“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave…” – 1 Cor. 16:13, NKJV

I grew up without a father, raised by a single mother who did the work of two parents, and I grew up afraid.

I was afraid of being noticed, of being wrong, of being the one who spoke when the room was quiet.

Today, when people call me bold, I shudder.

I know it’s all down to God’s grace, and I need more of it, in this deeply intimidating world.

I’ve lived long enough to notice how people get paralysed by cowardice.

“Be careful,” we’re constantly cautioned. “Better to be safe than sorry.”

Those who warn us may have good intentions of course.

But don’t we sometimes forget that being brave is part of our mission?

When Paul admonishes the believers to “be brave,” I hear a word for the timid.

The King James renders it ‘quit you like men,’ where ‘quit’ means to conduct oneself or behave in a certain manner.  

The Greek verb is a soldier’s word: act courageously, show manly courage in the face of battle.

In 1 Samuel 4:9, the Philistine leaders rally their troops to be strong and conduct themselves like men.

Even pagan armies knew that cowardice loses wars.

That is how ‘cowardice’ in combat became a serious crime worthy of sanctions at a Court Martial.

But Scripture’s deepest roots for this command lie in God’s dealings with those He called to lead His people in dark seasons.

Moses charged Israel and Joshua “to be strong and courageous” and God repeated it to Joshua at the Jordan.

David, nearing death, charged Solomon, his young son: “be strong and prove yourself a man.”

Joab, facing enemies on two fronts, told his brother, “let us play the men for our people, and for the cities of our God.”

Notice the pattern.

Courage was never a bonus for the naturally gifted.

Bravery is cultivated, not born. It is contagious too, and no one was meant to be brave alone.

It was a requirement laid on those God appointed, precisely when circumstances argued for flight or retreat.

Paul draws from this stream to tell Corinth that the church stands in the same line.

By the way the command is not for men only; the issue is fortitude, not gender.

And why did Corinth require brave believers?

Heresy, immorality and idolatry were not merely tolerated there but celebrated, and the cult of Aphrodite shaped the city’s appetites.

Public allegiance to Christ meant social ostracism, pressure from the trade guilds, and sometimes hostility from the synagogue.

A cowardly church would have quietly blended in, and a church that blends in has lost its voice and its witness.

Bravery makes us better Christians because it drags faith out of private sentiment into public obedience and discourse.

It strengthens our witness because a watching world can only listen to people who pay a price for what they believe.

But Paul does not summon courage out of thin air.

Read the chapter before it.

He has just given his long defence of the resurrection.

Christ is risen, and a risen Lord cannot be dethroned.

Death has lost its sting.

If the last enemy has been beaten, then ostracism, lost contracts and ridicule wither to a crisp beside an empty tomb.

Our bravery is not self-confidence.

It is confidence in a victory already won, Hallelujah!

So, let me offer three ways to begin this week.

First, name Christ plainly in one ordinary place where you usually stay silent, the workplace, the family table, the classroom, the group chat.

Say it simply, without a sermon.

That’s one; two, refuse one compromise that your culture calls harmless or ‘normal’ and quietly accept the cost you will pay for rejecting peer pressure and the status quo.

Third, stand beside a believer who is suffering for the faith, or a new convert being mocked for it.

Mark you, courage is cultivated, not born.

It is contagious too, and no one was meant to be brave alone.