all the glory to him, whilst you are serving him with fidelity to the utmost of your power, you will be sure to offend the lovers of the world, and the haters of Christ: and you may assuredly expect to feel, in a greater or less degree, the effects of their enmity. But whether assaulted by ridicule or menace, you must be alike prepared to act a manly part, withstanding every effort that men or devils can make against you. You are not, as children, to be either allured or awed to a deviation from any thing which your better judgment directs. As men, you should examine well whatever is proposed to you, and compare it with the word of God: and, as men, you should determine for yourselves, and resolutely adopt the line of conduct which the word of God prescribes. If men in the service of an earthly monarch meet with opposition, they consider it as an occasion for summoning and putting forth all their energies with augmented zeal: and this is the way in which you are to play the man [Note: .], and to approve yourselves to Him, under whose banners you are called to fight.]

And, in this resolute conduct, you must,

IV.

Persevere with constancy

[This I conceive to be the precise distinction which the Apostle intends between those nearly parallel expressions, Quit yourselves like men; be strong [Note: .]. We are not to suppose that the opposition made to us will be of short continuance. We shall experience it more or less to the very end of life; and we must be prepared to meet it in its most terrific forms. Never are we to give way to fear or discouragement: never are we to be weary or faint in our minds. No past trials, no impending calamities, should dishearten us. We should be prepared to say, as well in the prospect of future evils as in the remembrance of past, None of these things move me; neither count I my life dear unto me, so that I may but finish my course with joy. When we read the long catalogue of sufferings which the Apostle underwent, we are amazed at his fortitude and perseverance [Note: 2Co 11:23-28.]. But the same firmness is required of us: for if any man turn back, my soul, says God, shall have no pleasure in him. It is he only who endures unto the end, that shall be eventually and eternally saved. Be strong, therefore; and especially be strong, not in yourselves, but in the Lord, and in the power of his might: and you need not fear but that his grace shall be sufficient for you, and your strength be augmented according to your day of trial.]

But,

V.

Let all be done under the influence of love

[Christians are very prone to err in relation to this matter: they are ready to think, that zeal and courage constitute the whole of their duty; and, in consequence of this mistake, they too frequently overlook the frame of their own minds, and indulge, without being aware of it, a spirit most offensive to God. Acrimony in opponents often begets a similar disposition in those who are opposed: and it may be hard to say, who are most in error, the bitter persecutors, or the indignant sufferers. Beloved brethren, I wish you to be particularly on your guard in relation to this matter. You are to be gentle to all men; and, in meekness, to instruct them that oppose themselves [Note: 2Ti 2:24-25.]; not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing; but, contrariwise, blessing. Our blessed Lord, and the first martyr, St. Stephen, prayed for their murderers, at the very moment that they were suffering all imaginable cruelties at their hands: and this is what you are to do; as our Lord has said; Love your enemies: bless them that curse you; and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. To young persons, in particular, I would give this caution. You will probably find your greatest enemies amongst those of your own household: and as you must, of necessity, obey God rather than man, you will be called to shew your fidelity to God in tins respect: but do not, under the idea of quitting yourselves like men, indulge a petulant and unbecoming spirit: (persons, so acting, know not what spirit they are of.) Nor are you to indulge a querulous spirit behind the backs of your enemies; but to take up your cross meekly, and to bear it patiently, and to bless God that you are counted worthy to bear it for Jesus sake. Remember, that love is the very bond of perfectness; and that without it, though you give your body to be burned, you are no better than sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

(13) Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. (14) Let all your things be done with charity. (15) I beseech you, brethren, ye (know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,) (16) That ye submit yourselves unto such, and to everyone that helpeth with us, and laboreth. (17) I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied. (18) For they have refreshed my spirit and yours: therefore acknowledge ye them that are such.

There is somewhat truly interesting in this short, but striking exhortation of the Apostle. Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Paul doth not simply look to them, or teach them to look to themselves; as if either, or the whole of these Christian graces were of their own procuring, or depended upon their own strength to make effectual. The exhortation is more like the Prophet on the watch-tower, directing them to be on the look-out for the daily, hourly, minutely manifestations of the Lord’s grace, to be made perfect in human weakness; that, in a consciousness of their nothingness, they might be made strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, Eph 6:10 .

I never can say enough to myself, neither to the Reader of this humble work, on the subject of this watchfulness, and the standing fast in the faith, and the like. Steadfastness in faith is not so well understood as its importance demands. We are everlastingly looking for it in ourselves, and in our own attainments; whereas the Scriptures are uniformly teaching us it can be only found in the Lord. That precious child of God, be who he may, can only be said to be stedfast in faith, when counting the state of grace in which he stands, he forms his conclusions, not from what he feels in himself, but from what Christ is. Not from what hath passed in him, but from what hath passed for him, in the council of peace before all worlds, and from Christ’s suretyship engagements and fulfillments for his Church and people in time. A child of God may sometimes be enlarged, and sometimes straitened, sometimes in the mount, and sometimes in the valley. But neither of these states becomes the standard to judge by of his interest in Christ. I will be free to confess, that it is comfortable, as it is our privilege, to be always rejoicing in hope of the glory of God, yet, the hope and the glory of God do not depend upon our rejoicing sense of them. Paul meant somewhat more than the mere accommodation of the body, when he said, I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound, Phi 4:12 . It is blessed to be strong and stedfast in the faith, when things are dark and discouraging, and to trust Christ and his promises, when the way to the accomplishment of those promises we cannot see through.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

Ver. 13. Watch ye, &c. ] Solomon’s wisdom, Lot’s integrity, and Noah’s sobriety felt the smart of the serpent’s sting. The first was seduced, the second stumbled, the third fell, while the eye of watchfulness was fallen asleep.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

13 .] , , . . . . Chrys., who adds: , , , , , . . , . p. 407 f.

.] Aristot. Eth. iii. 6. 12: , , . Wetst.: where see other examples.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

1Co 16:13-18 . 59. CONCLUDING HOMILY. According to the Apostle’s wont, at the end of his letter he gathers up the burden of his message into a single concise and stirring exhortation (1Co 16:13 f.). Watchfulness , steadfastness, manly vigour , above all Christian love , were the qualities in which this Church was lacking. Their “love” they would have a particular opportunity of showing to the family of Stephanas, who had been foremost in works of benevolence (1Co 16:15 f.); for St. is now returning home in charge of this Ep. with his two companions, after they had brought the letter of the Church to P. and cheered him by their society. The deputation has done a timely public service in the best spirit; their kindly offices must be duly acknowledged (1Co 16:17 f.).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

1Co 16:13-14 . , belong to a class of vbs. peculiar to later Gr [2670] presents based on older perfects; the former from ( ), the latter from ( ). The first exhortation recalls 1Co 15:33 f., the second 1Co 4:17 , 1Co 10:12 , 1Co 15:2 ; 1Co 15:11 ff. , “play the man,” viriliter agite (Vg [2671] ), adds an active element to the passive and defensive attitude implied in the previous impvs.; it looks back to 1Co 13:11 and 1Co 14:20 (relating to the glossolalia ), but exhorts in general to the courageous prosecution of the Christian life by the Cor [2672] , who were enfeebled by contact with heathen society (x., 2Co 6:11 ff.). This word is common in cl [2673] Gr [2674] ; cf. 1Ma 2:64 , . , also the Homeric . enjoins manful activity, in its most energetic form (see parls.). , from which, through (1Pe 5:6 ), the vb [2675] is derived (cl [2676] Gr [2677] ), signifies superior power, mastery (see Col 1:11 , 1Ti 6:16 ): “be [not merely strong, but] mighty ”. The four impvs. of 1Co 16:13 are directed respectively against the heedlessness, fickleness, childishness , and moral enervation of the Cor [2678] : the fifth “All your doings, let them be done (or carried on: ) in love” reiterates the appeal of chh. 8 and 13 touching the radical fault of this Church; see also 1Co 2:3 , 1Co 4:6 , 1Co 6:1-8 , 1Co 11:21 f., 1Co 11:12 . as, etc.

[2670] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.

[2671] Latin Vulgate Translation.

[2672] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

[2673] classical.

[2674] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.

[2675] verb

[2676] classical.

[2677] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.

[2678] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

1 Corinthians

STRONG AND LOVING

1Co 16:13 – 1Co 16:14 .

There is a singular contrast between the first four of these exhortations and the last. The former ring sharp and short like pistol-shots; the last is of gentler mould. The former sound like the word of command shouted from an officer along the ranks; and there is a military metaphor running all through them. The foe threatens to advance; let the guards keep their eyes open. He comes nearer; prepare for the charge, stand firm in your ranks. The battle is joined; ‘quit you like men’-strike a man’s stroke-’be strong.’

And then all the apparatus of warfare is put away out of sight, and the captain’s word of command is softened into the Christian teacher’s exhortation: ‘Let all your deeds be done in charity.’ For love is better than fighting, and is stronger than swords. And yet, although there is a contrast here, there is also a sequence and connection. No doubt these exhortations, which are Paul’s last word to that Corinthian Church on whom he had lavished in turn the treasures of his manifold eloquence, indignation, argumentation, and tenderness, reflected the deficiencies of the people to whom he was speaking. They were schismatic and factious to the very core, and so they needed the exhortation to be left last in their ears, as it were, that everything should be done in love. They were ill-grounded in regard to the very fundamental doctrines of the faith, as all Paul’s argumentation about the resurrection proves, and so they needed to be bidden to ‘stand fast in the faith.’ Their slothful carelessness as to the discipline of the Christian life, and their consequent feebleness of grasp of the Christian verities, made them loose-braced and weak in all respects, and incapacitated them for vigorous warfare. Thus, we see a picture in these injunctions of the sort of community that Paul had to deal with in Corinth, which yet he called a Church of saints, and for which he loved and laboured. Let me then run over and try to bring out the importance and mutual connection of what I may call this drill-book for the Christian warfare, which is the Christian life.

‘Watch ye.’ That means one of two things certainly, probably both-Keep awake, and keep your eyes open. Our Lord used the same metaphor, you remember, very frequently, but with a special significance. On His lips it generally referred to the attitude of expectation of His coming in judgment. Paul uses sometimes the figure with the same application, but here, distinctly, it has another. As I said, there is the military idea underlying it. What will become of an army if the sentries go to sleep? And what chance will a Christian man have of doing his devoir against his enemy, unless he keeps himself awake, and keeps himself alert? Watchfulness, in the sense of always having eyes open for the possible rush down upon us of temptation and evil, is no small part of the discipline and the duty of the Christian life. One part of that watchfulness consists in exercising a very rigid and a very constant and comprehensive scrutiny of our motives. For there is no way by which evil creeps upon us so unobserved, as when it slips in at the back door of a specious motive. Many a man contents himself with the avoidance of actual evil actions, and lets any kind of motives come in and out of his mind unexamined. It is all right to look after our doings , but ‘as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.’ The good or the evil of anything that I do is determined wholly by the motive with which I do it. And we are a great deal too apt to palm off deceptions on ourselves to make sure that our motives are right, unless we give them a very careful and minute scrutiny. One side of this watchfulness, then, is a habitual inspection of our motives and reasons for action. ‘What am I doing this for?’ is a question that would stop dead an enormous proportion of our activity, as if you had turned the steam off from an engine. If you will use a very fine sieve through which to strain your motives, you will go a long way to keeping your actions right. We should establish a rigid examination for applicants for entrance, and make quite sure that each that presents itself is not a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Make them all bring out their passports. Let every vessel that comes into your harbour remain isolated from all communication with the shore, until the health officer has been on board and given a clean bill. ‘Watch ye,’ for yonder, away in the dark, in the shadow of the trees, the black masses of the enemy are gathered, and a midnight attack is but too likely to bring a bloody awakening to a camp full of sleepers.

My text goes on to bring the enemy nearer and nearer and nearer. ‘Watch ye’-and if, not unnoticed, they come down on you, ‘stand fast in the faith.’ There will be no keeping our ranks, or keeping our feet-or at least, it is not nearly so likely that there will be-unless there has been the preceding watchfulness. If the first command has not been obeyed, there is small chance of the second’s being so. If there has not been any watchfulness, it is not at all likely that there will be much steadfastness. Just as with a man going along a crowded pavement, a little touch from a passer-by will throw him off his balance, whereas if he had known it was coming, and had adjusted his poise rightly, he would have stood against thrice as violent a shock, so, in order that we may stand fast, we must watch. A sudden assault will be a great deal less formidable when it is a foreseen assault.

‘Stand fast in the faith .’ I take it that this does not mean ‘the thing that we believe,’ which use of the word ‘faith’ is the ecclesiastical, but not the New Testament meaning. In Scripture, faith means not the body of truths that we believe, but the act of believing them. This further command tells us that, in addition to our watchfulness, and as the basis of our steadfastness, confidence in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ will enable us to keep our feet whatever comes against us, and to hold our ground, whoever may assault us.

