Powerful Christian Living | 1 Corinthians 16:13-14

INTRODUCTION

These are the final words of Paul in this letter. The 16th chapter is kind of broken up into several sections. In the first section, Paul talks about the collection that he wanted to take for the Jerusalem saints. The next section speaks on doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way Paul discusses something of his ministry and how he abounded in the work of the Lord and the things we should watch out for.

In our section, Paul lays down some very essential imperatives for the Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14

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

We’re going to see five principles for powerful living

BACKGROUND

In terms of chapters that makes it the longest book in the New Testament.

1 Corinthians 4:14 Corinthians was not written to shame them. It was written out of love to admonish them to righteous behavior where they would begin to inherit the blessing of God.

But as we look at this chapter what just sort of jumps out are these imperatives in verses 13 and 14. That makes them commands. They are not optional. They are demands on the part of the Holy Spirit for the believer. I call them Principles for Powerful Living.

Paul said for 15 chapters, “Don’t do this and don’t do that and don’t do this and stop doing this and quit doing that,” and now all of a sudden he says, “Look, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this.” This is the flip side.

He gives five military commands.

1 Corinthians 16:13-14

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

Now really, if they had just responded to those five things the rest of the book would have never been written because these are the things that reverse the errors earlier. Let’s look at these five.

1. Be on your guard.

The first one is be on your guard or be alert.

Be alert has two meanings. First is physical alertness.

1 Thessalonians 5:10

He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. The word awake is used and it means being alive as opposed to being dead.

1 Thessalonians 5:6

So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. Here the word awake is used in its spiritual sense. Paul is writing to people who are asleep spiritually. He says, “Wake up; be alert.”

The word guard has the idea of being really awake and aware.

The word watch or wake or be alert is used 22 times in the New Testament and it is used again and again and again in reference to the Christian.

The Christian life must be a life of alertness. We’ve got to be awake. We’ve got to be alert. We have to understand what’s going on, to evaluate and to be aware of what the adversary is doing. You can’t live the Christian life, Paul is saying, in a state of sleep. You’ve got to be alert.

Now this was part of the Corinthian behavior. They were in a spiritual sleep all the time.

a. First of all, a lot of them are in a physical stupor

When they used to come to the Lord’s table, one was hungry and another was Drunk. They were literally getting drunk. So they were in a state of stupor.

Well they were in a state of physical drunkenness at times but Paul’s major point here is not the physical but the spiritual. They were in a spiritual stupor. They just were not alert. Now that’s a deadly situation for a Christian.

Were the Corinthians alert? No.

b. They let sinners in the fellowship

Sexually immoral people were in the church and they were accepted in the church. 1 Corinthians 5:1-6

In chapter 5:12 he says, “Don’t you judge those in your midst?”  “Don’t you evaluate people to see whether they’re a plus to your fellowship or a negative?”

1 Corinthians 6:2-4

1 Corinthians 6:9, 15-16, 19

Now the problem with the Corinthians was they didn’t know. You can’t be alert if you don’t know, right? They were in a spiritual stupor.  So in 1 Corinthians 8:9 he says, “Take heed; wake up.” 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Take heed.”

1 Corinthians 12:1

“Now brethren concerning spirituals I don’t want you to be,” what?  Ignorant.  “But you are.”  They were ignorant. They were in a stupor and weren’t alert.

The Corinthians because they were not alert were victims of everything, every phony human philosophy, every wrong kind of human behavior. They didn’t know in spite of having plenty of resources.

Paul is telling them 1 Corinthians 15:34

Listen, the believers have got to be alert.

What are we to watch for?

Now the New Testament says a lot about what we’re going to watch for.

1. The Bible says to watch out for Satan.

1 Peter 5:8

“Be vigilant and watch because your adversary, the devil, goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”

Who is it that he will devour? It’s the one who’s not what? Watching. You need to be alert to the wily, crafty subtleties of Satan.  You need to understand how he operates.

ILLUSTRATION

Satan is like a football coach with only three plays and that ought to be simple to defense. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. He comes on those same three waves all the time. You ought to learn his strategies.  You ought to be aware. Be alert.

So watch out for Satan.

2. Watch out for temptation.

  Mark 14:38

 Jesus said, “Watch and pray lest you enter into Temptation.”

You better be alert to temptation.  Boy, Satan’s got angles you never thought of.  You can’t just go blithefully tripping through the world exposing yourself to everything without having it affect you.  It’ll hurt you.  It’ll expose you, the temptation.  Watch, keep your eyes open.

