Sometimes, those who think they are courageous, aren’t, and those who think they’re not cowards, are. Courage is a Christian duty that is often neglected and cowardice is a damnable sin that is often committed.

To Kill a Mockingbird has a great line about courage:

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.”

(Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird)

That type of resolve no matter the cost is the sort of thing courage is made of. It’s the type of stories that are retold throughout time and inspire generations.

In the ancient world, courage was a highly exalted virtue. Seneca noted, “He who is brave is free.” So true. Yet so rare these days it seems. Perhaps that is one major reason why we see freedom slipping away in the Western world. The world’s licensiousness is a shallow substitute for freedom that actually baits cowards without fortitude and self-mastery into slavery.

Courage or Cowardice is Inevitable

Courage takes effort to develop, whereas all you need to do to be a coward is be passive. 

Cowardice is our default setting since the Fall as sinful human beings.

We naturally want to be liked and take the path of least resistance. Cowardice is easy (in the moment). It takes no effort to turn a blind eye to situations or opportunities where we know we should do or say something. You know what I’m talking about—self-censoring yourself in conversations where taking a clear Biblical stance would be considered culturally taboo. We can easily justify it in our minds as “not our business” or plaster pious sounding excuses about needing to be “wise” or “preserve our witness” to cover over our compromise.

However, courage takes a willingness to step into and endure uncomfortable and even costly consequences for the sake of a higher good. Cowardice takes the path of self-preservation and ease because there’s nothing higher than my good.

The root of true courage then is not found in trying to grit your teeth in stoic bravado. Instead, it is rooted in conviction—a conviction that the thing that we’re taking risk for is worth it and true. The Christian fights not primarily because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him. Courage involves keeping our eyes on what we’re defending and the higher good and greater joy we’re aiming at instead of focusing on the potential affliction right in front of us.

Jesus gave us the perfect example of this:

“who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

(Hebrews 12:2b)

So, what’s the higher joy or purpose that gives you a single-minded resolute determination not to compromise? What’s the thing that you love that you’re willing to sacrifice to defend?

Because if you don’t have any, don’t be surprised when you return to your default settings in the heat of the moment when compromise tempts you and cowardice kicks in.

But, before we get ahead of ourselves we should consider—what are courage and cowardice anyways?

What is courage?

Courage is an essential duty of the Christian life.

That’s right. A duty. We don’t often talk in those terms, but courage is a Christian duty.

This is because if we mistakenly think of courage as a emotion or something that happens when we “feel courageous”, we’ll miss how the Bible speaks about it. The Bible unqualified commands to be courageous repeatedly.

Thus, courage is not a matter of feeling but of obedience.

Courage is the fortitude of character to face fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. It involves acting in spite of experiencing fear or discomfort, and is often linked with noble qualities such as bravery, determination, and moral integrity. Courage isn’t the absence of fear but rather the willingness to confront it and take action despite it. It can manifest in various forms, from physical acts of bravery to moral or emotional strength in challenging or compromising situations. Ultimately, courage is about resilience, tenacity and the willingness to stand up for what one believes is right, even when it’s difficult or risky or seemingly impossible.

C.S. Lewis wrote that,

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. ”

(C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters)

Every virtue—chastity, honesty, faithfulness, generosity, kindness, etc—when tested to their limits with the temptation of compromise in the face of adversity requires courage to endure. As shown by Sir Geoffrey de Lusignan, courage is displayed in risk.

If there is no risk, there is no need for courage.

Courage in the Bible

Courage, as understood biblically, involves unwavering faith in God, obedience to His commands, and boldness in facing challenges or adversity. It is a command of the LORD repeated several times throughout Scripture:

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

(Joshua 1:9)

“Be strong, and let your heart take courage, all you who wait for the Lord!”

(Psalm 31:24)

“Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.”

(Deuteronomy 31:6)

This virtue is especially expected to be present in Christian men (1 Cor. 16:13) and is part of the Spirit’s work in us (2 Tim. 1:7). The apostles demonstrated it in Acts 4:13:

“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.”

