Men of Courage

 DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

MEN OF COURAGE

1 Cor 16:13-14

13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. 14 Do everything in love.

NIV

Having warned to be on guard and stand firm, we now need to be men of courage and be strong. The more direct interpretation of the Greek would be to act like a man and have or increase in vigor. The idea is that God created men to have courage, to be strong and attack the world, stand up and fight like a man. God did not create a man to be weak and to be pushed around or to be a manse pansy type of person. It is certain Paul is not speaking to women here, or to all believers, but to the men. What has happened to the men? Have we forgotten to have courage, to take on the world, to be overcomers? Once again, the whole idea here is about the enemy of our soul. It is the responsibility of the men to guard their families against those attacks. At least this is what seems to be in the middle of this truth about acting like a man and being strong. We suppose this could apply to all believers, but the Greek language does not allow it to be so. This is only for the men of the church. Stand up and act like a man. Because that is the direct translation, we must understand how a man is to act or be like. We can be sure, because of other scriptures, there are certain behaviors and actions that men are empowered by God to have. They are to love their wives.  They must be the head of the household. They must be willing to lay down their lives for their family, as Jesus laid his life down for us all. Having courage or acting like a man also implies that men should be men. We know in this world there is a great movement to feminize men and take away or strip them of their manliness. The scripture does not oppose but rather instructs that all people are equal in the eyes of the Lord. From the beginning God took a rib from the man to make a woman, thus intending them to walk side by side through life. Still, today equality has been replaced with women wanting to dominate and even taking on the role of men in the world. Therefore, more women die of heart attacks than men do today. Too often men have abdicated their role designated by God and have become weakened with no courage, not acting manly or acting like a man. So let us first stand up and act like a man and be strong. Then we will be the men of God we were intended to be.