Four Imperatives of 1 Cor 16:13

1 Corinthians 16:13 is an unusual, dramatic, and significant verse of Scripture.  It occurs as one of the closing admonitions of a long Epistle addressed to a somewhat chaotic body of immature believers, living amidst a wildly sensual frenetic city.  (So the context is similar to many of us).

What mades the verse unusual and dramatic is that (in the Greek original language) there are only seven words, and four of them are imperative verbs, two at the beginning and two at the end of the verse, bookending the three word phrase in the middle…in the faith.  “Faith” is of course a central idea in all of Scripture as it is about believing God instead of the lies / deception within and around us, since the beginning of time.  “Faith” also stands for the entire doctrine of God and His Word.

Here’s how these seven Greek words have been translated by 10 different English translations: