Skip to main content

1 Corinthians 15-16

1 Corinthians 16:13

Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.

One of the final verses in 1 Corinthians is the one above. It is such a good and powerful reminder for us today.

Be watchful

-What are we to be watchful of?

            -False teaching
            -Spiritual complacency
            -Sin
            -Laziness

Paul reminds his readers to be watchful. That speaks of living with an intentional awareness. Always on the lookout.

Stand firm in the faith

Colossians 2:6-7 says,
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

How do we stand firm in the faith, by being rooted in the Him! By growing in our faith.

Act Like Men (literally translated, Be Brave)

What does it mean to be brave? Why do Christians have to be brave? Isn’t the life of a Christian easy and without difficulty? NO! Scripture tells us that the life of a follower of Jesus is one where trouble is guaranteed.

2 Timothy 3:12

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Matthew 5:11

Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.

We are to be brave when troubles and trials come and trust God.

Be Strong
1 Corinthians 16:14

 Let all that you do be done in love.

After saying all of the things above, Paul tells his readers to make sure that they always do everything in love. What a way to sum up, everything! Let’s be known by our love!
Pastor Tony

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Acts 27-28

There are some very interesting developments in Acts 27.  One of the most amazing is to see the quick rise of Paul’s status on the ship – the meteoric rise from low man on the totem pole to chief of the whole tribe.   In v. 1 we find that of the 276 people on board the ship heading for Rome, Paul was numbered among the prisoners.  He was near the bottom of the barrel.  When we approach the end of the chapter we find that Paul has now virtually taken over the leadership of the boat.  He has practically been given command.  The others are looking to him for inspiration and leadership.   From prisoner to commander in a short voyage.  How did it come about?  It came because Paul demonstrated leadership in the storm.  Everyone else was looking at the storm.  He was looking at God.   The child of God, no matter where we find him, can be master of the situation.  Circumstances should never affect our confidence an...

Romans 9-10

At our previous church, we often read verses from the book of Romans when speaking with non-believers about salvation through Jesus. Recently, reading verse 23 of Romans 3 and verse 23 of Romans 6 brought back memories of “the Romans Road” as that evangelistic method was called. Verse 9 of Romans 10 ( If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. ”) was another verse on the Romans Road. I can’t say that I fully realized the meaning and importance of claiming that “ Jesus is Lord .”   Oh, I understood that I was testifying that Jesus is fully God; that he died on the cross and was resurrected; that his shed blood covered my sins and the sins of all who accept his gift of salvation. However, it took many years and many life lessons before I understood that Jesus is (my) Lord… Lord over my life . I’ve had to change some things in my life that didn’t reflect that truth and am still working on ...

2 Thessalonians 1-3

There are a lot of significant thoughts about the return of the Lord Jesus in 2 Thessalonians, but there is something else of great importance that we can be doing right now. We can be praying for missionaries.    We talk a lot about the need for praying for missionaries.  We also need to talk a lot about how we should be praying for them.  Here is an acronym, taken from Scripture, that may be of some help. The acronym spells PEWBOARD.  It reminds us that although it may seem insignificant to us that all we are doing is sitting on a pew, we can be a vital part of missionary work.  We can pray.   There are a lot of missionary agencies, boards, and sending societies, on which we will never serve, but just because we are on the “pewboard” doesn’t mean we are ineffective in supporting those on the front lines.   All throughout the epistles we read of personal prayer requests from that great missionary – the Apostle Paul.  His specif...