"Four Things I Need to Be a Good Man" (mp3 audio)

"Four Things I Need to Be a Good Man" (1 Corinthians 16:13)

Amid the myriad of exhortations at the end of Paul’s letter to the Church at Corinth, this one verse stands out. He tells the Church to “watch,” “stand fast,” “quit you like men,” or rather “act like men, be strong.”

In a letter full of what they weren’t doing as a Church (chapters 1 through 5), and what they didn’t know as a Church (chapters 6 through 16), Paul leaves them with this last exhortation. The remaining verses in the letter consist of apostolic housekeeping.

The exhortation of 1 Corinthians 16:13 serves as a final word to the Church: watch, stand fast, act like men, be strong. These words are reminiscent of the exhortation that God gave Adam in Genesis 2:15-17.

God would not always be in Adam’s immediate presence; hence, Adam was given some instruction for what was required of him. Certainly, Paul, who commonly quoted Moses’ writings, had this in mind.

He would not always be in the presence of the Church, and having instructed them, he left them with this last exhortation. Both Moses in Genesis 2:15-17, and Paul in 1 Corinthians 16:13, emphasize the essence of manhood, which is taking responsibility. Consider the following four points:

1. A good man must have the standard for manhood, which is the Word of God.

• a. Gender is inextricably linked with personhood (Genesis 1:27).
• b. Good men exhibit headship in the home and family (1 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2:13).
• c. A good man is the moral head of his home (Genesis 2:15).
• d. A good man raises his child to honor God (Proverbs 22:6; Ephesians 6:4).

1. A good man needs the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

• a. The Holy Spirit baptizes us into the Body of Christ, which is the Church (1 Corinthians 12:13).
• b. The power of the Holy Spirit restrains sin (John 16:8; 1 Corinthians 6:18).
• i. The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
• ii. The Holy Spirit empowers the believer (Zechariah 4:6).
• c. In 1 Corinthians 16:13, the Church is told to “be strong, like men.”
• i. Paul admonishes the Church to “stand fast” (1 Corinthians 16:13).
• ii. A few verses earlier, Paul admonishes the Church to “stand firm” in 1 Corinthians 15:58.

1. A good man needs the fellowship of other good men.

• a. Paul told the Church in 1 Corinthians 15:33 in the ESV: “Do not be deceived. Bad company ruins good morals.”
• b. When God is going to build a good man, He calls him out from among bad men (2 Corinthians 6:17). Men should not be in the fellowship of those who are wicked (Psalm 1:1).
• c. Men who are devoted to God sharpen other men in their devotion to God (Proverbs 27:17).
• i. Older men are to be treated as fathers and younger men as brothers (Titus 2:2; 1 Timothy 5:1-2).
• ii. Men were created to exist in community (Genesis 2:18).

1. A good man remains under the discipline of other good men.

• a. Paul told the Church at Corinth to ‘watch’ in 1 Corinthians 16:13. This word is translated from a New Testament Greek word that means to be vigilant or alert.
• b. Paul tells them in 1 Corinthians 10:12 in the ESV: “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands, take heed lest he fall.”
• c. Every temptation that I can face as a man, other men in the body have also faced (1 Corinthians 10:13).
• d. This collective experience makes the men of the Church excellent arbiters where my conduct is concerned (1 Corinthians 6:1-3).

“Christ First, Christ Only, Christ Always”