But remember that it is not because I have faith that I stand fast, but because of that in which I have faith. My feet may be well shod-and it used to be said that a soldier’s shoes were of as much importance in the battle as his musket-my feet may be well shod, but if they are not well planted upon firm ground I never shall be able to stand the collision of the foe. So then, it is not my grasp of the blessed truth, God in Christ my Friend and Helper, but it is that truth which I grasp at, that makes me strong. Or, to put it into other words, it is the foothold, and not the foot that holds it, that ensures our standing firm. Only there is no steadfastness communicated to us from the source of all stability, except by way of our faith, which brings Christ into us. ‘Watch ye; stand fast in the faith.’

The next two words of command are very closely connected, though not quite identical. ‘Quit you like men.’ Play a man’s part in the battle; strike with all the force of your muscles. But the Apostle adds, ‘be strong.’ You cannot play a man’s part unless you are. ‘Be strong’-the original would rather bear ‘become strong.’ What is the use of telling men to ‘ be strong’ ? It is a waste of words, in nine cases out of ten, to say to a weak man, ‘Pluck up your courage, and show strength.’ But the Apostle uses a very uncommon word here, at least uncommon in the New Testament, and another place where he uses it will throw light upon what he means: ‘Strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man.’ Then is it so vain a mockery to tell a poor, weak creature like me to become strong, when you can point me to the source of all strength, in that ‘Spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind’ ? We have only to take our weakness there to have it stiffened into strength; as people put bits of wood into what are called ‘petrifying wells’ which infiltrate into them mineral particles, that do not turn the wood into stone, but make the wood as strong as stone. So my manhood, with all its weakness, may have filtered into it divine strength, which will brace me for all needful duty, and make me ‘more than conqueror through Him that loved us.’ Then, it is not mockery and cruelty, vanity and surplusage to preach ‘Quit you like men; be strong, and be a man’; because if we will observe the plain and not hard conditions, strength will come to us according to our day, in fulfilment of the great promises: ‘My grace is sufficient for thee; and My strength is made perfect in weakness.’

And now we have done with the fighting words of command, and come to the gentler exhortation: ‘Let all your things be done in charity.’

That was a hard lesson for these Corinthians who were splitting themselves into factions and sects, and tearing each other’s eyes out in their partisanship for various Christian teachers. But the advice has a much wider application than to the suppression of squabbles in Christian communities. It is the sum of all commandments of the Christian life, if you will take love in its widest sense, in the sense, that is, in which it is always used in Paul’s writings. We cut it into two halves, and think of it as sometimes meaning love to God, and sometimes love to man. The two are inseparably inter-penetrated in the New Testament writings; and so we have to interpret this supreme commandment in the whole breadth and meaning of that great word Love . And then it just comes to this, that love is the victor in all the Christian warfare. If we love God, at any given moment, consciously having our affection engaged with Him, and our heart going out to Him, do you think that any evil or temptation would have power over us? Should we not see them as they are, to be devils in disguise? In the proportion in which I love God I conquer all sin. And at the moment in which that great, sweet, all-satisfying light floods into my soul, I see through the hollowness and the shams, and detect the ugliness and the filth of the things that otherwise would be temptations. If you desire to be conquerors in the Christian fight, remember that the true way of conquest is, as another Apostle says, ‘Keep yourselves in the love of God.’ ‘Let all your things be done in charity.’

And, further, how beautifully the Apostle here puts the great truth that we are all apt to forget, that the strongest type of human character is the gentlest and most loving, and that the mighty man is not the man of intellectual or material force, such as the world idolises, but the man who is much because he loves much. If we would come to supreme beauty of Christian character, there must be inseparably manifested in our lives, and lived in our hearts, strength and love, might and gentleness. That is the perfect man, and that was the union which was set before us, in the highest form, in the ‘Strong Son of God, Immortal Love,’ whom we call our Saviour, and whom we are bound to follow. His soldiers conquer as the Captain of their salvation has conquered, when watchfulness and steadfastness and courage and strength are all baptized in love and perfected thereby.

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Co 16:13-14

13Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. 14Let all that you do be done in love.

1Co 16:13-14 This is a series of five present imperatives. They are very similar to the practical admonitions of 1Co 15:58. The first four are third person plural and have a military background. The last is second person singular and seems to address the corporate church.

1Co 16:13

NASB”Be on the alert”

NKJV”watch”

NRSV”keep alert”

TEV”be alert”

NJB”be vigilant”

This is a Present active imperative. Its basic meaning is to awake, used in the sense of “watch out” (cf. Mat 24:42; Mat 25:13; Mat 26:38; Mat 26:40; Mat 26:48; Mar 13:35; Mar 13:37; Mar 14:34; Mar 14:37-38). Paul is admonishing them to be alert and watchful against a factious spirit, heresy, debauchery, and pride!

NASB, TEV”stand firm in the faith”

NKJV”stand fast in the faith”

NRSV”stand firm in your faith”

NJB”stay firm in the faith”

This is another present active imperative. This is a military term for holding one’s position. “In the faith” refers to Christian truth or Christian doctrine (cf. Jud 1:3; Jud 1:20).

See Special Topic: Stand (Histmi) at 1Co 15:1.

“act like men” This is a present middle (deponent) imperative. This is the only NT use of the term. It is the verb form of the term anr, which meant a mature man or a husband. It appears in the LXX in Jos 1:6. It is not generic (i.e., referring only to males), but encourages the whole church to act appropriately as mature and brave believers.

“be strong” This is a present passive imperative.

SPECIAL TOPIC: BE MADE STRONG

1Co 16:14 “Let all that you do be done in love” Notice “all” is fronted in the Greek text for emphasis. In a religious and cultural situation as dynamic, diverse, and problematic as Corinth, love is crucial. This is another present middle (deponent) imperative. Orthodoxy and orthopraxy without love is not God’s will or way (cf. 1Co 14:1)! It is hard to realize that the means (for Christians) is as crucial as the ends.

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Watch. Compare Act 20:31.

stand fast. Compare Gal 1:5, Gal 1:1. Php 1:1, Php 1:27; Php 4:1. 1Th 3:8. 2Th 2:15.

faith. App-150. Compare 1Co 15:1.

quit you like men. Greek. andrizomai. Only here.

be strong. Greek. krataioo. Elsewhere, Luk 1:80; Luk 2:40. Eph 3:16.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

13.] , , . … Chrys., who adds: , , , , , . . , . p. 407 f.

.] Aristot. Eth. iii. 6. 12:- , , . Wetst.: where see other examples.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

1Co 16:13. , watch) The conclusion exhorting chiefly to faith and love [This is the sum of all those things, which either Timothy or Apollos thought should be inculcated on the Corinthians.-V. g.]- , in the faith, ch. 1Co 15:2; 1Co 15:11; 1Co 15:14; 1Co 15:17.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

1Co 16:13

1Co 16:13

Watch ye,-Be watchful and careful in deportment. [They were to watch or be vigilant, against the evils of which they had been admonished-of dissensions, of erroneous teaching, and of disorders. They were to watch lest their souls should be ruined, and their salvation endangered; lest the enemy of the truth and of holiness should steal silently upon them, and surprise them.]

stand fast in the faith,-[The faith is a synonym for the gospel. They were to surrender themselves in mind and heart in obedience to the gospel, and abide in it in their daily life. So many are the impulses within, so many are the forces without, opposing the work, that nothing but an invincible determination could carry them through. They must be strong enough to bend and subordinate everything to the fruit. Paul said; One thing I do, forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded:… only, whereunto we have attained, by that same rule let us walk. (Php 3:13-16).]

quit you like men,-Discharge the duties like true men. [Be not cowards, or timid, or alarmed at enemies, but be bold and brave.]

be strong.-Trust God, and go forth doing his will, and his strength will be with you.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Exhortations and Salutations

1Co 16:13-24

The Apostle was careful to cultivate friendship, one of the priceless gifts of God; and he was very generous not only in his references to his friends, but also in his dealings with them. Because Timothy was deficient in virile strength, Paul was always contriving to make his way easier; and though Apollos had drawn away some of his converts, the Apostle was desirous for him to visit Corinth again. Nor could he forget the household which had yielded him the first fruits. His solitude had been greatly cheered by the advent of the Corinthian deputation. Human love is a revelation of the divine; an earthen pitcher which God fills with heavenly treasure; a chalice holding the wine of life.

Notice the flaming forth of Pauls passionate love for Christ. He felt that any who failed to love Him must be accursed in disposition and soul; and would be accursed at his coming, like the barren tree standing in the midst of an orchard of fruit trees, crowned with blossom or heavy with fruit. Maran atha!-our Lord cometh. He will put right the wrongs of time, and crown His faithful servants with honor and glory. Hallelujah!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Quit You Like Men

1Co 16:13-24

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity. I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the flrstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints,) that ye submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth. I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied. For they have refreshed my spirit and yours: therefore acknowledge ye them that are such. The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy kiss. The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen. (vv. 13-24)

There is something delightfully personal in most of the closing messages of the apostle Paul to the various churches. He was a very human man as well as a very spiritual one. The late Dr. C. I. Scofield used to say that when we are first converted we have to be changed from natural to spiritual, but after being saved awhile we need another conversion to become natural again-in a different sense, of course. So many of us allow ourselves to become rather stilted and unnatural in our desire to be spiritual, and we lose that sweet, gracious warmth that should characterize us as Christian men and women.

Paul was a man with a tender heart. He made very real friendships and never went back on a friend. He may have grieved over some of them who forsook him, but he continued to pray for them even when they turned away from him. And those with whom he could continue to have happy fellowship were a real joy to him. I want you to notice the various personal references in this portion. For the moment we will pass over verses 13-14.

In chapter 1, when some of them were making too much of leaders and saying, I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am of Cephas, and others again were making Christ the head of a party and saying, I am of Christ, he had said, I am so glad that I did not baptize any of you lest you should say I had baptized in my own name. He was not setting baptism at naught in the slightest degree. Sometimes we find people who make these words the basis of their notion that Paul was making light of Christian baptism. But these Corinthians were making so much of human leaders that he would not have people going about boasting that they were baptized by Paul and therefore considering that they had a different standing from others. He was very glad, under the circumstances, that as far as he could remember, he had baptized only Crispus and Gaius and the household of Stephanas.

And now he tells us something about that household of Stephanas. They were not little infants, but he says, I beseech you, brethren, (ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the firstfruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints). The very first home to be opened up to the gospel, when he went to Corinth, was that of Stephanas. He and his family were brought to Christ and evidently were in a position to help others, for from that time on they addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. The word translated addicted is exactly the same word that is elsewhere translated ordained. So one could say that the household of Stephanas had ordained themselves to the ministry of the saints. What a blessed ordination! Instead of constantly looking for other people to do things for them, they said, We are going in to do for others; we will try to be a blessing to others; we will set ourselves apart to help Gods beloved people. And so the apostle says, Submit yourselves unto such, and to every one that helpeth with us, and laboureth. You see, like Epaphroditus, they made themselves of no reputation that they might bless other people.

Stephanas himself had evidently launched out into evangelistic work, and he with others had come to meet Paul. Paul wrote this letter from Philippi and he says, I am glad of the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus: for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied. I take it that he means, I knew you wanted to send me something to help me with my expenses but have not done so, but now these brethren have come and brought an offering and I appreciate it very much. When he was in Corinth the first time, he would not take anything from them because they were all heathen, and when they were newly come out of heathenism he did not want any one to say, Paul is just here for what he can make out of us. He says, I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service (2Co 11:8). Others gave the money that enabled him to meet part of his expenses, and what he lacked he earned by tent-making.

He did not have such a great regard for the cloth, you know, that he could not soil his hands. He went into business with Priscilla and Aquila. But now that he has left Corinth, he is glad to receive from the Corinthian church a missionary offering to help him in his work. We at home are glad to send our money to those laboring in heathen lands to help make the gospel known. In return, we read, The churches of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord, with the church that is in their house. Aquila and Priscilla used to live in Corinth, and Paul stayed with them when he was there, but now they are away and naturally send their greetings back to the home church.

Greet ye one another with an holy kiss. There is such a thing as a Judas kiss, or, it might be, an insincere handshake. It means the same thing. Someone says to another, Well, I am so glad to see you, and then she has hardly turned her back before she says, Hateful old cat; I wish she would stay away! Or, another says, Good morning, brother, so pleased to meet you, and then he turns around and says, I havent any use for him. That is an unholy greeting. In the ancient times women kissed women and men kissed men. Women still kiss one another when they meet, but be sure it is a holy kiss. Do not profess to love her when deep in your heart there is resentment and unkindness. As brethren greet each other let it be in sincerity. Let the heart that is behind it be right. Said Jehu, Is thine heart right, as my heart is with thy heart? And when Jehonadab said, It is, we read that Jehu took him up to him into the chariot (2Ki 10:15). We need to get rid of hypocrisy; we have a lot of pretension to fellowship that is not real. I would have you, says the apostle, to be sincere, that is, to be genuine in all things.

