American Christianity has often individualized the faith, often over-emphasizing the personal, the private walk with God. But it’s a mistake to live apart from Christ’s body, for doing so severs you from the life and love and fellowship you need to fight the good fight. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with God’s people is courage. Standing alone is foolishness.

I recently finished a sermon series in the book of 1 Peter. It’s a remarkable book, really. Peter addresses the Church and reminds them they are exiles, they are temporary residents of this world. They belong to another Kingdom, the Kingdom of Christ.

At the end of 1 Peter, the apostle closes with a stirring call to courage. You will notice in the text the words, “stand firm” and “be firm.” He encourages the believers to “resist, to testify to the truth.” In a word, Peter is telling the people of God to summon up courage, the courage to stand strong, defending and proclaiming the very words of life found in the Scripture: the gospel story that God has rescued mankind from sin and offered hope and forgiveness in the person of Jesus Christ.

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Peter here is writing to the believers—he’s an aging apostle passing from the scene shortly. And his parting words of this letter contain a stirring call to courage. One of my favorite quotes on courage comes from Winston Churchill:

To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour. Winston Churchill

In his final words, Peter gives us a four-fold blueprint for courage:

1) Embrace Godly Ambition (1 Peter 5:6-7)

We often talk of ambition as something less than godly. But clearly, in Peter’s famous words about humility, he doesn’t condemn ambition. Notice Peter says that “in due time” God will exalt you. Now, this exaltation likely isn’t a promise of success in the way we identify it. It could be pointing to exaltation in Heaven, when we’ll be in glory with Christ.

2) Engage the Battle (1 Peter 5:8-9)

It’s not fashionable to talk about such things in polite company, but the Bible teaches us that there is an enemy out there who prowls the earth looking for souls to devour. Sometimes Christians say ridiculous things about the devil that are worthy of satire. But a courageous Christian is mature enough to understand reality. He realizes that he is in a war, not against people, but a spiritual war against the “rulers of darkness” (Ephesians 6).

3) Entrust Your Life to God (1 Peter 5:10-11)

Peter reminds us that our lives are not our own. To be a disciple of Christ is to die to the old life and to live a new life. It is to entrust ourselves to God… .we are not the source of our own strength.

4) Enjoin Yourself to Christian Community

Courage is not a solo enterprise. When you are baptized by the Holy Spirit into the Christian community, you are enjoined to the family of God, with members of every nation, tribe and tongue. You are joined not only to God’s people alive today, but to God’s people gone before, the great “cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1)” who have gone before. You are linked to 2,000 years of Church history.

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