3. Watch out for apathy and indifference.

The church at Sardis in Revelation 3:2 he says, “You have a name that you live but you’re dead.  Watch.  Watch and strengthen the things that remain.”  Listen, a church can just sort of float off into apathy.  A Christian can just get smug, self-content, apathetic and indifferent and the Lord said the church at Sardis, “I’m going to come like a thief in the night in judgment against you.”

The Lord will come in chastening against an apathetic, indifferent Christian who doesn’t deal with his sins, who doesn’t deal with his weaknesses, who doesn’t deal with his disobediences.

Don’t you think you can just smugly plop yourself down and do your own thing without any recourse.  I believe God will chasten you and I believe he chastens you because he is a loving God who wants to chasten you into proper behavior in order that he may pour out all the blessings that he wants you to have.  So apathy is another thing to watch for.  Look at your life.  When you get to the place where you’re comfortable with your sin and you’re no longer trying to face it and deal with it then you’re really in trouble.  So watch for that.

4. Watch for false teachers

2 Timothy 4:3-5

You need to be aware of false teaching, false doctrine, keep your mind alert.

5. Watch in Prayer

1 Peter 4:7 Ephesians 6:18

We are to watch.  You can’t pray without knowing what’s going on. Be specific. I used to talk about Grace when she was little.  She would always say, “Dear God, bless the whole, wide world.”  I’d say, “Grace, you can’t say that.  What do you mean, ‘Bless the whole, wide world’?  You’ve got to be specific, honey.”  God, bless the whole, wide world doesn’t make it.  What you need to do is to assume that God wants you to pray about specific issues and that’s watching.  How can you pray if you don’t know what’s going on?  Specifics.

Watch Satan, watch for temptation, watch for apathy, watch for false teachers, watch in prayer.

6. Watch for the Lord’s return

Matthew 24:42, Matthew 25:13

What does it mean to watch?  Does it mean to just go around like this all the time?  “Well I don’t see him today?”  No.  It means watch here because he’s coming.  Not there.  Watch your life.  You only have so much time to do what God’s given you to do.  Watch.  So that’s good.  I just want to do that.

The Corinthians blew it.  The Corinthians were not alerts.  Consequently they were victimized by Satan.  They were victimized by temptation.  They were victimized by apathy and indifference.  The Corinthians were victimized by false teachers.  They were victimized by prayerlessness and they were not ready for the Lord’s return.  They were even denying the resurrection.  So Paul says to them, “Look, you will just reverse all of this if you’ll just get alert.”  See, how that – that will solve so many problems if you just wake up.

You say, “How do you do that?”  I’ll tell you how.  All of the warnings you need to know are in the Word of God.  So to watch just look in this book.  It’s like a microscope on every little subtlety of Satan.  It reveals it all.  Watch.  Watch right in this book and then apply these principles.  See, the Word of God is profitable for doctrine, for instruction in righteousness to make you perfect, mature.  Just get in the Word.  It’s your window through which you watch.

2. Be Firm

I like people who really believe what they believe and hold to it. I like people who are firm.

The Corinthians they were just blowing around with the breeze, you see. Paul says, “Be firm.”

Jude 20

“Stand fast in the faith.”  This is not in faith like faith as some spiritual thing but the faith is the content of God’s revelation.

1 Timothy 6:12  “Fight the good fight of faith.” The Greek says, “Fight the good fight of the faith.”  You see, we need to fight to hold on to the faith because Satan wants to wrest the faith away from us, the content of the truth.

Faith comes from hearing and hearing the word of God.

Go back to 1 Corinthians 1:17-18

The Corinthians had actually allowed human wisdom to so infest the Church that they were accepting it on an equal basis with God’s revelation.

I would say the first level of faith is dealt with Christianity at the level that it’s God’s revelation the second greatest feature of Christianity is the person of Christ.

One, they are undermining the authority of the Word of God, two, they are denying the reality of Jesus Christ, three, they are saying there is no what?  Resurrection.  They just cut the heart of the Gospel.

So when Paul says, “Stand fast in the faith,” he says, “Go back to the authority of the Word of God, go back to the person of Christ and go back to the resurrection which is the great cornerstone of Christianity.”  See, that’s really what he’s saying when he says that little thing, “Stand fast in the faith.”  He is reversing all those negatives that I have just shared with you.

Now the Bible tells us to be firm.

We are to stand for the faith.

2 Thessalonians 2:14-15

What is the key to being firm?  It’s the Word, isn’t it?  It’s the apostolic doctrine.  And the epistles.

Now the New Testament says a lot about being firm.