I will drop the rest of the chapter for the moment and go back to verses 13-14. Here is Pauls closing exhortation, Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all your things be done with charity, or, with love. How we need to heed this. Watch ye. As long as we are in this world we are in the place of danger, we are surrounded by pitfalls and snares on every hand. Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation (Mar 14:38), said our Lord Jesus Christ. We dare not trust ourselves and we cannot trust the world through which we journey.

Are there no foes for me to face?

Must I not stem the flood?

Is this vile world a friend to grace,

To help me on to God?

Since I must fight if I would reign,

Increase my courage, Lord!

Ill hear the toil, endure the pain,

Supported by Thy Word.

It is one of the first principles of soldiery to keep a sharp lookout for the enemy, and so we must be on the watch for the enemy of our souls.

Stand fast in the faith. There are too many people who blow hot and blow cold; they are one thing in one company and quite different in another. But the servant of Christ, the child of God, should be one who realizes that there has been committed to him the greatest of all possible responsibilities and therefore he is to stand fast in the faith. As the apostle elsewhere writes to Timothy, That good [deposit] which was committed unto thee, keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us (2Ti 1:14). It is only in the power of the Holy Spirit that we can keep the faith.

And then we have the words, Quit you like men. He reproved these Corinthians in the early part of the letter because some of them were acting like babies; some were divided into little sectarian groups, and he said, When you talk like this, it is childishness. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it. Whenever you see Christians fussing, quarreling about their own rights, complaining because they are not properly recognized, because people do not greet them as they think they should, because they do not get enough applause for what they do, put it down as the baby spirit coming out. They have not yet reached spiritual maturity. The man in Christ is indifferent to praise or to blame. If I belong to Christ, I am here to serve Him. If I have His approbation, that is the thing that counts. Quit you like men. May God deliver us from our babyishness. In some churches half the time of the minister is spent trying to keep weak Christians quiet over little slights. If you are living for God, people cannot slight you because you will not let them. It will not make any difference to you. Quit you like men, be strong.

Someone says, That is just my trouble. I know I ought to be strong, but I am so weak. Of course you cannot be strong in your own strength. We read: Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might (Eph 6:10). And the more you realize your own weakness, and the more you throw yourself upon Him, the more you will be able to stand in the evil day, for His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

And then again, you are not to be strong in your own human spirit, but to be strong by the Spirit of the Lord. Turn to Eph 3:16-17. The apostle prays, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, and He has come to dwell in you if you are a believer. If He is controlling the life, dominating your will, it is not a question of your ability to stand, it is a question of His. You are simply yielded to Him, and as you are yielded to Him you are enabled to be strong and to stand for His glory.

But then, you need spiritual nourishment, and so you become strong through the Word. Writing to young men, the apostle John says, I have written unto you, young men, because you are strong (1Jn 2:14). How did they get that strength? And the Word of God abideth in you. You show me a weak, wobbling believer, and I will show you a Christian not giving very much time to meditation upon the Word of God. Show me one who is a strong, devoted, earnest Christian, seeking only the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I will show you one who is living on the Book. As you eat the Word, as you feed upon the truth, you get strength that you cannot obtain in any other way. People go around lamenting their weakness and their leanness. I get so tired of people coming and saying, Do pray for me that I may be a stronger Christian. What is the use of praying for you? You might say, Do pray that I may get stronger physically. What kind of food do you eat? I ask. Not any. And I would say, Then there is no use praying for you. What you need as a Christian is a good meal of spiritual nourishment, and you can get it only in the Book. You may do all the praying you like to be a strong Christian, and your prayer will never be answered until you begin to answer it yourself by feeding upon the Word of God.

But do not stop there, for we also become strong through obedience. Turn back to the Old Testament to a very blessed Scripture, Jos 1:7: Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses my servant commanded thee: turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. To do-notice that. That is where we lack. We know, but we do not do. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success (v. 8). They had only the five books of Moses when God gave that command. You have a whole Bible with sixty-six books. Apply this to the entire Bible. Let it not depart out of your mouth. Meditate therein day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall have good success. I suppose you want to make a success of your life, young man or young woman. Here then is the divinely-appointed way to do it.

And so, if you want strength, this is how you get it. Live in fellowship with Christ, walk in the Spirit, feed upon His Word, obey His Word, and then when the hour of trial comes, you will not be weak-kneed, you will not be vacillating, you will not be carried about like a leaf before the wind. You will have strength to stand, and you will be able to glorify God even in the fire. It is the testing that is the proof.

It is easy enough to be pleasant,

When life flows on like a song,

But the man worthwhile is the man with a smile

When everything goes dead wrong.

The Christian who is really worthwhile is the man who can be bereft of everything-he can lose his good clothes, his money, his home, his health-and after everything is gone he can say, The LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD (Job 1:21). That is the kind of Christian God would have me be, strong in the hour of trial and strong, too, in the hour of temptation. I am afraid a good many of us keep from falling into various sins because they never come very close to us, and then we look with contempt upon people who go down when stress comes. If you had been exposed to the same temptation that that poor failing brother or sister was exposed to, you might have gone down just as he or she did. You would have, if not kept by the mighty power of God. It is only by living in fellowship with God that you will be kept from yielding. The brother said, It is an odd thing about me, I can resist everything but temptation. A good many of us are like that. Go through the Book of God and you will find that the men who could resist in the hour of temptation were the men who knew God before the test came. David was not in fellowship with God when that awful temptation came or he never would have gone down. Joseph was tempted under far more adverse circumstances and he stood fast, exclaiming, How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? (Gen 39:9). Our blessed Lord could say, I have set [Jehovah] always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved (Psa 16:8). The man who resists temptation is the man strong in the Lord before temptation comes. But there is always danger that the strong will be contemptuous of the weak. So he adds, Let all your things be done with charity. Be very exact with yourself, but very generous in your judgment of other people; be very, very strict with yourself, but very gracious in dealing with those who are weak. Remember what they have to contend with. Perhaps they do not know the Lord as well as you do, so seek by grace to manifest the love of Christ to them.

We now come to the end of the chapter. In verse 22 we have a very solemn word before the apostle closes this letter. I wonder whether there are those listening to me who do not love the Lord Jesus Christ. May I just ask you to pause and face this question, Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ? What is your hearts answer? Can you say, I do? Or to be perfectly honest, do you have to say, No, I do not love Him. May the Spirit of God give you to realize the solemnity of the warning, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha. What strange expressions! I think the Holy Spirit of God providentially allowed our translators to leave those two peculiar words untranslated. One of them is a Greek word, Anathema, and it means accursed, devoted to judgment. The other word, Maranatha, is a Syriac word and means the Lord cometh. If you translated the entire passage, it would read like this, If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be devoted to judgment at the coming of the Lord. What a solemn word that is! O unsaved one, may God give you to realize the dangerous position in which you stand. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, he will be devoted to judgment at the coming of the Lord.

The Lord has not yet returned, and though you do not love Him, you may love Him. You cannot stir up any love in your own heart, but you may trust Him, the One who loves you, the One who gave Himself for you, the One who died on the cross for your sins. Open your heart to Him, receive Him, bow at His feet in repentance, hide nothing, confess your sins, your sins of hypocrisy, of dishonesty, of immorality, of selfishness, of covetousness, whatever wickedness it my be. Tell Him all about it. Do not say, O Lord, I am not much of a sinner; I never did many things that are wrong; I pray Thee forgive me, but get into the company of David who when his conscience was awakened said, O LORD, pardon mine iniquity; for it is great (Psa 25:11). You would almost have expected him to say, It isnt very great, so pardon it. No, he says, It is great. It is such great iniquity that only a great God can pardon and a great Savior can deliver. If with all your heart ye truly seek Him, He will be found of you. If you will turn to Him honestly facing your sin, acknowledging your guilt, trusting Him as your Savior, and then confess Him before men, He will put love in your heart and you will be able to say, I love Him, my Savior, my Redeemer, and you will not be devoted to judgment, you will be saved from judgment, and so will be able to enter into the blessedness of this closing benediction:

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. And then the apostle adds so humanly, My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Thank you, Paul; we are glad to get this message from you, and when we get home to heaven, we will look you up and will talk it over together. Until then we will seek to carry out the truth we have found in this epistle.

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

The Christian Knight

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all that ye do be done in love.1Co 16:13-14.

1. This passage occurs at the end of St. Pauls first letter to the Corinthian Church, in which he has been reproving them for their divisions, and for the irregularities that have grown up among them. At the end of the Epistle, the Apostle has finished his hortatory remarks, and is adding a few personal messages, and giving directions about some practical points of Church administration, when, having occasion to mention the name of Apollos, he seems to have been reminded afresh of the irregularities he has been writing to censure. He thinks of the Corinthians and their errors; he thinks of their unstable minds, of their wandering imaginations; he thinks sadly how little impression his advice will produce; he doubts if he has spoken clearly enough, forcibly enough, if he has said all that can be said; then, as if to make sure, as if to clench his other precepts, as if to sum up in a few words all he has to say, as if to give the Corinthians some plain advice that they may easily keep in their memory, he chooses these few incisive words to serve as mottoes to recur to his hearers minds in vacant hours: Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Let all that ye do be done in love.

2. The language is military. St. Paul had never seen an engagement, but he was familiar with barrack life, and one can imagine that there were aspects of that life that charmed him; its simple and absolute devotion, its discipline, its esprit de corps, the two elements of its might, unity and obedience, and the heroic qualities which were begotten of its dangers and its laurels. When he borrows a figure from the guardroom or the battlefield, the fidelity and spirit with which he uses it show that the allusion is not a mere grace of style; it is a vital constituent of the thought. To him Christian life was a contest, and he transfers to Christian action the nomenclature of camps.

There are five precepts. And the fifth, though it is found in a separate verse, should on no account be left out. First there is the introductory call, Be awake! Then there are two pairs: Be godly, and be manly; be strong, and be tender.

I.

Be awakeWatch ye.

II.{Be godlyStand fast in the faith.

Be manlyQuit you like men.

III.{Be strongBe strong.

Be tenderLet all that ye do be done in love.

I

Be Awake

Watch ye.

Be awake, lie not in slumber, that is the first requisite for all action; break the bands of sleep and indolence, or you can do nothing.

The word means one of two things certainly, probably bothKeep awake, and keep your eyes open. Our Lord used the same metaphor very frequently, but with a special significance. On His lips it generally referred to the attitude of expectation of His coming in judgment. St. Paul sometimes uses the figure with the same application; but here, distinctly, it has another. There is the military idea underlying it. What will become of an army if the sentries go to sleep? And what chance will a Christian man have of doing his devoir against his enemy, unless he keeps himself awake, and keeps himself alert? Watchfulness, in the sense of always having eyes open for the possible rush down upon us of temptation and evil, is no small part of the discipline and the duty of the Christian life.

i. Wakefulness

1. Many men have never awakened at all; they know not what life is; they know not what the world in which they seem to move may be; they have never raised their sleepy eyes from the dreary round of selfish enjoyment, as they call it, in which their time is spent. To lead an aimless, useless life, with mind enfeebled and faculties undeveloped, the whole nature enervated through want of exercise, this is the most awful prospect any man can be called upon to face.

2. There are two main causes at the bottom of this terrible vice.

(1) In the first place there is the cold, deliberate selfishness that refuses to move beyond itself, will not be troubled, has no sympathies, with any duty outside itself, is determined to consult always its own comfort in the way which comes most easy and lies nearest at hand. A man who is indolent from this reason is the most perfectly unlovely character that can be found, and the number of such tends to increase with our national wealth and prosperity. Such a man knows that life is likely to be tolerably comfortable for himself, he knows that he is free from the stern hand of daily necessity, and so he deliberately purposes to get the utmost out of what he has, he shuts the door against all high aims, for they might give him trouble; knowledge he despises and takes in its place a low selfish cunning; his fellowmen he estimates solely as they contribute to his own enjoyment; he will do nothing he can help; why should he? He will go on peaceably through life; for what can come to disturb him if he is only reasonably prudent?

(2) But indolence comes from another causefrom thoughtless feebleness rather than low selfishness. A feebly indolent man knows dimly that life has a meaning, has duties. He believes somehow that there is a God who judges the world, that he himself has an immortal soul, and an account to give one daybelieves it somehow, but believes it sleepilybelieves it so that if he were awakened and formally asked these questions, he would give formally proper answers, but does not believe it in such a way that the truths to which he confesses take any real hold upon his life. He believes that life has a purpose, but that it need not be realized just yet. He grants that man is responsible for his own character, but then the fact that he wastes in idleness the precious years of opening manhood need not particularly influence him. He grants that bad habits are easily acquired, but there is no fear of his own actions going so far as to form habits. He admits that it is better to be wise than to be ignorant, but thinks that knowledge will come to him through society, through free intercourse with others, rather than by the old-fashioned method of intellectual labour and honest thought.

