Your labour is not in vain

1 Corinthians 15:58

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

This commandment is given to every servant of the Lord. We are to be steadfast! That means we are not able to be stopped from serving the Lord. We are resolute! We are to be unmovable! No one can move us away from our resolve to preach the gospel and to win the lost. Nothing can move us from our calling to serve Christ until the end. We must be always abounding in the work of the Lord. There should always be something that we are doing to serve the Lord. Every day we should be abounding in this. If we are not serving Him, we should begin immediately. Why? For our labor is not in vain in the Lord!

That is the entire point of this most powerful chapter on the resurrection of Christ. Some think that the dead do not rise. Some think that a resurrection is impossible. Furthermore, some may even think that Christ has not risen. But nothing of this sort is true. It is wholly false! It is preposterous to the highest degree—that there would be no resurrection. Of course there is! This is not the only life! If it was, we would be of all men most miserable, Paul tells us. And Christ is therefore risen from the dead, as He said. Yes, there is a resurrection of the dead. Christ is risen! And so will we also be risen from the dead, and we shall be changed in a moment! Christ hath given us the victory over the sting of death, and He has given us power over the grave! But in just the same way, since the resurrection of the dead is a real fact, as truly as we are living, this means all shall rise. Some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. All that are in the graves shall hear His voice. And if we know this, we must labor to bring others to know the only way in which they will go from corruption to incorruption and mortality to immortality. Our labor is not in vain because there is a Heaven for men to gain, and an everlasting Hell that we want them to escape. And only in Christ is the escape! Only in Christ is victory over the grave and sin! He is their answer, and we must labor to bring the answer to them.

Oh, my dear brother or sister, are you steadfast in your labor for Christ? Are you unmovable? Are you always abounding in the work of the Lord? You should be! I should be! For our labor is not in vain! Not in vain! Not without purpose! But it is for the very souls of men who will be raised from the dead one day. We must labor for Christ night and day to bring the hope of the resurrection of Christ to them, because without Christ, they have no hope. Keep laboring. And keep on laboring until He comes and changes our vile bodies; because we can be sure, my friend, that our labor is not in vain in the Lord.

“Dear Lord, how we praise you for your glorious resurrection from the dead. Because of your death, burial, and resurrection, we have hope in this life and in the one to come. We shall be changed to be like you forever! We exult in such a thought. But may this impel us and compel us to labor faithfully and diligently for the souls of men, who will all be risen one day. We desire that they also may be changed as we will be to live with Christ. Oh Lord, help us to be steadfast and unmovable, and always abounding in your work. For although we may feel little is being done, or few are turning, we must continue unceasingly; for we know that our labor is not in vain! We praise you, in Jesus’ name, Amen.”