Quit You Like Men

The Reality

Thirty days ago you woke up to a war you had been sleeping through. You learned what a stronghold is and tore down the hidden altars. You learned to resist temptation, to flee it, to fight it with the Word, to fall and rise again. You have been broken and rebuilt. And now, on the last day, Paul hands you your marching orders in five short commands, a whole life of manhood pressed into a single verse.

Watch: stay awake, stay vigilant, never go back to the fog you came out of. Stand fast in the faith: plant your feet on what is true and refuse to be moved off it. Quit you like men, which in older English simply means acquit yourselves as men, act like the man you have become, live up to your calling. Be strong, not in yourself but in the Lord who has been your strength this whole month. Five commands, and every one of them a summary of everything you have practiced.

But notice the fifth command, the one that keeps all the others from curdling: let all your things be done with charity, with love. Here is the guardrail against everything that goes wrong when men pursue strength. A strong man without love becomes a tyrant. A disciplined man without love becomes a cold Pharisee. All this warfare, all this character, all this hard-won strength must be aimed at love, or it becomes just another stronghold with a nobler name.

So go. Not as the man who opened this book, but as the one who finished it, awake, standing, strong, and tender. The war is not over; it never is this side of glory. But you know how to fight now, and you do not fight alone. Watch. Stand fast. Acquit yourself like a man. Be strong. And let every last thing you do be done in love. Now go and live it.