He wakes in the night, and hears one of his Lovedale boys on watch, pacing his round with his rifle on his shoulder, singing low and sweetly, and apparently much to his hearts content, one of Sankeys hymns, Jesus loves me, even me. He did not know that I was stirring. This singing watchman was Shadrack Ngunane, one of the Lovedale volunteers, whom Stewart, by an act of grace, had allowed to remain in Lovedale after a grave offence. He has been as busy and useful, Stewart adds, as a white man could have been, always well, always cheerful, always ready for everything. The picture of this once wild Kafir, formerly rather troublesome, now cheerfully keeping his midnight watch in this fashion and on such a venturesome journey, is one I shall not forget. It made me hope for the day when out of the regions we are now in there will be many who will prove themselves as worthy of the labour bestowed on them as this lad has done, and help to convey the Gospel still farther on. Day or night I never found my Kafir friend sleeping when he ought to be waking, or elsewhere than at the post of duty.1 [Note: J. Wells, Stewart of Lovedale, 135.]

ii. Watchfulness

1. Watchfulness means more than being awake. It is concentrated attention in wakefulness. It springs from the conviction of danger, it is sustained by the responsibility of duty. It is one of those positions which are restricted to the individual himself. Watchfulness cannot be transferred: it cannot even be distributed. You cannot say with perfect accuracy we watch; it must always be, I watch. If there be many watchmen, the security of the guard is not in the unity of the number, as it would be in repelling an assault, but in covering every position of possible surprise by individual and responsible vigilance. The watchman for the time being personifies the army to which he belongs. He commands because he protects every man and every weapon and arm of the service. His first and main qualification is a knowledge and persuasion of the danger which has made him a watchman.

I recently visited the Heights of Abraham, said a friend, and looking down those precipitous cliffs which make that the strongest natural citadel in America, I was amazed that Wolfe and his English forces were able to capture it. Speaking to a guardsman, I said, It would seem as if a band of schoolboys might have held this fort against an army; how did it happen that the French were defeated? The guard replied, Oh, the soldiers got careless, overconfident and pleasure-loving, and one dark night while they were off guard, the citadel was taken. 1 [Note: E. J. Hardy.]

2. One part of that watchfulness consists in exercising a very rigid and a very constant and comprehensive scrutiny of our motives. For there is no way by which evil creeps upon us so unobserved as when it slips in at the back door of a specious motive. Many a man contents himself with the avoidance of actual evil actions, and lets any kind of motives come in and out of his mind unexamined. It is all right to look after our doings, but as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. The good or the evil of anything that I do is determined wholly by the motive with which I do it. And we are a great deal too apt to palm off deceptions on ourselves to be certain that our motives are right, unless we give them a very careful and minute scrutiny.

We should establish a rigid examination for applicants for entrance, and make quite sure that each that presents itself is not a wolf in sheeps clothing. Make them all bring out their passports. Let every vessel that comes into your harbour remain isolated from all communication with the shore until the health officer has been on board and given a clean bill. Watch ye ; for yonder, away in the dark, in the shadow of the trees, the black masses of the enemy are gathered, and a midnight attack is but too likely to bring a bloody awakening to a camp full of sleepers.2 [Note: A. Maclaren.]

3. We have three things to guardGods honour, Gods property, and Gods truth.

(1) First, we are on guard for Gods honour.How often men fail in this. How constantly we hear Gods Name, as it were, dragged in the dust. Swearing is so common that people often use such language without realizing that they are sinning against God. The words come to their lips so naturally that they do not even think about their meaning; and the man who does not use them becomes sometimes an object of surprise, if not of ridicule, amongst his mates. Nevertheless, the true soldier of Christ must brave this, for he is on guard for the honour of his King. If he is afraid to stand alone in leaving such words out of his talk, he is failing in his duty. If it is noticed, so much the better. Others see that he is not ashamed to show his colours. If he stands firm, they will in time grow to respect him for it; for deep down in the heart of the greatest blackguard there is generally admiration for a brave man who will stick to what is right, come what may.

A smartly dressed railway guard was bustling about his work on a platform, with a pretty rose in his buttonhole. A man, more than half tipsy, came lurching past, snatched the rose from the guards buttonhole, and flung it under the train, and then chuckled in his drunken fashion. The guards face flushed red, but without a word he turned away. As he passed, a man complimented him and said, You took that splendidly. The guard said, I am on duty, sir.1 [Note: Joseph Traill.]

(2) Secondly, we are on guard for Gods property.A soldier in the Kings army is not his own. He has to go where he is ordered and stay where he is stationed. And more than this. Not long ago one of our great generals pointed out in an address to the troops in India that men who do not try to keep themselves fit for serviceefficient soldiers, as we call itby clean, temperate lives, are defrauding the Service they have enlisted in. Every conscientious soldier, he said, should look at the question in that light. Even so the Christian soldier, who belongs to God, must try to be, in body and soul, an efficient member of the Service of the King of kings. In the words of the good old Church Catechism, he must keep his body in temperance, soberness, and chastity.

The soldiers insensibly forgot the virtues of their profession and contracted only the vices of civil life. They were either degraded by the industry of mechanic trades, or enervated by the luxury of baths and theatres. They soon became careless of their martial exercises, and curious in their diet and apparel. They loved downy beds and houses of marble; and their cups were heavier than their swords.2 [Note: Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, ii. 177.]

(3) Lastly, we are on guard for Gods truth.A man can hardly mix among other men without hearing Gods truth assailed. There is a certain amount of unbelief; but perhaps less unbelief than carelessness and indifference that takes the form of unbelieving and even blasphemous talk. Men who like to be independent of religion themselves, who do not want to be bound by its laws, who find their own way more convenient than Gods way, sometimes profess to be unbelievers. They are not honest unbelievers, but it suits them to talk unbelief; and they do their best to argue or laugh other men into the same way of thinking. Now against this kind of thing we must be on guard.1 [Note: A. Debenham, On Guard, 9.]

See the world

Such as it is,you made it not, nor I;

I mean to take it as it is,and you,

Not so youll take it,though you get nought else.

I know the special kind of life I like,

What suits the most my idiosyncrasy,

Brings out the best of me and bears me fruit

In power, peace, pleasantness and length of days.

I find that positive belief does this

For me, and unbelief, no whit of this.

For you, it does, however?that, well try!2 [Note: Browning, Bishop Blougrams Apology.]

II

Be Godly

Stand fast in the faith.

Stand fast in the faith, stand upright in it, stand firm, stand boldly, be not tossed hither and thither, halt not between two opinions, be not half-hearted, know which master it is you are serving, and make up your mind clearly and definitely. Stand fast in the faith. Stand up like a man, and be ready to give an account of whose you are and what you believe; know what it is that you believe, whatever that may be; face it in its simple form and say if that is what you are prepared to act up to, and form your life by.

One of the best known stories of the battle of Waterloo is this: One regiment was hard pressed, and suffering seriously from the enemys fire. Presently Wellington rode up and called out: Stand firm, Ninety-fifth! We must not be beaten. What would they say in England? Stand firm! It was an appeal to the manliness of his soldiers, and to their patriotism. The eye of their country was upon them. Whether charged by the cavalry or mowed down by the cannon, there must be no flinching. Stand firm! We must not be beaten!1 [Note: H. M. Butler, Public School Sermons, 173.]

1. But what is this faith that we are commanded to stand fast in? It means our openness of soul to that eternal God who is our Father, yet our King; it means daily fellowship with that ever-living Christ who is our Brother, yet our Priest; it means a home within the soul to that eternal Spirit who is our Comforter, yet our Guide. Faith is the grasp of the spirit upon those eternal verities of God, which hold the spirit in time as if it were within eternity.

2. Intellectual activity is a great help to steadfastness in belief, but intellectual frivolity a grave danger. We would not make light of the difficulties that perplex the serious mind; what troubles it touches us all. To be forced to feel that the beliefs witnessed to by the Christian Church and accepted by the holy and the good cannot be believed, must ever be a heavy trial to the sober and grave mind. For if it doubts, it is not from inclination, but against it; not by preference, but from sheer conviction; and he is no friend to truth who does not respect the doubt of such a mind. But the number who belong to this class is never large. The longer we live, and the more we know of the intellectual tendencies that create conventional disbelief, the more we discover that fashion, temper, want of thought, and openness to superficial influences are more potent than grave and serious reason. Every age has its own peculiar tendencies to negation, and in our own day we may say that mental meddlesomeness, want of thought and plenitude of frivolous speech about the most awful themes are more fruitful causes of doubt, if doubt we may call it, than the questions of the critics, or the problems of philosophy and the schools.

The Apostles exhortation must be interpreted by the help of the first verse of the preceding chapter: Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel, wherein ye stand; and the Apostle proceeds to place in their order the truths which comprise the Gospel and the cardinal fact upon which they rest. The argument of the resurrection, which is the glory of this Epistle, was addressed to the sceptical spirit of the Corinthian Church. That spirit expressed itself in the question, How are the dead raised up, and with what body do they come? This is the popular mode of exclaiming against dogma. Its tone does not indicate the earnest inquiry of a child spirit, but the demand of an impatient and carping unbelief.

This was the kind of battlefield to which Arnold would so often refer. To him the great curse of Public Schools, to be set against their noble powers for good, the great curse seemed to beI quote his brilliant pupil and biographerthe spirit sometimes there encouraged of combination, of companionship, of excessive deference to the public opinion prevalent in the school. Once he spoke of it in these stern wordsare they even now obsolete?If the spirit of Elijah were to stand in the midst of us, and we were to ask him, What shall we do then? his answer would be, Fear not, nor heed one anothers voices, but fear and heed the voice of God only. And the favourite image of human goodness which always stood out before Arnold was the noble portrait of Abdiel in Milton

The Seraph Abdiel, faithful found

Among the faithless, faithful only he;

Among innumerable false, unmoved,

Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;

Nor number nor example with him wrought

To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,

Though single.1 [Note: H. M. Butler,]

3. This counsel to stand fast occurs no fewer than six times in the Epistles of St. Paul. The Apostle was evidently very anxious about his converts, that they should maintain Christian stability. If any one is to stand fast, two things are necessary,namely, a foundation to stand upon, and strength to stand. It has been well said that a man may have his feet on a rock, yet if he is weak as a rag, he cannot stand; and no matter how strong he is, if his feet are on quicksand, he cannot be stable.

(1) We have a sure foundation to stand upon: the faith, that is, the truth,as the truth is in Jesus. We are to take our stand upon revealed truth, the truth of the Bible. Every Christian ought firmly to hold that Christ Jesus is the Son of God; that He died upon the cross for our sins; that He rose again from the dead; that He now reigns in heaven; that He has sent His Holy Spirit into the world; and that He will Himself return at the last day to take all His people to be with Him in glory. While the believer is never to stand still as to growth and obedience, he is always to stand fast as to right principles. He is to continue firm with regard to everything that is true and just and good. He is to stand fast in the three abiding gracesfaith, hope, love.

(2) But not only has the Christian a sure ground to stand upon; he has also strength to stand. Some men are stronger than others in body, in mind, in affections, in will; but the strength that is required in order to stand fast in the faith is not ones own. It comes from the Lord Jesus. It is His gift to His people. The Apostle says, Stand fast in the Lord, because the Christian is already in Christ, and the whole secret of spiritual strength consists in union with Him. If we would stand fast, we must abide in him.

In the Highlands of Scotland there are two bold projecting crags or headlands, some thirty-five miles apart, both of which are called Craigellachie. The one is at Aviemore on the south, and the other near Aberlour on the north. The swift river Spey flows at the foot of both; and the two Craigellachies form the southern and northern boundaries of Strathspey, the land of the Grants. And what used to be long ago the war-cry of the clan Grant, which was sent from Castle Grant at Grantown with the fiery cross all through the strath? It was these words: Stand fast, Craigellachie! A war-cry this, as John Ruskin has said, full of deep wells of feeling and thought, full of the love of the native land, and the assurance of faithfulness to it. The repetition of these words out in India by Highland soldiers from Strathspey has been to them in the hour of battle, when they were fighting beside Indian palaces and temples, like a breath of the Scottish heather or a whisper of the birches and pines: Stand fast, Craigellachie! But the Christian warrior has a still grander and more inspiring war-cry: Stand fast in the faith! Stand fast in the Lord!1 [Note: C. Jerdan.]

