With These Things in Mind, What Shall We Do? - 1 Corinthians 15:58

Devotional Thoughts on 1 Corinthians 15

Week 13
 
With These Things in Mind, What Shall We Do?  -  1 Corinthians 15:58Every good message needs a conclusion that encourages the contents of the message to be applied.  If the message contains explanation, the application provides exhortation to use what the hearer has just learned.  Biblical truth is not intended to “make the sheep (believers) fat.”  It is intended to help us to understand what God has told us in His Word so that we can live out its practical truths and share them with others.

Paul’s application of the incredible, beautiful, and encouraging words of Chapter 15 is found in the last verse.  There he exhorts His beloved brethren (including us, since we, too, are in the family of God) to be steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord.  We’ll look at those individual phrases in a moment, but we must now miss the confidence expressed in the last phrase: “knowing that your toil in the Lord is not in vain.”  It is because we know that all we know from Paul’s explanation in this chapter, from the gospel to the death of death, is true, that we can do these things.  We have assurance, we have confidence, we have hope that everything we do is not meaningless – even if we do not see the evidence at the time!

Missionaries, pastors, teachers and those quietly serving the Lord in less prominent ways frequently feel that they have poured enormous amounts of effort into the lives of people but seen so little fruit, so small a change, so many failures, and even torture at the hands of religious fanatics.  They are tempted, at times, to weep over the people, and over the work, wondering if anything has been accomplished.  In their older years they look back and see the victories but being human they tend to better remember the failures.

But God’s point of view is not like ours.  He has opened doors, provided protection, touched many lives, and changed many minds through the lives of His servants.  He has not forgotten those who have professed to be discipled and fled.  He has taken the planting and watering of His servants and over the long run He has provided the increase.  He has prompted the continuing prayers and answered according to His wisdom.  He has marked the faithfulness, dried the tears, and prepared a crown for the humble servant who has served without the prominent results that in the eyes of the world spell success.  And He has blessed the successes of those who have humbly confessed that all the glory goes to Him!

Therefore, be steadfast.  The Old Testament words frequently translated “steadfast” mean firm, honest, leaning, resting, and casting oneself upon the Lord.  The New Testament words can also be translated sitting, firm, and secure.  In Hebrews 6:19, the idea is that of being anchored.  Paul’s word, though slightly different, means the same thing: being firmly or solidly in place.

Our word “immovable” is found only in this place in the New Testament, but a synonym helps.  In Luke’s description of the shipwreck he and Paul experienced, we read, “But striking a reef where two seas met, they ran the vessel aground; and the prow stuck fast and remained immovable, but the stern began to be broken up by the force of the waves” (Acts 27:41).  The ship was stuck tight, it could not be moved.  That is what Paul meant by our being immovable: not capable of being moved, or of wavering in our faith.

The third command Paul gave was to be abounding in the Lord’s work.  In Colossians 2:7, Paul wrote, “having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.”  Our word is translated “overflowing” in this verse.  The idea is to be over and above.  Not doing the work of the Lord in a grudging, or even half-hearted way, but being over the top in serving the Lord.  And why should we have such an enthusiastic commitment to serve?  Of course, above all, it is because we love the Lord, Who first loved us, and desire to please Him.  But Paul adds another reason, that is, that we know that our efforts are not in vain in the Lord.  

Because we are in the Lord Christ, led and empowered by Him, the service we render, the ministries we perform, the labor we expend, the trials we face, the work we do in His behalf, all of these are meaningful, purposeful, worthwhile, and fruitful, even if we do not immediately see the results.
 
So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth.  Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor.  For we are God's fellow workers; you are God's field, God's building (1 Cor. 3:7-9).

Paul wrote the Philippians that he had a desire to leave his body to experience all we have learned about in this chapter, but he knew that for the people of God, born and not yet born in Christ, it was important that he remain for their progress and joy in the faith (Philippians 1:23-25).   Dear ones, be confident in His promises, immovable and overflowing as you serve Him each day, while “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13).