1 Corinthians 16:13-14 - Homiletics

The demands of Christianity on its adherents.

" Watch ye, stand fast in the faith," etc. Here are certain demands which Christianity makes on all men.

I. A demand for VIGILANCE . "Watch ye." A military metaphor this, derived from the duty of those who are stationed to guard a camp or to observe the motions of an enemy. There were many evils, as we have seen, in the Corinthian Church—dissensions, heresies, inchastities, intemperances, etc. Hence the necessity of watchfulness. But where do not evils abound? Hosts surround us all, hence, "Watch ye." "Watch and pray," says Christ.

II. A demand for STABILITY . "Stand fast in the faith." Do not be vacillating, wavering, "tossed about by every wind of doctrine." Strike the roots of your faith deep into the soil of eternal realities. Firmness is no more obstinacy than the stony rock is the deep-rooted oak.

III. A demand for MANLINESS . "Quit you like men." Be courageous, invincible, well equipped, manly. Be an ideal man; you can be nothing higher than this, nothing greater. There are great philosophers, great poets, great statesmen, great orators, great warriors, who are small men, if men at all, leagues away from the ideal. A great functionary is often a very small man. "Quit you like men." Be heroes in the strife, Here is—

IV. A demand for CHARITY . "Let all your things be done with charity" or love. Man's life consists of many acts, many "things done." Activity is at once the law and the necessity of his nature. He only really lives as he acts; inactivity is death. But whilst the acts of men are numerous and varied, the animating and controlling spirit should be one, and that spirit is love.