4. How is it that so few Christian men seem to possess this true courage, this standing fast in the faith? Is it not because they are not rooted and grounded sufficiently in Christ Himself as the fulness of their redemption? Is it not because they have not embraced the faith with all their heart and mind; because they stand wavering on the threshold of the fortress, and have never really entered it? Is it not because they have not thoroughly apprehended Gods purposes regarding them; are not yet satisfied that they are His and He is theirs? because they have never yet felt with deep and living conviction, that He is for them and nothing can be against them, that they were sent here to do His work, and till that work is done, no raging of the enemy can prevail? Is it not because they have not as yet acquired a distinct view of that enemy, and know not his devices; have not learned the signals of the two armies; have not sharply marked, in their minds map, the frontiers of the kingdoms of darkness and of light? Is it not from want of the fulness of the faith itself, that we are so wavering and hesitating, so generally doing just what the world or the Church expects of us, and so rarely built up on Christ Himself, looking beyond men for our motives, for our plans, for our endurance?

One of Bunyans famous pilgrims, in the Second Part of The Pilgrims Progress, is Mr. Stand-fast. This pilgrim is the last to be brought into the story, and the last also to cross the river of death. A true, strong, brave pilgrim was Mr. Stand-fast. Great-heart and his company came upon him when he was on his knees in the Enchanted Ground, praying earnestly for help against the temptations of Madam Bubble,that is, the world and its enchantments. By and by, when Christiana was bidding her friends farewell, she had messages to leave to some, and adieus to present to others; but she gave Mr. Stand-fast a ring, evidently as a token of her peculiar respect and affection. And when, at the very end of the allegory, the summons to cross the river came to Mr. Stand-fast, it bore these touching and tender words: For his Master is not willing that he should be so far from Him any longer. While this pilgrim was crossing, there was a great calm at that time in the river; so much so, that he stood for a time in mid-channel, and talked pleasantly to the convoy of friends who were watching him from the bank. He assured them that the river had now no terror for him. It had been his habit to stand fast amidst the dangers of the long pilgrimage; and therefore he could say, Now, methinks, I stand easy.

III

Be Manly

Quit you like men.

1. We have all read, in history remote and recent, of some brief but spirit-stirring words of command, by which generals leading their armies into action at moments of critical emergency have nerved and invigorated for the conflict those who had long learned to rely upon the skill and courage of their leader. Some of these sayings have passed almost into proverbs; others have been treasured in family records, or enshrined in the pages of military or even Christian biography. Just such in its character is the admonition contained in the text. In the English version it consists of four words; in the. original it is but one word.

The words, Stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, in their original language, stand over the gateway of Selwyn College.

I remember as if it were yesterday the horrid feeling when I knocked at his study door, the door through which I had often been taken when something naughty had been done, too bad for mother to punish for, but I had never felt quite so bad before. My knock was answered by a Come in. I entered, and father rose and drew me towards the window. Silently we stood there, and then strangest of all strange things, I noticed tears in his eyes. Then, when he put his hands on my shoulders, there was a break in his voice as he uttered the words, never to be forgotten: Well, my son! You are the first to leave the home nest, and I have been praying God to give me the right words to say to you, and I think He has answered my prayer. God grant that you may always try to be a man. I looked him in the face, eye to eye, as we had been taught to do, and thought to myself, he has begun. But he said no more.1 [Note: George Clarke.]

2. What does St. Paul mean when he exclaims to the Corinthian converts, Quit you like men? He means, not the conventional qualities on which this or that age may look with favour, but the highest qualities of which human nature looked at in its highest light is capableput forth the manhood that is in you. How strange the contrast between the thoughts which that word must have raised in the minds of St. Pauls hearers and those which it would have called up if uttered by one of their civil rulers. How different a thing had manhood become to the Christian from what it was before his conversion. The thought that their life had been lived by the Son of God, the thought that their nature had been worn by Christ, that their bodily form had been sanctified by Gods indwelling presence, how overpowering must this have been to the first believers. They could have no doubt, no difficulty in life, when once they had believed. They knew in Him the greatness of their position, the source of their real strength. In following His life they knew wherein true manhood lay; they knew that it was not in the practice of the conventional virtues of the society around them, not in striking, brilliant exhibitions of their own great powers of mind or body, but in the simple daily life of industry and effort, that the perfection of human nature was to be found. This fact, this plain unmistakable truth, was stamped upon mans conscience by the human life and death of Gods eternal Son. They need not go out of the world to find in solitude, in asceticism, in contemplation, their own highest perfection, as the fanatics even among the Jews maintained. They need not strive laboriously, as the Greeks would teach them, to ascend the lofty heights of abstract thought, where the mind might look calmly down on human things, and rise above them into the region of the Divine. Nay, in order to gain their highest greatness, they need not even struggle with the keen strong weapons of the worlds ambition to rise above their fellows, to do great exploits, to win great glory, to conquer and to rule, as they saw their Roman masters striving incessantly to do. Christ had revealed to His followers the sufficiency, the grandeur of common life; within the sphere of daily duty can the highest individual perfection be found.

This view of life lies at the bottom of what we call manliness of character. For it implies all those qualities which we most commonly attach to our idea of manliness. A man acting always from such a view is frank and straightforward, for he makes no false pretences and so has nothing to conceal. He is simple because he is too much in earnest to be lost in complexities and misunderstandings. He is fearless, for he is conscious of no aim of which he need be ashamed. He is brave, for whether he gain or lose in each separate undertaking, in the end he cannot but win, for present failure must at least teach a broader wisdom for the future, and a more perfect sympathy with actual surroundings. He is sound and healthy, for he knows himself too well and deals with himself too honestly to leave any room for what is morbid or affected. He is strong, for he is self-controlled, at any moment ready to act decisively up to what he knows, without thinking that what he does is necessarily on that account the wisest and best course possible. He is enduring, for he can afford to wait, knowing that his aim is his own lasting development, not the production of immediate results, not the glory of present praise and honour.

All right exercise of any human gift, so descended from the Giver of good, depends on the primary formation of the character of true manliness in the youththat is to say, of a majestic, grave, and deliberate strength. How strange the words sound; how little does it seem possible to conceive of majesty, and gravity, and deliberation in the daily track of modern life. Yet, gentlemen, we need not hope that our work will be majestic if there is no majesty in ourselves. The word manly has come to mean practically, among us, a schoolboys character, not a mans. We are, at our best, thoughtlessly impetuous, fond of adventure and excitement; curious in knowledge for its novelty, not for its system and results; faithful and affectionate to those among whom we are by chance cast, but gently and calmly insolent to strangers; we are stupidly conscientious, and instinctively brave, and always ready to cast away the lives we take no pains to make valuable, in causes of which we have never ascertained the justice.1 [Note: Ruskin, The Study of Architecture (Works, xix. 32).]

In Drummonds Life of Charles A. Berry, there is the following reminiscence by Mr. Holderness Gale, an intimate friend of Berry:One day I had been spending an hour or two with him, and we were leaving the Club together, he to go, I think, to Woodford. Our ways parted at the Club door, and when we reached it, he called to me to wait a minute while he claimed his bag. In those days, a member entering the Club might leave his bag with the hall porter, and this Berry had done. He described his bag as a square black one, with a round handle, and was handed one which was beautifully smooth and shone with unsullied varnish. Thats not mine, said Berry; mine is over there, and he pointed to another bag of the same shape, or rather which had been of the same shape in its early days. When I saw it, the owners slippers, and sundry other impedimenta, had destroyed its squareness, and the varnish had given way, here and there, in honourable scars of roughened brown leather. I suppose you thought that wasnt respectable enough for a parson, said Berry, as the attendant gave the bag a dusting. Bless you, sir, we never thinks of you as a parson; we always thinks of you as a man, was the reply. I never saw Berry more touched than at this spontaneous tribute.1 [Note: Charles A. Berry, 274.]

Away back in the Middle Ages was a very beautiful and radiant thing named chivalrya thing partly real and partly ideal, the ideal part of it being just as precious for us as the real part. Now, one great purpose lying at the root of chivalry was that of cultivating a fine and stately type of manhood; in fact, of breeding up the manliest race of men that had ever trod up and down in the world. And what was their notion of manlinesstheirs, in that epoch of coarseness, and of animal lusts, and of violent lives? Listen. The finest dream of chivalry was embodied in that superb personage, King Arthur, and in the gorgeous knights who sat with him at the Round Table. And by what principles were their splendid lives controlled? Tennyson has told us, in the best English that has been written in our timeputting the testimony into the lips of King Arthur himself.

I was first of all the kings who drew

The knighthood-errant of this realm and all

The realms together under me, their Head,

In that fair Order of the Table Round,

A glorious company, the flower of men,

To serve as model for the mighty world,

And be the fair beginning of a time.

I made them lay their hands in mine and swear

To reverence the King, as if he were

Their conscience, and their conscience as their King,

To break the heathen and uphold the Christ,

To ride abroad redressing human wrongs,

To speak no slander, no, nor listen to it,

To honour his own word as if his Gods,

To lead sweet lives in purest chastity,

To love one maiden only, cleave to her,

And worship her by years of noble deeds,

Until they won her; for indeed I knew

Of no more subtle master under heaven

Than is the maiden passion for a maid,

Not only to keep down the base in man,

But teach high thought, and amiable words,

And courtliness, and the desire of fame,

And love of truth, and all that makes a man.

3. Manliness is a great word; it is a many-sided word; but in general, we have this feeling about it, when we use it with emphasisthat it is an idealizing word. It is a word that will not suffer us to stay down among the small actualities of the manly character as known to us; but it continually points us up and away from the small actualities towards the grand possibilities of the manly character which we hope may sometime be known to us. The word manliness, perhaps, is greater and richer in noble attributes than was any one real specimen of manliness that we have ever looked upon with these eyes of ours. Nevertheless, when we think of true manliness, we are not content with the discouraging real, we lift ourselves up towards the inspiring ideal; and we begin to place before our eyes, one by one, all those qualities that we can think of as going to the formation of a noble, strong, splendid, and complete man. The manly man, we saywhy, that is the ideal man; that is the man, not as he is, perhaps, but as he ought to be, as he may be, as he will be.

What are the attributes of this complete man, which St. Paul may be supposed to have had in mind when he exhorted us to act like one? There should be no difficulty in answering this question. The very word which St. Paul used is one the exact meaning of which is still perfectly well known. For our phrase in four words, Quit you like men, he used a single word, a verb formed from the familiar noun for man. The primary meaning of that noun was simply man as distinct from woman; its secondary meaning was man as a person of mature years, in contrast with a child; and then, for its third and supreme meaning, the word broadened and blossomed into the large conception of man as a being possessed of intelligence, wisdom, moral light and force, and a spiritual nature, in contrast with creatures of inferior order who are devoid of these endowments. So when St. Paul said to the little group of Christians at Corinth, environed by the spiritual perils of that most corrupt pagan city, Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, he very likely charged that last word with all the ennobling and stimulating meanings which in the usage of poets and historians and orators it already had. For long before St. Pauls time the word had been often used, somewhat as he used it, as a word to spur and inspire men to great and worthy and difficult deeds. In Homer and Herodotus and in Xenophon the word comes up again and again, when some great chieftain, at a moment of danger, in the presence of some grand or tremendous duty, just turns round to his followers and tells them to remember that they are men, and to act accordingly. Of course, St. Paul must have charged the word with richer meanings than they did, by as much as his conception of the spiritual range and possibility of mans nature was grander than theirs; but the basis of his appeal was just the same as theirs.

In the first place, then, if in any respect a man is expected to have more courage and strength than a woman, let him act as becomes a man. Here the protest is against effeminacy. Secondly, if in any respect a grown man is expected to have more intelligence, wisdom, force, self-control, or fortitude than a mere child, let him act as becomes a man. Here the protest is against puerility. But, unquestionably, the great meaning with which the word is charged, in the Apostles use of it, is its third and consummate meaning. Men are to act as creatures having reason, conscience, the power of choice, and the measureless possibilities of the immortal life, and not like creatures of mere instinct, impulse, and irresponsibility. Here the protest is against brutishness or animalism, existence unregulated by intelligent and conscientious self-direction. Therefore, taking this as the Apostles conception of manlinessnamely, character expressing itself in a life steered by principlelet us look at some of those forms of principle by which the manly life will be steered.

(1) Magnanimity.Magnanimity is the principle of taking the large-minded view of things rather than the small-minded view. It is this principle woven into the texture of any human life which gives to it, however lowly it may be, true elevation and dignity; which enables its possessor to meet whatever comes with a tranquil and firm spirit; which raises him above anything so petty as revenge; which prompts him to disdain injustice and meanness, and leads him to task himself and to sacrifice himself for noble ends. Accordingly, whatever in us is small, paltry, narrow, low; whatever tends to warp and contract us; whatever is stingy, greedy, miserly, selfish, jealous, morbid, is just so far a diminution of our manliness. And every vocation or method of culture which tends merely to sharpen certain less noble faculties of our nature, such as calculation, shrewdness, cunning, acquisitiveness, needs to be met by the deliberate cultivation of the faculties which will correct this tendency and broaden our grasp and handling of things.

