see why humility is the foundation of
courage. True courage flows out of
concern for others without regard to
the risk to oneself.
bullets, and save their men. Each gets
a medal for his actions.
The first man saw that the guns
would soon mow down his men. He
was drafted into the war; he didn’t
volunteer. He comes from a broken
home with no father to teach him
honor in battle. Terrified and without
thinking, he charges to save his men’s
lives. He captures the guns, and his
men live.
Judging Courage
“The spiritual person, however, can
evaluate everything, yet he himself
cannot be evaluated by anyone” (1
Corinthians 2:15, HCSB). Many Bible
translations use the word judge where
the word evaluate is used in this
scripture. The English language has
two meanings for the word judge: one
is “evaluate”; the other is “condemn.”
People who don’t follow Christ love
to quote Jesus saying that we are not
to judge (Matthew 7:1, HCSB). Jesus
means not to condemn. He isn’t telling
a godly person not to evaluate or
discern.
The second man is also terrified.
He comes from a decorated military
family. He joined the military because
that’s what all the men in his family do.
He looks around for escape and sees
none. He doesn’t care about his men
but is terrified to be branded as a
coward. He’d never be able to look
members of his family in the eye again.
Seeing no way out of his predicament,
he charges and his men are saved.
How do we evaluate or judge true
courage? Courage is an outward
expression, but its true motivation
is inward, and we can’t observe that.
As an example, let’s take two platoon
commanders in the same battle. Both
charge a machine-gun nest, brave the
Are these men the same? We don’t see
their hearts; we see their actions. They
each earned the military reward that
is given by mere men, but God knows
“
Courage is the
sum of all your virtues
expressed at a single
moment in time.
38 • Solutions