Be firm in your devotion to Jesus Christ.

Philippians 4:1

1. Stand firm in one spirit. Unity.
2. Stand firm in Liberty. Galatians 5:1
3. Stand firm in the will of God. Colossians 4:12
4. Stand firm against Satan.

Ephesians 6:11-14

3. Be men of courage

I call this be mature.  Be mature.

A child, somebody immature tends not to be courageous.  A mature person tends to be courageous.  A child tends to be rather fearful.  A mature person tends to have a sense of control, of confidence.  That’s essentially what he’s saying.  “You should be courageous men, grown up and mature.

Let me just emphasize the maturity element of it because the courage part has to come along behind the maturity.  In chapter 14 verse 20, Paul again had dealt with the Corinthians so many times on this but look what he says in

1 Corinthians 14:20

“Brethren – ” he says, “ – be not children in understanding.  In evil be children but in understanding be – “ what?  “Be men.”  Grow up.

He has said this to them in so many terms again and again and again.  In chapter 4 he said, “I have to talk to you like sons,” and he says, “I have to treat you like little kids and if you don’t shape up I’m going to come to you and if I come to you I’m going to spank you if I have to.”  He doesn’t really say that.  He says, “Do you want me to come with a rod?”  Whack, whack, whack, see if you don’t shape up.

They were a bunch of babies.  They were not men in understanding.  The Corinthian brothers were not men in courage and they were not men in maturity.  They were babies fighting, squabbling, immature, flopping around from every false doctrine like Ephesians 4:14 says.  They were just infantile and consequently, they could not defend themselves from the onslaughts of Satan.

Go back to the third chapter, the most familiar text on this theme.  “And I, brethren – “he says “ – I could not speak to you as unto spiritual but as into carnal even as unto babies in Christ.  I have fed you with milk and not with solid food for to this time you were not able to bear it and neither yet now are ye able.”  “You’re like a bunch of babies.  I can’t even dispense good solid food.  I have to keep giving you this milk stuff.”  They were infantile.  They had not grown up.

The Corinthians had to be dealt with like children.  They had to be spanked.  They had sibling rivalries even.  And they were taking brothers to court, fighting, squabbling.  Paul even says to them in the 13th chapter, “When I was a child I spoke as a child but when I became a man I – “ what “ – I put away childish things.”  Even their religious worship was infantile.  It was all based on feelings and emotions rather than truth and doctrine.  So Paul says, “Grow up.”

And you know something?  If they had just grown up they would have eliminated a whole of problems, a whole lot.  Carnality, fighting, squabbling, an infantile kind of religion.  An emotional thing would have given something if they contemplated the truth if they were men in understanding.  That’s why I believe people that the teaching of the Word of God, the music that the Church presents, and the structure of the Church ought to always appeal to the highest level to bring people to that mature place and not always to the feelings and the emotions which are basically the level of childhood.  So he says grow up.  If they’d have grown up they’d have changed a lot of things.

So he says, “Be alert.”  If they were alert they wouldn’t get into all this mess.  “Be firm.”  If they’d been firm they wouldn’t have given away their theology.  “Be mature.”  If they had been mature they would eliminated all the squabble and hassles and fightings and inadequacies and ineptitudes of immaturity.  By the way, everybody’s to be mature, aren’t we?  2 Peter 3:18 says, “You should grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”  In Ephesians chapter 4 verse 13 it says, “We should all grow up into the fullness of the stature of – “ whom “ – Christ.”  Grow up into him who is the head and be no more children.  See?  Grow up.

Say, “How do I do that John?  I know how to be alert.  I look through the Word.  And I know how to be firm.  To know the doctrine of the Word.  But how can I grow up?”  I’ll tell you how.  As babes desire the pure milk of the Word that you may grow.  Same thing.  Just get in the Word you’ll find out you’ll be alert.  That’s a great place to start.  You’ll be firm and you’ll begin to mature.  It’s not so tough.  It’s all right here in the Word.

4. Be strengthened

He doesn’t say, “Be strong.”  Do you know why?  Because you can’t strengthen yourself.  That’s something the Lord has to do.  That’s like Paul said in Ephesians 6:10, “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”  “Be strengthened,” he says.  The Lord has used him.  The Lord, Jesus, in Luke 2:40where it says, “And the child grew and became strong in spirit.”  It’s a word that can mean a strengthening of the spirit, strengthening of the inside, strong inner man, a strong spirit – watch this – that can overcome the flesh like

2 Timothy 2:1

, “But thou O man of God – “ he says “ – be strong that is in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.”  It’s a strong spirit that overcomes the flesh.  The Corinthians were not strengthened.  The flesh ruled.  Whatever the flesh told them they did it.  They couldn’t handle the flesh.  He says, “You are carnal.  You are victims of the flesh.”