Abraham, says Charles Kingsley, was a prince in manners and a prince in heart. The Hittites partly divined his secret. His personality was grandly impressive to them. He rose in uncrowned sovereignty above them all, the strongest, noblest, gentlest man; and they saw that he was a prince of Gods own making. He owed his power and charm, not so much to natural endowments as to the transforming and ennobling influence of Divine grace. Great aspirations and ideals created his great character. He kept company with God till he became a partaker of the Divine nature. Beginning as a man of God, he ended as a prince of God. True religion develops the highest kind of manhood. Under its influence a common man becomes princely in soul, unconsciously regnant among his fellow-men, and does the most common things in a noble, gentle, royal spirit. Being to God what the wax is to the seal, he is stamped with the image of God.

Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control,

These three alone lead life to sovereign power.1 [Note: J. Strachan, Hebrew Ideals, i. 180.]

It is news to some people that manliness is a matter of culture rather than of fate. These are the people who confuse manliness with manhood. Their view is that in the great drama of humanity some of us are cast for male parts and some of us for feminine characters; and since none can determine his own sex, therefore manliness is a matter over which we have no control. They are by no means entirely wrong; and yet they are not right. It is not ours to say whether we shall or shall not be men. It is ours to say whether we shall be manly. For manliness is a matter of quality. There are many kinds of men, and it is only worth while being the best kind. To be the best of anything a man must take himself in hand. He must culture and discipline himself with the help of God. In other words, he must set his will towards manliness. He must know what he wants, he must know how to get it; he must count as nothing the pains of progress. The fact is that manhood is only potential manliness. Yet where there is manhood there is always the possibility of manliness. Temperament is bias, but not destiny. Will and vision will always open a road from manhood to manliness.1 [Note: J. G. Stevenson, in Youth and Life, 1.]

(2) Sincerity.Another principle by which the manly life is steered is sincerity, sometimes described as ingenuousness, openness of heart, frankness, fairness, straightforwardness, honesty of nature through and through. The manly man will surely be controlled by this principle. The manly man is not double-tongued, or a hypocrite, or a trickster. The manly man is the upright man, the straightforward man, or, to use a new but most expressive phrase, he is the square man. When we hear of a piece of brilliant and successful sharp practice in politics, in law, in stock speculation, is it not our first tendency rather to smile admiringly over the expert achievement than to brood seriously over a certain ignoble something in it which taints the whole glittering transaction and the person who executes it? For there is nothing manly about trick-playing. How refreshing it is to see a man who never has an object of which he need be ashamed, and who marches towards his object without dodging, indirection, or stealth!

No meanness, hypocrisy, or dishonesty, whether on the part of rich or poor, could escape the rigorous censure of that terrible Thoreau, as his acquaintances called him; nor would he waste on thriftless applicants one cent of the money which he had earned by his own conscientious labours. He maintained sincerity to be the chief of all virtues. The old mythology, he wrote, is incomplete without a god or a goddess of sincerity, on whose altars we might offer up all the products of our farms, our workshops, and our studies. This is the only panacea.2 [Note: H. S. Salt, Henry David Thoreau, 122.]

Trevelyan speaks of that ingrained sincerity of character for the sake of which his party would have followed Lord Althorp to the death.3 [Note: Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, 260.]

During Mr. Gladstones last tenure of office as Prime Minister a clergyman, whose only opportunity of knowing Mr. Gladstone had been through the not too trustworthy descriptions of hostile critics, happened to say in the presence of Dean Church that he believed Mr. Gladstone was a thoroughly insincere man. The Dean was sitting in his chair when the remark was made, but he instantly rose, his face even paler than it usually was, and he said, evidently with the strongest suppression of personal feeling: Insincere! Sir, I tell you that to my knowledge Mr. Gladstone goes from communion with God to the great affairs of State. It was high testimony to be given to any man, but highest of all when we remember who gave it.1 [Note: Life and Letters of Dean Church, 304.]

This is Loves nobility,

Not to scatter bread and gold,

Goods and raiment bought and sold;

But to hold fast his simple sense,

And speak the speech of innocence,

And with hand, and body, and blood,

To make his bosom-counsel good.

For he that feeds men serveth few;

He serves all who dares be true.2 [Note: Emerson.]

(3) Self-control.Manliness is self-mastery. Any fool, the weakest, dullest, paltriest that ever was, can make a drunkard or a debauchee. There is no human clay so vile, no sludge and scum of humanity so despicable, but out of it you may make an effeminate corrupter or lying schemer; but it takes Gods own) gold to make a man. No lacquer work, no tinsel suffices for the cherubim of the sanctuary. They must be hammered out of pure gold, seven times purified in the fire. From whom, it has been asked, does the inspiration descend on us? Is it not from the central figures of the great tragedies of humanity; from the creators of law, from the avengers of wrong, from the martyrs of right, from the missionaries of mercy, from the Pass of Thermopylae, from the self-dedication of the Decii, from the fires of Smithfield, from the waters of the Solway, yea! from the cross of Calvary? And he who will not take up that cross cannot be a true man; he cannot be Christs disciple.

Every man finds in himself two sets of tendenciesone coarse, the other fine; the one gross and animal, the other spiritual and noble; one set allying him to the beasts that perish, the other allying him to the angels of God and to God Himself. Now, every mans life is going to be habitually controlled by one or the other of these sets of tendencies, or he is going to vacillate in a helpless, rudderless way between the two. But what will the manly man do about it? This he will do. He will not vacillate; he will not drift rudderless, water-logged, helpless. No; he will decide firmly between these two sets of tendencies; he will make his choice, and he will choose to have his life habitually controlled by his finer instincts rather than by his coarser ones; he will elect as his master tendencies those which are pure and ennobling rather than those which are low and degrading; he will resolve that within the domain of his personality the soul shall be king, not the body; that conscience and intelligence shall rule, and not the mob of his animal lusts and passions. With him the decision simply comes to this: the body shall obey the soul, the soul shall not be degraded to the task of obeying the body.

If one is alive, there will be much in him which needs control, and yet is not going to submit without a struggle. It takes a practised hand to manage a pair of high-spirited horses so that they will not run away; and he would be a phenomenal charioteer who could drive wild beasts tandem and keep them under the rein together. This is the kind of task which ardent natures have to face. As compared with some primitive peoples, we have lost in frankness and gained in outward decorum, because we hide objectionable eccentricities from public view. But the human heart is still a curious menagerie. Though the animals may be pretty well tamed in the cage of civilization, it does not follow that their rougher instincts are destroyed. A good many different selves often seem to be included in the self. How shall we bind them into a real unity?

When shall we lay

The ghost of the brute that is walking and haunting us yet and be free?

This is the great problem of life.1 [Note: W. T. Herridge, The Orbit of Life, 65.]

(4) Courage.Another principle by which the manly life is steered is courage. As to this thing called courage, people sometimes distinguish between physical courage and moral courage. If there be such a thing as physical courage apart from moral courage, we have not very frequent use for it in civilized life. Against physical danger, as proceeding from the violence of others, society protects us; we seldom need to be at the trouble of protecting ourselves. Physical courage is the virtue of barbarism; the virtue of civilization is moral courage. The courage most needed in civilized society, at almost every hour of our lives, is the courage of opinion; the courage of our faiths and our convictions.

Once, in some American city, there was held a densely crowded mass-meeting of slave-holders. Shouts of applause and enthusiasm marked the words of these champions of bondage, and they thundered forth the plausible sophisms of perverted Scriptures which defended their covenants with death. And one of the orators exclaimed, in the face of that menacing and raging meeting: I should like to see an Abolitionist now; I should like to see an Abolitionist show his face here. Then a short figure was seen thrusting its way to the front, and, standing up before these raging defenders of wickedness alone, Theodore Parker shouted out to the raging multitude, I am an Abolitionist! It required nobler courage to do that than to fight a battle.1 [Note: Dean Farrar.]

I say it deliberately, from long observation, that I regard cowardice as a capital defect in a young man. I have really more hopes of a fool than of a coward. I am never sure that a coward will tell the truth. I tremble at every temptation that he encounters, lest he may succumb. I fear for every opposition that he meets, lest he may be carried away with it.2 [Note: R. B. Fairbairn, College Sermons, 67.]

I remember a remarkable conversion that occurred many years ago, when a work of grace was beginning in the parish over which my dear father was pastor. It happened that at that time there was a little band of men who were great chums, and in a good position in society, as things went in the village; they were, in fact, regarded as influential men in the parish. One evening, they were all together at an hotel in the neighbouring town of Penzance, and, as men do on such occasions, they were drinking, and talking all kinds of nonsense, and not infrequently all kinds of profanity! One happened to say, I wonder what the people are doing just now over at Pendeen. Another replied, I suppose they are all getting converted as fast as possible. Well, said one to a third, I say, Captain B, I will tell you what it is. When I see you converted, I will begin to think there is something in it, and there was a great roar of laughter from the whole of the company at the thought of Captain Bs conversion. The man thus referred to was, I may say, a mine agent, occupying a very influential position, and a large employer of labour. As the laughter died away, he rose from his seat. His companions did not notice how pale was his cheek. One thought only had flashed across his mind, when he heard his friends remark, and the roar of laughter which it provoked. It was thisIs my salvation so utterly hopeless that these worldly men can afford to regard me as they do? Do my companions think me altogether lostfor time and eternity? He started up and darted out of the room. The company thought they had offended him. Another moment, and he was in the hotel-yard, and crying to the ostler, Saddle my horse! He rode to his home as fast as he could ride. His wife could not understand what was wrong with him: he seemed so agitated. He took no food; but immediately set out for the place at which our meetings were being held. He was the last man we expected to see there. He came boldly forward and took his seat in front of the congregation, full in view of many whom he was employing. He had overcome his moral cowardice. My dear father gave out those lines of a well-known hymn of Wesleys

Is here a soul that knows Thee not,

Nor feels his want of Thee?

A stranger to the blood which bought

His pardon on the tree?

Convince him now of unbelief,

His desperate state explain.

And, as my father uttered these last wordsHis desperate state explain!we heard a cry. This man was prostrated on his knees, and was sending up the thrilling prayer, before the eyes and ears of allGod be merciful to me a sinner. I need hardly tell you that man went home rejoicing. But I may add that his conversion moved the whole neighbourhood, and was the commencement of the most remarkable work of Gods grace that has ever occurred in those parts. Now, I call that manly, quitting oneself like a man. I know he could not have done it if the Holy Spirit had not been striving within him. But then we often strive the other way; God calls, and we wont answer. God draws, and we wont yield; and the result is our hearts become like adamant, harder than flint.1 [Note: Canon Hay Aitken.]

I asked Kang Yu Wei, who has studied the Gospels profoundly, what seemed to him the most striking quality in Jesus. He answered, somewhat to my surprise, that what appealed to him most, in the personality of Jesus, was His courage.1 [Note: Hibbert Journal, October 1908, p. 22.]

And who the bravest of the brave;

The bravest hero ever born?

Twas one who dared a felons grave,

Who dared to breathe the scorn of scorn.

Nay, more than this: when sword was drawn,

And vengeance waited for His word,

He looked with pitying eyes upon

The scene, and said, Put up thy sword.

O God! could man be found to-day

As brave to do, as brave to say?

Put up thy sword into its sheath,

Put up thy sword, put up thy sword!

By Kedrons brook thus spoke beneath

The olive-trees our valiant Lord,

Spoke calm and kinglike. Sword and stave

And torch and stormy men of death

Made clamour. Yet He spake not save

With loving word and patient breath

The peaceful olive boughs beneath,

Put up thy sword within its sheath.

IV

Be Strong

It would seem, at least at first sight, as if only an artificial distinction could be drawn between those two injunctions, Quit you like men, Be strong. But, looking more closely into the meaning of the words, we find that, not only are they not synonymous, but they do not even overlap. The Greek word translated Quit you like men, a word which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, has an obvious and definite meaning. It is an appeal to self-respect, and a call to us to show forth our moral strength. The word translated Be strong, on the other hand, in the only three other passages in which it is used, definitely refers to a different kind of strength. Twice it is used of our Lord Himself growing strong in spirit, and once it is used by St. Paul in the Epistle to the Ephesians, in the phrase, Strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man. The word thus becomes almost synonymous with another favourite word of St. Pauls, constantly translated by the English strengthened, or made strong, and always with reference to Divine strength. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It refers definitely to that strength which made St. Paul himself strong for his work, even as spiritual heroes in all ages out of weakness have been made strong.

