Maranatha!!

O Lord, come!—1 Corinthians 16:22b

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. 14 Let all that you do be done with love.—1 Corinthians 16:13-14

O Lord, come!  These are the words Paul wrote at the end of his First letter to the Corinthians. David Guzik says that “Maranatha” is Aramaic for O Lord, come, and was one of the earliest words of the Christian vocabulary.  Paul looked and longed for the return of Christ. I find myself doing this more and more of late. That is a good thing. It reminds me that I am a sojourner here...this world is not my home.  It helps me also to do what Paul says in verse 13 and 14 of this same chapter:

Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong. Let all that you do be done with love.

The return of Jesus is imminent.  It could happen at any time.  Watch for it...stand fast in the faith...be brave and be strong or “quit ye like men” as the KJV says. Align all that you do with the priority of love.  Beloved, turn your eyes to the cross of Christ here for your example.  Here he showed us His heart of steel (He quit like a man...He was brave and strong) but also his heart of love by submitting Himself to His Father’s will to the point of death.  

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.—Ephesians 2:4-7

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.—John 3:16-17

Jesus endured well and loved us to the very end.  His underlying motive...love. Jesus trusted God to see Him through His earthly life. He committed Himself completely and utterly to Him and we should do likewise. By His Spirit in us, the love and the strength of Jesus (quit ye like men!) are also ours.  May we live them both out in the world, but even so, Lord Jesus come quickly!  

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. 4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.—Hebrews 12:1-4