Stand Firm

 DEVOTION

THE 1^ST LETTER TO THE CORINTHIANS

STAND FIRM

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

We have already focused on being on guard, or keeping watch as Paul gives these final remarks of instruction. He also tells them, and us, to stand firm in our faith. This sounds a lot like what he told the people in Ephesus when he informed them about God’s armor and kept saying they should take their stand, or stand their ground, or stand firm. The standing firm has to mean that we cannot ever retreat, or get pushed back, or get influenced or infiltrated by the ranks of the enemy.  We have, as they must have, many voices seeking our attention. We would never give up our faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation, that is a fact. But there are so many other issues within Christianity as we have seen within this letter. It is true the first and foremost truth is the gospel message of faith in Jesus Christ. Everything stems from that faith. There are a lot of things that can distract us from that truth, such as Paul said, especially those traditions of men. We can get so involved in the rules and regulations of men, thinking they give us a certain sense of righteousness, that it is possible we make them more important than faith in Jesus Christ. That is not to say everyone is like that, but we have to keep watch that we do not fall into the trapping of men, but rather stay focused on our faith. We have no other way to heaven, there is none who can attain righteousness through good works or righteous living. This does not mean we should go about sinning just because God will forgive us, but the fact remains we are not ever going to be good enough, righteous enough, sinless enough, to gain a right standing before God. How can we be pure enough in this fleshly form we now have? Oh, we look holy enough in church, or at least, we want to think we do. We would rarely if ever, admit we have sin in our life, although we all know each other is not perfect and still struggle in certain areas of our lives.  The fact is we cannot be moved from our faith in Jesus. He is not just a part of our lives, our faith is not just a part of our lives, Jesus is our life. Without Jesus, we have no life, only death. What good is life if all it leads to is death? What good is doing everything right if that is what we look to for life? What good are all our traditions, all our rules, and regulations if we look to them for life? Maybe we use Jesus as an excuse for all our traditions and rules, saying that because we believe in Jesus, we have to live according to these traditions and rules because we are commanded to live in a certain manner. That is how the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law lived. They believed in God, but Jesus told them they were just whitewashed tombs, looking good on the outside, but dead men on the inside. Standing firm means standing firm in our faith in Jesus and Jesus alone. It is never Jesus plus, this or that. It is Jesus and only Jesus who gives us life. No one is going to move us from that view, that faith.