1. Let us, then, live in no doubt of what is strength and what is weakness. It is strength to will and to do; it is weakness to desire and not to do; to wish and not to will; to wish to break a habit and still to live in it; to wish to fix the thoughts and let them wander; to wish for the command of a faculty and to acquire no efficient use of it. And strength is not the vehement impulse of one part of us, but the final consent of all that is in us. It is not in the tenderness of a yielding man; nor in the resignation of a cold one; nor in the prudence of a selfish man; nor in the open-handedness of a spendthrift. The tender must be firm; the resigned, loving; the prudent, generous; the charitable, self-denying. It was seen in Christ when the morning of His greatest glory dawned upon Himwatching in trembling and in prayerin His humility testing His weakness, and collecting His strength in God. Remember what He said to the disciples, who all failed Him in that great crisis, not because their hearts were evil, but simply because their wills were feeble: What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Quit you like men, be strong. Yes, strength will come:

Who weeps at night will fight as well to-morrow;

Tis good to stand a-wrestling with the world;

He loses much who knows not care nor sorrow;

Tis good all day to keep the foe abreast,

Tis good at night to fall on dreamless rest.

2. Be strong.The original means rather Become strong. What is the use of telling men to be strong? It is a waste of words, in nine cases out of ten, to say to a weak man, Pluck up your courage, and show strength. But is it so vain to tell a poor, weak creature like me to become strong, when you can point me to the source of all strength, in that spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind? We have only to take our weakness there to have it stiffened into strength; as people put bits of wood into what are called petrifying wells, which infiltrate into them mineral particles, which do not turn the wood into stone, but make the wood as strong as stone. So my manhood, with all its weakness, may have filtered into it Divine strength, which will brace me for all needful duty, and make me more than conqueror through Him that loved me. Then, it is not mockery and cruelty, vanity and surplusage, to preach, Quit you like men; be strong, and be a man; because if we will observe the plain and not hard conditions, strength will come to us according to our day, in fulfilment of the great promises: My grace is sufficient for thee, and my strength is made perfect in weakness.

What is that Divine strength which is to transform our natural and human strength? In one word, it is Christ in us, the same Divine power which secretly fought in and with the noblest efforts of humanity outside the Jewish and the Christian Church. Only now its nature is revealed; more than that, there is revealed to us the means by which that Divine strength may be gainedthe channels of communication have been thrown open to us. The end and aim of the religious life has been made clearlikeness to God, Christ formed in us, ourselves transformed, our lower self subdued, our higher self taken into God. I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

It is sometimes said, You tell us to be manly, and yet you bid us subject ourselves to a higher power working in us. Religious people are so weak. They have no self-reliance. They are but feeble creatures, after all, with all their boasted strength. How can you expect men to set before themselves, as an end, what, disguise it as you will, is self-surrender, which means renouncing all that we admire as manly in us? I will answer by some negative instances sufficient, at all events, to prove that surrendering ones self to the will of God, resting on His strength, is a source not of weakness but of power. Was St. Paul feeble and nerveless because his will was surrendered to the will of Christ? Did he speak less powerfully, or run less certainly, or fight as one that beateth the air, because he had learned to say, Not I, but Christ in me? Are enthusiasts of all ages and all creeds, fanatics, if you will, wanting in force and energy, because they believe themselves to be only passive instruments in the hands of some mightier power?1 [Note: A. L. Moore, Some Aspects of Sin, 49.]

3. Our strength must be of the whole man.Strength of character is not to be obtained through the intellect or through the feelings alone. Either of these exclusively followed can at the best only give principles of conduct and action which satisfy the individual, and the practical result of such a purely individual possession can only be bigotry, prejudice, narrowness or fanaticism, not real strength.

That man is unmanly, for he falls far short of mans perfection, who exults only in his bodily strength, and wastes in useless, idle, often in cruel and degrading pursuits, time and vigour that are due to society, due to his fellow-men, due to himself. Equally, nay, more, does he fall short, who as a narrow-minded pedant looks out upon mans varied and ever-varying life, and measures human nature by his own scanty measure, and, as it seethes and tosses at his feet, applies to it his dull formula and thinks he has thereby solved its meaning and hushed its voice for ever. Unmanly too, deeply unmanly is he who, with a morbid sensitiveness that he cannot assuage, is always peering into himself and tenderly nursing his own feelings, and greedily clamouring for the gratification of his own emotions, who cannot face life on equal terms with others, but is constantly brooding over his shocked self-respect, or injured self-love, or ill-requited affection; who is always demanding from life as a gift that happiness which is accorded only as the prize of effort, and is wringing his hands in sulky despair that he is after all treated even as other men are, though he thinks himself much more exquisitely sensitive than they.

True strength of character is not attained by great exertions, but by unity of life. Nothing is more common than great force in some one directionin some one inclination, passion, or faculty; nothing is more rare than a strong man, if by the man you mean the whole man, the symmetry of our entire being, the frame of our life complete through that which every joint supplieth. The men whom the world takes for strong are for the most part only one-sidedjust as to most minds the half of a truth is far more telling than the whole of it, and to modify the impression by giving the other half will seem to round it off to comparative tameness. Vehement language coming out of half knowledge and a blind impulse seems fraught with more vigour than full, just, discriminating speech; and a man who sees every side of a subject will appear more feeble than the man who, because he sees but one side of it, can speak impetuously and strike with unqualified force. How easy would it be to be strong in some one direction or proclivity of our nature, or in the vigorous prosecution of single interests! How easy, for instance, to be strong in the conduct of worldly business, if we might settle down our whole powers upon it, and had never to lift our soul from its pursuit! How difficult is it to combine this with every other sentiment that becomes a manto infuse into this vigour of business the fervent spirit serving God, so that, whilst the hand of diligence maketh rich, the heart and its treasures have no earthliness in them! How easy might it be to be strong in religion, in the devotion of our souls to holiness and truth, if duty centred in the private thoughts and could be carried on in solitude; if it required no struggle with conflicting things, no trained wisdom to discern our way amid a thousand complications; if asceticism were strength; if the anchorite might go to his cell, and had finished his Christian work when prayers, aspirations, and unearthly desires had floated in ghostly array through the uninterrupted meditations of his spirit! All that is easy to any one who chooses to give himself to it. But how difficult is it to be strong in a real devotedness to goodness, purity, and truth, amid the contradiction of circumstance, and the opposing ways of men; to shape the forms of life after models in the soul; to transfer unmutilated our own sentiments into our own demeanour; to live with men as they are and part with no ideal; to lose no vision, disturb no fountain of peace; to be strong in Christs interpretation of strength; a physician among the sick; whole among the unsound; spiritual among the worldly; living with God in the midst of crowds; full of love and thought for the world when alone with God

(1) Strength of body.There is not, perhaps, much tendency in the present day to return to that utter despising of our body which was so marked a characteristic of some schools of medival asceticism. It is enough therefore to observe that the only word in the New Testament which could seem to give countenance to such a thought is that expression, our vile body, which is a painful and unfortunate mistranslation of the Greek. The word is really, this body of our humiliation, as contrasted with that glorified body in which we shall exist when the Church militant is past, and we join the completed Church triumphant in heaven. Purity and (where God gives health) strength of body seemed ever to St. Paul one ingredient in his estimate of true manliness. What can exceed the fervour of that prayer that your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ?

(2) Strength of mind.Be strong also in soul, or intellect; for in this sense, and not in our more modern and less accurate sense, does St. Paul use this word soul, distinguishing it from our spirit. Be not children in understanding, says the Apostle, but in understanding be men. If the religion of Christ teaches us to be brave in body, so also it teaches us to be brave and strong in intellect.

(3) Strength of spirit.It is through the higher spiritual life that God acts upon the other parts of mans nature; and it is by that spiritual power that the whole man will be purified and exalted. The influence of the spirit of the man, acted on and illuminated by the Holy Spirit of God, will raise him to the true dignity of manhood in all his nature. There is nothing manlyquite the contraryin being irreligious or indifferent. If there be one word of truth in all the Gospel story of what Christ has done for us, surely it is the meanest, most unmanly thing on earth to treat that heroic self-sacrifice with active scorn, or with still more wounding chilling indifference.

Like many others, I imagined a man was some one who would shine in all athletic games, and make for himself a body that should be so strong that people would point to him and say: Thats a man. Therefore when a sufficient measure of success came to me, in a financial way, I gave myself to athletics. I longed for the day when my name should be quoted in the paper as a successful athlete. How I worked at it, and how hard I trained! At last a measure of success came my way, and with the glamour of the laurel wreath upon my brow, I cut the account out of the paper and sent it home. I thought, now my father and mother will know that their son is a man! How hungrily I waited for the answering letter of congratulation, and with what eagerness I broke the seal when at last it came! Imagine my chagrin when I read: Your mother and I are very glad that you have attained to such success as an athlete. We are very proud of you, but remember that if you were to become the finest athlete that ever lived, you would only be a Third of a Man.

There was nothing for it but for me at once to tackle my brain, whilst keeping up my athletics. From that moment I began to study, in fact almost to go to school again. I devoured books, I studied deep subjects, I tried to become an intellectual person. At last I read a paper before some society, which was reported in one of the papers, with some flattering criticisms, which were sent home. Another letter came in which my father said: Your mother and I are much pleased that you are letting our prayers be answered, and that you are looking after your mind as well as your body. Remember, however, that supposing you become physically perfect, and so educate yourself that you shall have a well-stored and well-equipped brain, you will then only be Two-Thirds of a Man.1 [Note: G. Clarke, True Manhood, Womanhood, 10.]

V

Be Tender

Let all that ye do be done in love.

1. There is a singular contrast between the first four of these exhortations and the last. The former ring sharp and short like pistol-shots; the last is of gentler mould. The former sound like the word of command shouted by an officer along the ranks; and there is a military metaphor running all through them. The foe threatens to advance; let the guards keep their eyes open. He comes nearer; prepare for the charge, stand firm in your ranks. The battle is joined; Quit you like menstrike a mans strokebe strong. And then all the apparatus of warfare is put away out of sight, and the captains word of command is softened into the Christian teachers exhortation:

Let all that you do be done in love. For love is better than fighting, and is stronger than swords.

2. And yet, although there is a contrast here, there is also a sequence and connection. No doubt these exhortations, which are St. Pauls last word to that Corinthian Church on which he had lavished in turn the treasures of his manifold eloquence, indignation, argumentation, and tenderness, reflected the deficiencies of the people to whom he was speaking. They were schismatic and factious to the very core, and so they needed the exhortation to be left last in their ears, as it were, that everything should be done in love. They were ill-grounded in regard to the very fundamental doctrines of the faith, as all St. Pauls argumentation about the resurrection proves, and so they needed to be bidden to stand fast in the faith. Their slothful carelessness as to the discipline of the Christian life, and their consequent feebleness of grasp of the Christian verities, made them loose-braced and weak in all respects, and incapacitated them for vigorous warfare.

An example of a splendid Christian manhood is furnished by the career of Sir Titus Salt. It was my privilege recently to visit Saltaire, near Bradford, the model village of which he was the founder, and to see there in some measure how much a single well-spent life may do in brightening the lot of others. The great mill, which is built in the Italian style, the dwellings for the work-people, the almshouses, the schools, the church, the public park, and other facilities for the culture and the elevation of the people, are proofs of a large intelligence and a loving heart. He came to his grave in 1876 at the age of seventy-three; but his memory lives as that of one whose motto wasLove and Serve.1 [Note: 1 R. S. Duff, Pleasant Places 119.]

A story is told of Marston Moor for which there is as good evidence as for many things that men believe. A Lancashire squire of ancient line was killed fighting for the king. His wife came upon the field the next morning to search for him. They were stripping and burying the slain. A general officer asked her what she was about, and she told him her melancholy tale. He listened to her with great tenderness, and earnestly besought her to leave the horrid scene. She complied, and calling for a trooper, he set her upon the horse. On her way she inquired the name of the officer, and learned that he was Lieutenant-General Cromwell.1 [Note: J. Morley, Oliver Cromwell, 154.]

Ive noticed it often among my own people around Snow-field, that the strong, skilful men are often the gentlest to the women and children; and its pretty to see em carrying the little babies as if they were no heavier than little birds. And the babies always seem to like the strong arm best.2 [Note: Dinah Morris, in Adam Bede.]

Burne-Jones soon caught Ruskins enthusiasm for Luini, and some years later advised a friend who was travelling in Italy to hunt him out everywhere. Never were any faces so perfect; for they are perfect like Greek ones, and have fourteen hundred years of tenderness and pity added.3 [Note: Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones, i. 248.]

The Christian Knight

Literature

Aitken (W. H. M. H.), Mission Sermons, iii. 97.

Alford (H.), Quebec Chapel Sermons, v. 215.

Armitage (W. J.), The Fruit of the Spirit, 76.

Bell (G. D.), The Name above Every Name, 111.

Brown (H. S.), Manliness and Other Sermons, 9.

Burrell (D. J.), The Religion of the Future, 154.

Butler (H. M.), Public School Sermons, 173.

Campbell (L.), The Christian Ideal, 148.