Their boldness or courage bore witness that they had been with Jesus. As Christ-followers, “we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?'” (Hebrews 13:6) Christian courage is not something we conjure up. It is a result of being with Jesus and being confident of his presence with us.

As we walk in His ways and according to His Word, the Spirit reassures us that we are His and our consciences bear witness to His approval. And, as with Sir Geoffrey de Lusignan, courage can spread—even when found in imperfect people—and embolden others to help turn the tide of battles.

What is cowardice?

Cowardice is the opposite of courage. It is risk-averse. It wants the easy life and taking up a cross daily sounds way too hard and risky. Cowardice will prefer the safety of sin’s shackles to the freedom of Christ.

It refers to a lack of bravery or the inability to confront fear, difficulty, or danger. Cowardice often involves avoiding or shirking situations that require courage or moral strength. It can manifest as a reluctance to take necessary risks, make difficult decisions, or stand up for principles in the face of adversity. Cowardice is the assassin of integrity.

Ultimately, cowardice is a damnable sin.

It is a sin because, as we saw previously, God commands us to be courageous. Yet it is seldom talked about in churches and pulpits.

But guess who shows up first in line in the damnation list of Revelation 21:8?

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Now, these are not people who made one slip up. Instead, these are people whose lifestyles are marked by these vices—it describes the pattern of their life.

Cowardice in the Church

Many pastors today shrink back from boldly and publicly declaring Biblical convictions about culturally taboo topics.

Sure, they’ll maybe talk about it from within the safety of their own church walls—but John the Baptist didn’t lose his head over telling sweet Christian grannies what they already knew. He didn’t wait for Herod to invite him to give a dispassionate lecture on biblical approaches to sexual ethics. No, he thundered God’s standard to the king and reminded him that there was a Higher King. 

But cowardice keeps pastors from confronting the most pressing or taboo sins in the congregation and culture, knowing the cost will be high to do so.

Perhaps they’ll lose donors with deep pockets if they call out their sins. Or, perhaps they’ll risk offending their largest demographic—which in many North American churches happens to be women. Maybe this is one reason why preachers are so hesitant to directly address the sins of women or feminism from the pulpit. Though they’d never explicitly say it, they functionally go along with our woke culture’s belief that women can do no wrong. Perhaps their sermon clip will end up on the news with an unflattering picture and spicey headline leading to unwanted public attention. It was cowardice that kept many church doors closed during 2020 and 2021 for fear of losing respectability or resources.

Like it or not, the pulpit leads the way in either courage or cowardice.

This is one of the reasons why we see such lacklustre boldness to share their faith amongst the people in the pews. Many are hesitant to share their faith even in situations where it would cost them little to nothing, far less when the stakes are higher! DEI meetings, pagan mocking of Christian symbols, and opportunities for clearly advocating Christian moral principles in the public square are regularly passed up or turned a blind eye. Of course there is always a pious sounding excuse attached with the compromise though. However, in many such cases, the lack of exemplary public courage by the leaders of the church is merely reflected in the pews.

Sadly, because of the cowardice of the pulpits, many Christians in churches today are ashamed of Christ’s words. Something that Jesus says in Luke 9:26 will mean that he will deny them when he comes in glory. This is why the Bible repeatedly exhorts you to be courageous—because cowardice can damn you to Hell.

But courage isn’t our natural disposition. You need to spend repeated effort and discipline being willing to suffer for what’s right in the small things to develop courage to not compromise on the big things.

False Courage in the Pulpit

However, lest we think that bravado is synonymous with courage, it is easy for Christian leaders and pastors to fake courage in the pulpit.

The most obvious ways are the extravagant shows of bravado and machismo.

However, another way is to fight and relive the theological and cultural battles of the past while disengaging from today’s hottest battles. For example, some pastors laude the heroes of the Reformation (who are worthy of honour) for risking their lives for their brave stand to defend justification by faith alone and other Biblical truths. But remember, our Reformed heroes fought those theological battles in the public square during a time when public opposition to the Roman Catholic Church’s official dogma would come with a high price to pay—culturally, legally, financially and even mortally. Like the early disciples, their theology in public crossed the civil magistrates and cultural gatekeepers of their day.

