Wrapping it Up

I Cor. 16:13,14 "Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love."

Paul is getting ready to wrap up this letter to the Corinthian church. I am not sure if he knew that he was going to write to them again or not, so he had to get in some final thoughts. If he could summarize what he tried to get them to understand throughout his letter, what would it be? This is it. "Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love."

"Watch" The word here actually means to be aware of the garbage that is around you and can come in to destroy the church. Basically Paul is saying - "Don't get lazy. Don't let your guard down. Instead, pay attention to all that is going on." This is a good word for leaders. Leaders are put in place to protect others. When they see things that come in that may bring about destruction they have to take action. It isn't always pretty, in fact most of the time it is hard (and frankly I dislike it), yet it has to be done. In order to do this leaders have to watch and be aware.

This is not just true of leaders, however. It is true for the entire church. We should all watch. We should all know what can bring us down and guard against it. In our church, in our families and in our individual lives. Watch.

"Stand fast in the faith." This is almost repeating I Cor. 15:58. We have to persevere. We have to know what we believe and stand firm in it. No compromise. The truth is the truth. The truth does not change. How can anyone waffle? But it happens. Paul encourages this church and all churches and all believers to know what you believe and don't give in.

"Be brave." This is a natural follow up to what he just wrote. If we are going to protect and not compromise we will have to be brave. People will call us all kinds of names. Intollerant is the big
buzz word now. When we say that Jesus is the only way to heaven people will look at us like we have two heads. Stand firm. Be brave. We may be threatened, charged, persecuted -watch, stand firm, be brave. Just ask the persecuted church what this means. They have it down. We don't have a clue what may happen in the U.S. We are very blessed now to have the freedom that we do. Right now we are just bigots...it can get worse.

Finally, "Be strong". Don't give up. Not only do we individually have to be strong, but this word actually means "to strengthen...to set stronger" to make others stronger. I need to exercise spiritually and I need to encourage others to exercise spiritually. We all have to build into our lives those spiritual disciplines that will allow us to be strong and get stronger.

"Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong." Good words.