to stand: to be on one's feet, and by extension to hold one's ground and not give way
This verb means "to stand." It began as a plain word for being on one's feet, and it grew into a favorite word for standing firm, holding your position without being knocked over. The New Testament uses it far more often in that second, figurative way than for literal posture.
The word has an unusual history worth knowing. It is a newer form built backward from an older verb, ἵστημι, the ordinary Greek word for standing, setting, and placing. The older verb had a completed form that meant "I have taken my stand, I am standing," describing a settled position. Speakers in the New Testament era reshaped that settled form into a fresh present-tense verb, this one, which carries the flavor of being already planted and staying put. It appears only in the Greek of the New Testament and later writers, never in the classical authors.
Both senses share one picture: a person upright and in place rather than fallen. When someone stands praying, they are literally on their feet. When Paul tells a church to "stand firm in the faith," he draws on the same image to mean: keep your footing, do not be moved off it. The link between being upright and being unshaken is the heart of the word.
It is a favorite of Paul's for the Christian life under pressure. Again and again he uses it as a command: hold your position in the Lord, in one spirit, in the freedom you were given. The word pictures faithfulness as staying on your feet in a fight, not as sitting still.