A Special Kind of Soldier
Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love. (1 Corinthians 16:13–14)
Near the end of this letter to the Corinthian disciples of Jesus, Paul hoped to stir their sense of responsibility and courage for the Christian life. In these two verses, Paul told them to do four things, and then gave an overall principle for how they must do the four things.
Each of the four things were military in nature, describing things a soldier might do.
Christians are to watch. They are to be continually on guard and live in such a way that they are not surprised by difficulties or by great blessings, such as the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus commanded His disciples to watch (Matthew 24:42, 26:41, Mark 13:37).
Christians are to stand fast in the faith. The idea is that there are many things that would shake or move a believer from their secure footing in the Christian faith. This also has the sense of soldiers standing together, ready to face and fight the enemy. A few scattering soldiers can mean defeat. Like a soldier needs a strong standing position in battle, the disciples of Jesus need to stand strong. Paul warned believers to stand fast in their liberty in Jesus (Galatians 5:1), in Christian unity (Philippians 1:27), in the Lord Himself (Philippians 4:1), and in the teaching of the apostles (2 Thessalonians 2:15).
Christians are to be brave. This is the only place in the New Testament where this word is used (andrizomai). Literally it means, “to act like a man.” There is a place for all disciples of Jesus Christ, men and women, to choose the courage a brave soldier must have in his time of battle: unflinching, pressing forward. This quality is especially necessary among Christian men, but it isn’t limited to them.
Christians are to be strong. The believer’s strength comes not from their own resources, but from the Lord and His power. We can be strong in the Lord and the power of His might (Ephesians 6:10, 2 Timothy 2:1). The strength of individual believers helps the church of Jesus Christ as a whole.
Those four things are important to the soldier and, by analogy, to the disciples of Jesus Christ: readiness, steadfastness, bravery, and strength. Yet for the solider, there is a sense in which they are enough–but not for the Christian. For the follower of Jesus Christ, all the watching, all the standing fast, all the bravery, and all the strength appropriate for the solider might mean nothing without love. That’s why God told us, let all that you do be done with love. If the Christian loses love, they lose everything (1 Corinthians 13:1–3).
Dear brother or sister in Jesus Christ, take seriously your responsibility as God’s solder. Yet realize you are special kind of soldier, one that needs to do it all with love. God helping us, we will.
Planting Seeds
But someone will say, “How are the dead raised up? And with what body do they come?” Foolish one, what you sow is not made alive unless it dies. And what you sow, you do not sow that body that shall be, but mere grain; perhaps wheat or some other grain. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. (1 Corinthians 15:35-38)
The Corinthian Christians wanted to know, how are the dead raised up? The answer is obvious: God raises the dead. As the Apostle Paul said to Agrippa in Acts 26:8, Why should it be thought incredible by you that God raises the dead?
The Corinthian Christians also wanted to know, and with what body do they come? Paul answered this question with the analogy of the seed, explaining that our bodies are like “seeds” that “grow” into resurrection bodies. When you bury the body of a believer, you are sowing a seed that will come out of the earth as a resurrection body. This means that the Christian looks at death in an entirely different way.
No one likes the sound of the coffin lid closing, and the farmer does not like the act of scattering seed on the cold, dry earth just for its own sake. Nevertheless, no farmer weeps when he sows his seed because he sows in genuine confidence of a future harvest. At the open grave, the Christian should have the same confidence when the “seed” is “planted.” Our loved ones in the Lord are not lost; they are sown.
The seed analogy gives us more than hope; it also helps us understand the nature of our resurrection body. Paul describes it like this: You do not sow that body that shall be…. But God gives it a body as He pleases, and to each seed its own body. When you plant a wheat seed, a big wheat seed does not come up. Instead, a stalk of wheat grows. So, even though our resurrection bodies come from our present bodies, we should not expect that they will be the same bodies as before or even just improved bodies. They will be truly connected to our present bodies, yet in a more glorious form than ever.
The resurrection body of Jesus was connected to His previous body in appearance and general material nature – He was no phantom or ghost. Yet His resurrection body was more than just a better version of His previous body. Something had fundamentally changed in its nature, because it was described as a flesh and bone body instead of the far more typical phrase flesh and blood body (Luke 24:39). Jesus remains in His resurrected glory without aging or diminishing in strength – and that is something completely out of the realm of these bodies we presently know.
God has saved, is saving, and will save those who trust in Jesus and He will save them completely – body, soul, and spirit.