Pioneer Christian Monthly - September, 1988

The Work That Endures
Murray Moerman

Therefore my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your Tabour is not in vain. I Corinthians 15:58

As fall follows on the heels of summer, and our schedules begin to be filled with various commitments, it is important for us to stop and consider what commitments the Lord would have us make. Paul's Corinthian friends had been involved in a wide variety of activities, some more profitable than others. Paul, in this verse, encourages them to focus their energies on "the work of the Lord". But what is this work to which Paul is referring?

The Work of the Lord

Jesus, at the beginning of His ministry, quoted the prophet Isaiah saying that God had sent Him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord (Luke 4:18). Throughout His three years of ministry, we see Jesus doing just that; healing those who were physically and spiritually sick, and bringing reconciliation, and thus freedom, to those who were separated from God and bound by their sin.

Further, Jesus said to those who followed Him that He was now sending them out to do the same work that His Father had sent Him to do (John 20:21). Teresa Avila, a Roman Catholic saint and a Christian mystic of the Middle Ages once wrote:

Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the bodies with which He is to work Out Christ's compassion to the world, Yours are the feet with which He is to go about doing good; Yours are the hands with which He is to bless us now.

We have been chosen to carry on this work of healing broken lives and reconciling people to God through Christ.

Labour that is not in vain

Paul further encourages his Corinthian friends saying that this work of the Lord is not in vain. Isaiah wrote that God's Word will never return to Him empty (Isa. 55:100. None of us wants to work for nothing. We each want our efforts to be of lasting value. Isaiah asks, "Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?" (Isa. 22:2a) Jesus reminds us, "Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life" (John 6:27).

When we act as messengers of God's "good news" and give people new hope and new life, whether our efforts appear fruitful to us or not, we have the promise that our labour is not in vain. George Mueller, a man who founded an orphanage and ran it completely by faith, had a friend for whom he prayed for 60 years. Throughout those years the friend's heart seemed to remain hard and untouched by God's love or Mueller's. It wasn't until Mr. Mueller's funeral that the man accepted Christ into his heart and began a new life! Mr. Mueller's love and prayers were not in vain, and neither will ours be if we are seeking to do God's work.

Therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord

Finally, Paul recognizes that there would be no eternal fruit to his or our labour if there was no resurrection. "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead" (I Cor. 15:20), and the fact that we too shall be changed (I Cor. 15:51) is our motivation to be steadfast, immovable, and always and evermore abounding in the work of the Lord. When we are involved in building up the church, the Body of Christ, through evangelism, teaching, praying, counseling or letting God love others through us, our work will never be in vain, and will have eternal results.

As we return to the Lord's work this September, let us do so with renewed strength, energy, confidence and hope, knowing that work done "in the Lord" can no more perish than He.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with every good thing that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:20, 21)

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