“Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit ye like men, be strong<\/em>” (I Corinthians 16:13). Of this verse, Thayer says the meaning is: “to make a man of or make brave. To show oneself a man, be brave.” W. E. Vine says it derives from a word meaning “to play the man.”<\/p>\n In addition to distinguishing the male of the species, this word describes the type of male desired by God. What is needed ever so greatly are men who are mature, responsible, and courageous in conduct. Moral or spiritual cowards would not qualify as men according to I Corinthians 16:13.<\/p>\n There may be a greater need in today’s society and in the Lord’s church than mature, responsible, courageous men, but I am not aware of it. So many of society’s ills would be corrected if men would just “play the man.”<\/p>\n A sad day in Israel is seen in I Samuel 4. Israel was defeated by the Philistines. The solution to yet another defeat, they decided, was to bring the ark of God from Shiloh into the camp. God would then be with them, and they would be victorious over their enemies. When the ark came into the camp, the earth rang with their shout of joy.<\/p>\n The Philistines, upon hearing the great shout, were afraid. They remembered how God had delivered the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. To bolster their courage and spirit, the Philistines called upon their soldiers to “be strong, and quit yourselves like men, and fight<\/em>.” When battle was again joined with the Israelites, the Philistines defeated them and took captive the ark of God and slew the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. A sad day indeed in Israel!\u00a0The Philistines conducted themselves like men! Brave, responsible, courageous, and valiant men!<\/p>\n The home will not function as it should if men do not behave as men. God has delegated headship to the man (Ephesians 5:22-25). There is just no way the home can be what it ought to be if men will not accept the role of husband and father and “play the man.” Read that passage carefully, men. It doesn’t say to be a dictator, tyrant, or brute. It does say to love your wives as Christ loved the church.<\/p>\n Neither will the church ever be what it should be if men will not accept responsibility for leadership. Elders, deacons, and preachers will develop out of men who are sincerely endeavoring to fulfill the responsibilities God has placed upon them. When the church in Jerusalem needed seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, they were there. When the church in our day needs men to serve in equally important works, will they be there?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Kenneth Frazier via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 20 No. 4, December 1994 “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit ye like men, be strong” (I Corinthians 16:13). Of this verse, Thayer says the meaning is: “to make a man of or make brave. To show oneself a man, be brave.” W. E. Vine says it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1126,487],"class_list":["post-95086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-courage","tag-men"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8617,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-use-of-unique-words-in-i-corinthians-11-change-the-meaning-of-this-passage\/","url_meta":{"origin":95086,"position":0},"title":"Does the use of unique words in I Corinthians 11 change the meaning of this passage?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have been doing a lot of studying on head covering. At first glance, I felt that a secondary head covering was needed, but I wasn't sure when. Only at worship? During every prayer? So I got the lexicon out and started combing through the Greek and Hebrew. I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24756,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-women-less-than-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":95086,"position":1},"title":"Are women less than men?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Are women less than men? Because the Bible says it's disgraceful for a woman to talk in the church. Seems like she's something dirty. Answer: I wonder about the question because I don't believe you think your mother or any other woman is inferior. It leaves me with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61006,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-do-elders-come-from\/","url_meta":{"origin":95086,"position":2},"title":"Where Do Elders Come From?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 29, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Paul Earnhart The scarcity of functioning elders (bishops, pastors) in local churches has led some Christians to conclude that they are a rare breed with rare qualities. Otherwise, they reason, why would they be so difficult to come by? Contrary to this rather discouraging view, elders do not have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50254,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-does-i-corinthians-113-teach-about-the-role-of-women\/","url_meta":{"origin":95086,"position":3},"title":"What Does I Corinthians 11:3 Teach About the Role of Women?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 30, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by T. Doy Moyer Guardian of Truth\u00a0- February 2, 1995 I Corinthians 11 has been surrounded by controversy due to the teaching about the covering. It is not the purpose or scope of this article to try to expound a pro or con position on the covering today. Women do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85217,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/eis-pantas-redux\/","url_meta":{"origin":95086,"position":4},"title":"“Eis Pantas” Redux","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Cloyce Sutton II via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 1, January 2015 For over half a century, brothers and sisters in Christ have disagreed on the extent of local church benevolence. May a local church financially assist unbelievers? Or to put it differently, must a local church restrict its benevolence\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54757,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-christianity-promote-inequality\/","url_meta":{"origin":95086,"position":5},"title":"Does Christianity promote inequality?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day, I would like to ask a question about gender equality or inequality. Does the Bible teach about inequality or equality? Does it and Christianity promote inequality? I'm thinking about verses like I Timothy 2 that says women shouldn't take authority from men or place men as head\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}