{"id":5886,"date":"2020-08-26T00:00:41","date_gmt":"2020-08-25T14:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=5886"},"modified":"2020-09-01T06:47:56","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T20:47:56","slug":"be-strong-and-ready","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2020\/08\/26\/be-strong-and-ready\/","title":{"rendered":"Be Strong and Ready"},"content":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 16:13\u00a0Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.<\/span>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Paul now moves to the final exhortations of the letter. This is typical of his letters. He often repeats the key ideas of the letter at the closing. This verse has four imperatives. The first is “be alert,” “stay awake,” or “be watchful.” Every believer must do this in order to be aware of the schemes of the devil and to be aware of temptations (see 1 Corinthians 10:13).<\/p>\n

Second, the Corinthians should stand firm in the faith. They need to know the truths of the gospel. Paul has written about how knowledge must take second place to love (ch. 8), but some knowledge of the truth is still important. “The faith” here is likely the orthodox teaching that he gave the Corinthians. This is the truth that he has laid out in this letter.<\/p>\n

Third, they should act courageously. The word literally means “act like men,” sharing the same root with “man” or “husband.” Men are supposed to be strong and able to stand up to stress and pressure. These are good qualities for all believers to have, not just men.<\/p>\n

The fourth is similar to the above and refers to being strong, powerful, and mighty. Believers should not be passive and weak but able to stand up to the culture around us. We must rely on the Lord’s strength but also have some fortitude about us.<\/p>\n

These qualities require some degree of human effort. After reading this letter, the Corinthians should now be equipped \u00a0to deal with whatever challenges they face. These are qualities that all believers can strive towards.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Daily Devotions by Email<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1 Corinthians 16:13\u00a0Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.\u00a0 Paul now moves to the final exhortations of the letter. This is typical of his letters. He often repeats the key ideas of the letter at the closing. This verse has four imperatives. The first is “be alert,” “stay awake,” or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5886"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5886\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5890,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5886\/revisions\/5890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}