Now what’s amazing about it is that they thought they were strong.  Oh man, they thought they were something else.  In fact, they said in chapter 4 – Paul says, “You think I’m afraid to come.  You’re such hot stuff that I’m afraid to face you.”  “He’ll never come and see us.  We’re too tough to handle.”  He says in chapter 10 verse 12 to them, “Let him that thinks he stand to take heed – “ what “ – lest he fall.”  They thought they were so strong.  They were anything but.

Look at the fourth chapter and look at how Paul deals with this element of weakness.  By the way, there are many other illustrations of each of these points which we don’t have time to go in.  I’m just picking out a couple that are representative but as I say the whole book is really the negative backdrop to just these five principles.  But notice in

1 Corinthians 4

he says in verse 6, “You’re puffed up.”  Verse 18, “You’re puffed up.”  Chapter 5 verse 2, “You’re puffed up.”  No question about it, they were puffed up.  Thought they were hot stuff.  Strong big shots, spiritual superstars.

So he says, “Let me talk to you a little bit.  You’re so proud.”  Verse 7, “Who made you different?  What did you have that you didn’t receive and if you received it why are you glorying as if you didn’t receive it?”  “What makes you think you’re so hot?  If you’re different from anybody else God made you that way and if you’ve got anything God gave it to you and it had nothing to do with you anyway.  You really think you’re something.”  Boy, they thought they were so strong, so smug.

So he says in verse 8.  Boy, he gets so sarcastic.  This is the most sarcastic part of the book.  “Now you are full.  Now you are rich.  You have reigned as kings without us.  Aren’t you hot stuff?  Full and rich and royalty.”  And he says, “I would to God you did reign.”  It’s all just sarcasm.  “I would to God you did reign.”  They thought they were just kings, full, rich.  Then he makes a comparison.  “I think that God hath set forth us, the apostles, last as it were appointed to death.”  He starts comparing them to the apostles.  “For we are made a spectacle of the world and the angels of men.”

Now watch how sarcastic he gets.  “We are fools for Christ’s sake but you are wise in Christ.  We are weak but you are strong.”  See, they thought they were.  “You are honorable but we are despised.”  In other words, he says, “By what you say you’re the hot shots and we’re the losers.”  That’s how proud they were.  They were looking down from their vantage point on the apostles.

He says, “To this present hour we hunger, we thirst, we’re naked, we’re buffeted.  We have no place to dwell.  We labour with our hands.  We’re reviled.  We’re persecuted.  And we’re defamed.  We became the filth of the world, the off-scouring of all things.  That’s us.”  But they thought they were hot stuff.  They didn’t know what Paul was saying here was this, “True greatness comes through true humility.”  Right?  When we’re weak then we’re what?  Strong.  He said that in the second letter to them.

They thought they were so strong.  They weren’t strong at all.  Because they were so weak spiritually they actually became weak physically and because of – listen to this.  11:30 says, “Because of your spiritual weakness and the way you have treated the sacred things many of you are weak and sickly and some of you – “ what “ – sleep.  In other words, their spiritual weakness brought about physical weakness, disease and death.  They thought they were so strong.  They were weak.

Paul had to urge them in chapter 9 verse 24.  He says, “Look, don’t you know this is a race?  Don’t you know that if you’re going to win you’re going to have to run and if you’re going to run you’re going to have to strive for mastery?  That means discipline yourself, temperate in all things.  You can’t live the Christian life flabbily in a sloppy half-hearted, half-baked way.  If you’re going to run run to win and if you’re going to run to win you’re going to discipline yourself.”

Paul says, “I keep under my body and I bring it into subjection.”  Self-discipline.  The reckless, flabby, undisciplined and weak Corinthians thought they were so strong.  They thought they could indulge themselves to the hilt with no concern for man or God and Paul says, “You can’t do that.  I’m telling you you have to be engaged in a life of self-denial and a life of self-sacrifice and a life of self-discipline.”

The New Testament tells us to be strong.  Ephesians 6:10 tells us to be strong in the Lord against Satan.  Philippians 4:13 tells us to be strong in service.  Paul says, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”  He was talking about his ministry and his service.  The Word of God tells us to be strong in good works.  Colossians 1:10 and 11, “We are to do good works being strengthened.”  In Daniel 11:32, that great verse that says, “The people that know the Lord shall be strong and do exploits.”