There are similar cultural and theological battles to fight today that will come with threats from our culture and the civil magistrate—such as publicly opposing the notion of a neutral secular sphere, the LBGTQ agenda, critical race theory, feminism, gender roles, indoctrination in public education, cultural marxism, globalism, etc.

To live off the borrowed courage of battles already fought while neglecting to take any risk directly wage war in today’s frontline is cowardice masquerading as courage.

When the enemy is attacking, a soldier is not deemed courageous or faithful if he sees breaches being made at other parts of the defence but stays at his post instead of running to where the battle is hottest. Especially for those in leadership positions, they must exemplify such courage to those who follow them.

Developing Courage

As we saw from Revelation 21, courage is an important virtue to develop in order to escape the damnable sin of cowardice. It must become a marked pattern of our lives.

Many people fancy themselves the hero and often will say they will have courage and act bravely when the moment requires it. However, if you’re not courageous in the little things, you will not be courageous in the big things. Guaranteed.

If courage is: 

• the glad assumption of risk for a greater good, but we live a risk-averse life
• the testing point of every virtue, but we run from affliction or struggle
• resilience, tenacity and the willingness to stand up for what one believes is right, but we are quick to give up or back down
• the willingness to confront our fears and take action despite it, but we hide from our fears and are incapacitated by them
• the fortitude of character to face fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation but we frequently make compromises to our integrity
• the confidence that God is with us and on our side, but we constantly make willful compromises and sins that ruin our assurance of His presence and approval

…then what does that say of us?

Jesus said in Luke 16:10 that, “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much.” It is the everyday, mundane choices we make that show how we will react when calamity strikes.

When you’re faced with the temptation to a small compromise to secure your job—maybe it’s not insisting on Sundays off so you can go to church, or keeping quiet about the rainbow flags and pronouns in your bio—this is a testing point of virtue and your resolution to your principles. When you nod and smile or bite your tongue when a friend or family member says, “Yeah, love is love and we need to just show pronoun hospitality instead of judging them”—your moral integrity is being tested. When you see others participating in what you know is a lie, remember what Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said, “The simple step of a courageous individual is not to take part in the lie. One word of truth outweighs the world.”

Let gracious truth-telling be the pattern of your life.

When you see your husband or wife or best friend with some cherished vice or sin that you really should address, but it would make things awkward—remember that this is an opportunity to sow courage or cowardice.

We see this play out in society and politically also. Courage is the life-blood of free men.

Cowardice will lead men to accept the slavery of a Nanny State who cares for their every need and provides a social welfare safety net because they cannot bear the thought of failure or risk. But freedom requires self-ruled men with courage to face uncertainty and the fortitude to take risks and personal responsibility for their future. As we’ve lost the virtue of courage in society, it is no surprise we see the growth of tyranny. And, as people saw more people around them compromise in cowardice—that infection spread. The cowardice shown during COVID by many didn’t spring up out of nowhere. Those weeds infected the garden long before and we can be sure that there will be more opportunities to test our courage in the future.

The path of least resistance will find a thousand pious sounding reasons to avoid engaging in difficult, but sometimes necessary confrontation. But, be careful what seed you may be sowing in your heart. Courage grows in soil that is tilled by the strikes of affliction, but the tares of cowardice thrive in the stoney ground that has not been broken. Many made excuses for themselves that to stand at that particular moment would be a waste, unwise or to hopelessly fight a losing battle.

As N.D. Wilson once wrote,

“Sometimes standing against evil is more important than defeating it. The greatest heroes stand because it is right to do so, not because they believe they will walk away with their lives. Such selfless courage is a victory in itself.”

We can till that soil by developing a willingness to face affliction for the sake of a greater joy and purpose given to us by God. We do this by not turning away from the everyday opportunities to either make small compromises or stand. It is like a muscle we can develop, and through prayer and the help of the Spirit—a virtue that the LORD will use in us as a rallying cry and encouragement to others.

Both fear and courage are contagious. So, “Courage, dear heart.” (Aslan)

Start taking little steps of courage today and you’ll build courageous momentum for tomorrow’s battles.