Clarke (G.), True Manhood, Womanhood, 1.

Clarke (J. E.), Common-Life Sermons, 61.

Creighton (M.), Claims of the Common Life, 64, 71, 78.

Fairbairn (A. M.), Christ in the Centuries, 139.

Fairbairn (R. B.), College Sermons, 60.

Farrar (F. W.), Bells and Pomegranates, 255.

Green (W. H.), in Princeton Sermons, 235.

Greenhough (J. G.), in The Ladder of Life, 123.

Hopkins (E. H.), The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, 161.

Jenkins (E. E.), Addresses and Sermons, 149.

Jerdan (C.), Messages to the Children, 131, 177.

Keble (J.), Sermons for the Christian Year: Miscellaneous, 487.

Little (W. J. Knox), The Perfect Life, 48.

Lyttelton (A.), College and University Sermons, 179.

Maclaren (A.), Expositions: 1 and 2 Corinthians, 252.

Matheson (G.), Messages of Hope, 31.

Moore (A. L.), Some Aspects of Sin, 3, 15, 28, 39.

Ryle (H. E.), On the Church of England, 92, 243.

Shore (T. T.), Some Difficulties of Belief, 271.

Thom (J. H.), Laws of Life after the Mind of Christ, i. 345.

Vaughan (C. J.), Christ and Human Instincts, 89.

Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xi. (1875) No. 949; xvii. (1879) No. 1091; xxiv. (1884) No. 1265.

Christian Age, liii. 66 (Green).

Christian World Pulpit, v. 23 (Barfleld); xxviii. 395 (Tyler); xliv. 157 (Neil), 353 (Farrar); xlvi. 65 (Farrar), 78 (Macleod); lxxiv. 79 (Hardy); lxxix. 124 (Hedley).

Contemporary Pulpit, 1st Ser., vi. 316 (Burn).

Homiletic Review, xx. 49 (Green); xxi. 433 (Ludlow).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

Watch: Mat 24:42-44, Mat 25:13, Mat 26:41, Mar 13:33-37, Mar 14:37, Mar 14:38, Luk 12:35-40, Luk 21:36, Eph 6:18, Col 4:2, 1Th 5:6, 2Ti 4:5, 1Pe 4:7, 1Pe 5:8, Rev 3:2, Rev 3:3, Rev 16:15

stand: 1Co 15:1, 1Co 15:2, 1Co 15:58, 2Co 1:24, Gal 5:1, Phi 1:27, Phi 4:1, Col 1:23, Col 4:12, 1Th 3:8, 2Th 2:15

quit: 1Co 9:25-27, 1Co 14:20, 1Sa 4:9, 2Sa 10:12, 1Ch 19:13, Eph 6:13-17, 1Ti 6:12, 2Ti 2:3-5, 2Ti 4:7, Heb 11:32-34

be: Jos 1:6, Jos 1:7, Jos 1:9, Jos 1:18, 1Ki 2:2, 1Ch 28:10, Psa 27:14, Isa 35:4, Dan 10:19, Dan 11:32, Hag 2:4, Zec 8:9, Zec 8:13, 2Co 12:9, 2Co 12:10, Eph 6:10, Phi 4:13, Col 1:11, Col 1:12, 2Ti 2:1

Reciprocal: Deu 31:6 – Be strong Jos 23:6 – very 2Sa 2:7 – let your 1Ch 22:13 – be strong 1Ch 28:20 – Be strong 2Ch 12:14 – he prepared 2Ch 15:7 – ye strong 2Ch 19:11 – Deal courageously Neh 4:17 – with one Rom 4:20 – but was Rom 11:20 – and 2Co 7:13 – because Col 2:5 – and the

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

WATCHING FOR DUTIES

Watch ye.

1Co 16:13

Our subject is watchfulness.

I. We must watch our duty to God.What is it? We know God only in His relation to ourselves; and to ourselves God is a Father.

(a) Watch that you may never be drawn aside to think of God but as a Father.

(b) Watch your prayer; watch against wandering thoughts or mere formality.

(c) Watch that you always have some work in hand which you mean to be specially for the service of God, and watch that that work does not degenerate into a work done to please yourself, or for some temporal good, or for applause, or for self-exaltation, or self-satisfaction, but for God.

II. Watch your duty to yourselves, your duty to your own soul.

(a) Watch for your souls sake, and for your own sake that you do not willingly allow any pleasure, any society, any business, any thought or imagination which your own conscience tells you is injurious to your inner life.

(b) Watch conscience; always listen to its still small voices; obey instantly its promptings if it be ever so little a thing.

(c) Watch the body. Do not neglect it; do not count it religion to speak slightingly or think disparagingly of the body. Therefore for religions sake look well to the health of the body.

III. Watch your duty towards your fellow-creatures.No one is isolated. God has placed you one in a great system.

(a) Watch your duty to the whole world.

(b) Watch your duty to the Church. Your duty is to further in every way you can its union, its peace, its holiness, its growth; to use and enjoy all its ordinances that God has provided for your souls growth and health and happiness; its services and its sacraments, especially Holy Communion, regularly, devoutly, believingly. Take that partwhich belongs to you of the laityin all the services by making the responses distinctly.

(c) Watch your duty to your own inner circle of relations and friends and neighbours. Remember that that which God has put near to you involves a duty on your part.

Duties are not things which come haphazard and may be done anyhow; they must be watched for at all times, and only by watchfulness can we do them.

Rev. James Vaughan.

Illustration

As friend to friend; friends of the soul; as heirs together of the grace of life, always looking out for opportunities to do some real good; be true sympathisers in one anothers sorrows, and equally rejoicing in one anothers joys. And the rich to the poor, be bountiful, generous, kind, never condescending; that is offensive; be more respectful to a poor man than to a rich man, caring both for the body and soul of your poorer neighbours, imparting something to both, and, as stewards for God, of your knowledge and education, and your property and your leisure; consecrating all to Him in His poor whom God has given to be the channels to Himself. Making your charities not an impulse, but a principlean amount given carefully and deliberately, proportioned to your means. Making giving a privilege which you have from God, in the spirit of your Master, and for His dear sake Who loves all alike, and died for all, and who is specially identified with the poor and afflicted. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1Co 16:13. Watch ye, stand last contains a twofold exhortation. To watch means to be alert for any challenge to their faith, and if it appears it should not be suffered to shake them from their faithfulness. Quit you like men is all from one Greek word which Thayer defines, “to show one’s self a man, be brave.” Such an attitude was necessary to meet the attacks of enemies.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

1Co 16:13. Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like menplay the man, be manly,be strong. In the Greek of the Old Testament we find these words more than once together (Psa 27:14; Psa 31:24).

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Three duties are here exhorted to, namely, watchfulness, stedfastness in the faith, and holy fortitude and courage.

1. Watchfulness, a necessary and daily duty; we cannot be safe one moment without it; something we must watch over, something we must watch against all sin, all appearance of sin, all temptations to sin, all occasions of sinning; we must watch for all opportunities of glorifying God, all opportunities of doing good to others.

2. Stedfastness in the faith; perseverance in the faith of Christ, and stedfastness in his holy religion, is the great and indispensible duty of every Christian that has a due regard to his soul’s salvation: Watch ye, stand fast in the faith:

3. Christian fortitude and holy courage: Quit yourselves like men, be strong. Where we have the Christian’s spiritual enemies supposed and implied, sin, Satan, and the world; and his duty declared, and himself encouraged to play the man in opposing, or contending with, and striving against, them.

Verily, a Christian above all men needs courage and resolution; he can do nothing as a Christian, but it is an act of valour; it requires much more courage to be a Christian than to be a captain.

Alas! how many of the valiant sword-men of the world have showed themselves mere cowards, who have come out of the field with victory, and banners displayed; but after all lived and died slaves at home, slaves to their base lusts! It requires more prowess, more bravery and greatness of spirit, to conquer ourselves, than to command an army of men. Therefore quit ye like men, be strong.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Closing Instructions and Personal Remarks

Christians must be constantly on guard against Satan. Paul encouraged them to be firm in matters of faith and not let false teachers shake their beliefs as they had on the resurrection. He also urged them to be men in the faith and courageously stand in God’s strength. Still, the apostle reminded them that all of a Christian’s actions should be based on love. Such should end all strife ( 1Co 16:13-14 ).

Paul told them to be subject to those who lovingly ministered to the needs of fellow Christians. He especially singled out the family of Stephanas who had been the first converts in Achaia. The apostle felt he was with the Corinthians as long as Stephanas, Fortunatus and Achaicus were with him. While he could not see all of the Corinthians in person, Paul felt an empty spot had been filled by the coming of these three. He also felt the letter he wrote because of firsthand knowledge would provide for some of their greatest needs. So, he wanted the Corinthians to receive them as those who had helped ( 1Co 16:15-18 ).

Paul delivered greetings from some who wished the Corinthian church well, especially Aquila and Priscilla. He also wanted them to treat one another as friends. He then wrote a special hello with his own hand. The rest of the letter was probably dictated to someone who wrote it down ( 1Co 16:19-21 ).

The apostle also directed that those who did not love the Lord, should be judged and punished for their evil. He asked that the Lord come quickly so they might be judged. Likely, he also saw the Lord’s coming as a means of fulfilling another of his desires which was that the Corinthians would have the Lord’s blessings, especially heaven. Paul wanted them to know he loved them, despite the correction he had have to give in this letter. In fact, correction is an expression of genuine love ( 1Co 16:22-24 ).

Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books

1Co 16:13-14. To conclude. Watch ye Against all your seen and unseen enemies; stand fast in the faith Seeing and trusting in Him that is invisible: quit you like men With courage and patience; be strong To do and suffer his will. Let all your things be done with charity Namely, your differences about worldly affairs, mentioned chap. 6., your disputes concerning marriage and a single state; (chap. 8.;) your eating things sacrificed to idols; (chapters 8., 10;) your eating the Lords supper; (chap. 11.;) and your method of exercising your gifts, chapters 12., 14. In all these ye ought to have a regard to the good of your neighbours, that ye may not occasion each other to sin.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Vv. 13, 14. Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. 14. Let all your things be done in charity.

Does St. Paul mean, as Hofmann thinks, that the Corinthians should do among themselves what they would have Apollos to come and do among them? No such reference seems to me to be indicated. The apostle is preparing to close; comp. 2Co 12:11. The terms are taken from the position of an army ready for battle. And first there must be watching, putting itself on guard against surprises by the enemy. The Corinthians were sunk in carnal security, and exposed to all the seductions which arise from it. They were above all prone to the abuse of Christian liberty; comp. 1Co 6:12 seq., 1Co 10:12-14, etc.

Then, to stand firm in the faith; to strengthen themselves in their spiritual position to hold their ground against the enemy. The point in question is undoubtedly faith in the atonement by the cross of Christ (chap. 1), and faith in the resurrection with all its moral consequences (chap. 15). The Christian who holds to his faith is like a soldier who does not leave the ranks, however sorely pressed by the enemy; it is the opposite of what is called in Greek .

To act like men and to be strong are two phrases which refer to the right mode of fighting; the former to courage, energy the subjective disposition; the latter to real force due to Divine aid the objective state. The is opposed to cowardice, effeminacy; the to the weakness which may sometimes accompany courage. The Corinthians lacked energy when they accepted invitations to idolatrous feasts; compare Paul’s conduct, 1Co 9:27. They were wanting in spiritual power when they did nothing in the case of the incestuous person (chap. 5). But energy and power should be directed by charity. Here we have to think of the divisions (chaps. 1-4) and of the vain and egotistical use of spiritual gifts (chaps. 12-14); comp. chap. 13.

There follows a more special recommendation in regard to the respect and deference due to the devoted members of the Church who give themselves to its service.

Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)

Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.

Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)

13. Watch, stand in the faith, be courageous, be strong.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

Verse 13

Quit you like men; act like men.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

IV. CONCLUSION 16:13-24

The Apostle Paul concluded this epistle with a series of imperatives, exhortations, and news items.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

A. Final exhortations 16:13-18

Each section in this epistle concludes with some practical admonition. These verses constitute a summary exhortation for the whole letter.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Paul urged his somewhat unstable readers to be watchful regarding danger from inside as well as outside the church (cf. Act 20:29-30). Most of the problems in this church evidently arose from within the congregation as a result of pagan influences. "Be on the alert" sometimes occurs with anticipation of the Lord’s coming, so that event may have been in Paul’s mind as well (e.g., Mat 24:42). His readers should also stand firm in their trust in God and their commitment to His Word and will (cf. 1Co 15:58). Rather than acting like immature children they should behave as mature men (cf. 1Co 1:12). They should be strong in the Lord rather than weak in the faith (cf. Jos 1:7-8). Above all, love should motivate and mark them (ch. 13). This was the greatest need of this church. These verses summarize what Paul expected of his readers in all that he wrote in this letter.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)