Deep Well Discipleship

MAN UP Part 3 of 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 Why are there so few men left in the world?  As a culture the growth from boyhood to manhood has taken a detour through the maze of adolescence; adolescence (as a word or descriptive phrase) was not even heard of or used in the development of children until the twentieth century and at that time was used to describe a child between the ages of 13 and 19, presumably the age of one in high school.  Today, in stark contrast, some argue adolescence starts at the age of 10 and may not stop until the age of 24 or older.  Even more shocking is that today more women are in colleges then men and boys are staying longer and longer in an adolescent state and fewer men are emerging.  Perhaps today more than ever Christian young men need to be reminded to act like men, not boys, and certainly not adolescents, but men. Paul called out the men in church of Corinth and said ACT LIKE MEN.  The understanding of the word ...

STAND FIRM We began a study on 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 yesterday with the first part of the verse in focus, “be watchful”.  Today we move on to the next 5 words of the text, which are “stand firm in the faith.”  What does it mean to stand firm?  When I served in the military stand firm meant holding your ground against enemy attack.  When you were standing firm in the face of danger.  The text here is very much the same.  The greek word steko ( steko) literally means to stand firm in faith, to be constant, to persevere, to remain steadfast, to continue in a state, to be persistent . Paul gives a good antithesis to standing firm in 1 Corinthians 6:18 when he tells the church in Corinth to “Flee immorality” to literally continue to fun from it, and keep running from it.  As much as the word flee means to run as hard and fast as we can away from something steko, stand firm, means to be immovable.  Within the text of 1 Corinthians 16 Pau...