Say, “Well how John?  Being alert, being firm, being mature through the Word but how can I be strong?”  Well, that’s a passive thing, a passive verb.  That comes from another source.  You say, “What’s the source?”  Psalm 27:14 says this, “Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and he will strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the Lord.”  Who is the one that gives us strength?  It’s the Lord.  It’s the Lord.  “Be strong in the Lord and the power of His might,” Ephesians 6:10.

You say, “But how?”  By his Holy Spirit.  Ephesians 3:16 says that we are to be strengthened by his Spirit in the inner man.  As you yield your life to the Spirit of God then you will be strengthened by his strengths.  Now we’ve talked about that principle a lot.  I’m just reminding you of it now.  Real strength is from God by His spirit.  Paul says, “I pray for you that you would be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man.  As you yield to the spirit he strengthens you.”  Do you see the simplicity of what Paul is saying?  If you just get in the Word and yield to the Spirit you’ll be alert, you’ll be firm, you’ll be mature, you’ll be strengthened.

5. Be loving

Be loving.  This is such an important one because it balances everything else off.  If we just had the first four we might become really kind of crusty and militant in the world.  So he says in verse 14, “And in everything, you do it with love or literally in love.  Let all your things be done in love.”  Here we are.  We just got marching orders.  We’re just firmed up, ready for battle, suited up for war.  We’ve had these commands barked at us like a sergeant would marshal the troops for battle.  We’ve been told to fight and at the same time he backs away and says, “Now by the way, the attitude I want all of you to have in everything you do is an attitude of love.”  That’s the beautiful softening principle.

Unretreating courage, unfailing love.  They have to come side by side.  Too much love and not enough standing and you’re going to wash away in sentimentalism.  Too much standing and not enough love and you’re going to be sort of an ugly theologian.  Got to be both.  You have to have love and sound doctrine.  We see these things again and again and again and again through the New Testament.  They’ve got to go together.  Let everything you do be done in love.

By love we simply mean self-sacrificing service to the one in need, that’s all.  Self-sacrificing service to the one in need.  Not emotion.  Not a feeling but an act of love, an act of service.  Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you.”  The way he just loved them was to wash their feet and that’s how we love, by washing feet.  That is meeting the needs of a person who has a need.

Now the Corinthians were not loving.  Oh my, you know that.  In the very first chapter, he says, “You’re fighting each other.”  Chapter 1 verse 10 he says, “There’s schemata among you, divisions, hassles.”  In chapter three he says – one says, “I’m of Paul; I’m of Apollos; I’m of Cephas; I’m of Christ.  You’re carnal and there’s divisions all over the place.”  Chapter 3.  In chapter 5 he says, “You’re so perverted with your love that you’re acting in immorality.  You think love is lust.  Not only that, you’ve defiled the very wife of your father.”  Further on he says, “You’re joining yourself to a harlot.”  They had just really fouled up the whole kind of concept of love.

In chapter 6 they were suing each other.  In chapter 7 marriage partners were depriving each other.  And in chapter 8 stronger brothers were running roughshod over weaker brothers.  In chapter 11 they were hogging the food at the Lord’s feast and the poor who came late had nothing to eat.  There was no love there.  They were not loving.  They had an unloving approach to spiritual gifts.  The Corinthian brothers were unloving in everything.  He reverses really the whole lifestyle in that one statement, that everything you do be done in love.  That would solve it all.

We’ve got two things he says then, “You want to straighten your church out?  Sound doctrine and love.  You put those two things together and you reverse the whole thing.”  You say, “Where do you get the love?  How do you get that?”  Well, the first three came through the Word.  The fourth one I told you came by the Spirit.  Listen to this.  Paul says, “I pray for you – “ Ephesians 3:16 “ – that you would be strengthened by his Spirit in the inner man – “ the next verse says “ – that you may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge.”  Love is from the Spirit.  So you’ve got the Spirit and the Word working together to provide sound doctrine and love to make the Church, to make the individual believer what God wants him to be.

CONCLUSION

Now listen people. Listen. Being alert, firm, mature, strong, be loving are the principles for a powerful life.  They are generated by the Word and the Holy Spirit.  They come together to make sound doctrine and love which are the two pillars that hold the Church up.  Let’s pray.

Thank You Father, again, for the practical truths of the Word of God and we know You desire that we proclaim it with boldness and that we obey it with eagerness.  So make us Your people living in the way that You want us to live that we may truly do everything that we do to the glory of God.  Pray in Christ’s name.  Amen.