"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 15:58).
Paul ends this chapter to the Corinthians by offering this encouragement to help us understand that the trials we face will not be in vain. A lot of years ago, a pastor once said to us, that if we saw the word "Therefore" in the Bible, that we should go back and see what it is "there for" and so we can go back to the beginning of this chapter and see what's going on here.
First of all Paul offers the facts of Christ's Resurrection and says, "For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures...He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all, as it were to one untimely born, He appeared to me also" (1 Cor. 15:3-8).
He also said, "and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If we have hoped in Christ in this life only; we are of all men most to be pitied" (1 Cor. 15:17-19).
After he had explained the facts of the resurrection and helped those understand the importance of the faith in which they believe, he continues later on in the same chapter to explain the mystery of the resurrection by saying in verses 51 & 52, "Behold, I tell you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed." After which he shares this proclamation in verse 55 as he quotes Hosea 13:14 from the Old Testament prophet, "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" And we begin to see that the sting of death is the sin, and it's power, the law, but "thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
So we hear Paul say to us and we read with conviction that we should remain steadfast and be immovable and that we should always "abound" in the work of the Lord, because of the facts given in these passages which is the power that "drives" us through the difficult times in our lives. Some of you are experiencing such a "heavy load" presently and sometimes you don't know where to go or what to do. But the Apostle Paul believes and shares that he knows that your trials will not be in vain. God is watching us. He is seeing every valley we walk through and seeing how we handle it and how we prepare it for the next person to walk through (Psalm 84:5-7).
We are His children and He loves us with a "Never ending" love, that you can be sure of. So when the storm you are walking through gets too tough to handle, you can go to verse 58 of First Corinthians 15 and see that there are those who see, who understand and who know; and then encourage you to "stand tall" because God is with you.
Some will say, "those devotions you write, they are just words, just metaphors to make another feel good about themselves", but I would say, these words are the Words of Truth, straight from the lips of God. It is up to you to choose if you will walk in that Truth!
Dave
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