Exhortations and Greetings (1 Corinthians 16:13-24)

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staccato exhortations in e.g. 2 Cor.13:11; 1 Thess.5:15-22. For 16:21, see Gal.6:11. Verses 13-14 introduce the final run, and contain five exhortations. For convenience, we can reduce them to three.

  1. Be watchful.
    • Scripture tells us to be watchful on a number of accounts:
      1. the devil – 1 Pet.5:8.
      2. temptation – Mark 14:38.
      3. spiritual deadness – Rev.3:1-3. They were lively but not alive.
      4. look to the Second Coming – Matt.24:42. See 1 Corinthians 16:22. John Chrysostom and Kenneth Bailey say it is past tense: ‘Our Lord has come’. But it seems to be future-oriented, like Rev.22:20. ‘Maranatha’ is an Aramaic word, like Abba, Amen, Halleluiah, and mammon.
    • Heb.2:1. A Christian is to be watchful.
  2. Be strong.
    • 16:13. Paul is saying: ‘Be firm in the faith, “quit you like men” (KJV; literally, ‘play the man’, possibly meaning ‘be mature’; see 14:20), and be strong.’ 15:1-4 is not negotiable.
    • Ps.27:14; Eph.6:10; Ps.31:24. Be strong when all around you are weak. In 1959 Carl Sandburg described Abraham Lincoln as ‘both steel and velvet’.
  3. Be loving.
    • 16:14. See:
      1. devotion to the service (‘the deaconing’) of the saints – 16:15.
      2. submission to each other – 16:16
      3. encouragement – 16:17-18; 2 Cor.7:6.
      4. affectionate greetings – 16:19-20.
      5. believing what the Lord says about Himself
      6. Paul’s own desires for the church at Corinth