Be mighty. Full of courage. Let love motivate you

Remember to stay alert and hold firmly to all that you believe. Be mighty and full of courage. Let love and kindness be the motivation behind all that you do. - 1 Cor 16: 13-14 (The Passion Translation)

Today we are going to look at two commentaries on the mentioned scriptures, Encyclopedia of The Bible and Matthew Henry's Commentary.

Like all settled virtues, courage is a quality of being, a trait of selfhood, an ingredient of character. It arises out of and is a quality of what Plato called the “spirited” part of the human organism (cf. רוּחַ, H8120, spirit, Josh 2:11). Because to some degree it emerges naturally and instinctively out of this, traces of it can be found in all men, even the most timorous.

Considered in its more perfected state, however, courage is a moral attainment, an excellence achieved through the exercise of will. As such it can be, and in the Bible is, commanded and enjoined (Deut 31:6, 7, 23; 1 Cor 16:13).

What calls forth courage, and sometimes also evokes its opposite, cowardice, are the physical, social, and spiritual threats, dangers, and pains which are a constant feature of the broken and hostile world we live in.

In this present age man is beset on every hand by evil forces let loose in the world by sin. The question is: how shall a man, how shall a Christian, relate himself to these? Will he be deterred by them, will he flee them, will he without taking thought flail out at them, or will he stand up to them by the exercise of a will made firm through the power of a compelling and governing ideal?

For the Christian, courage of every sort is possible in the measure that he knows himself to be in the almighty hands and under the beneficent protection of his heavenly Father."
- Encyclopedia of The Bible

"If a Christian would be secure, he must be on his guard; and the more his danger the greater vigilance is needful for his security. He (Paul) advises them to stand fast in the faith, to keep their ground, adhere to the revelation of God, and not give it up for the wisdom of the world, nor suffer it to be corrupted by it—stand for the faith of the gospel, and maintain it even to death; and stand in it, so as to abide in the profession of it, and feel and yield to its influence.

A Christian should be fixed in the faith of the gospel, and never desert nor renounce it. It is by this faith alone that he will be able to keep his ground in an hour of temptation; it is by faith that we stand (2 Cor. 1:24); it is by this that we must overcome the world (1 John 5:4), both when it fawns and when it frowns, when it tempts and when it terrifies.

We must stand therefore in the faith of the gospel, if we would maintain our integrity.

He advises them to act like men, and be strong: “Act the manly, firm, and resolved part: behave strenuously, in opposition to the bad men who would divide and corrupt you, those who would split you into factions or seduce you from the faith: be not terrified nor inveigled by them; but show yourselves men in Christ, by your steadiness, by your sound judgment and firm resolution.”

Christians should be manly and firm in all their contests with their enemies, in defending their faith, and maintaining their integrity.

They should, in an especial manner, be so in those points of faith that lie at the foundation of sound and practical religion, such as were attacked among the Corinthians: these must be maintained with solid judgment and strong resolution.

He advises them to do every thing in charity (love), 1 Cor. 16:14. Our zeal and constancy must be consistent with charity. When the apostle would have us play the man for our faith or religion, he puts in a caution against playing the devil for it.

We may defend our faith, but we must, at the same time, maintain our innocence, and not devour and destroy, and think with ourselves that the wrath of man will work the righteousness of God, Jas. 1:24.
Christians should be careful that charity not only reign in their hearts, but shine out in their lives, nay, in their most manly defences of the faith of the gospel.
- Matthew Henry's Commentary