Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
Paul has just been unfolding the truth of resurrection, and he closes the chapter with a command about daily work. It joins two things that rarely sit together — standing firm and working hard — and rests both on one word: therefore.
The Ground of the Word "Therefore"
The call to stand firm is not a call to defend personal opinions. One writer traces the word "therefore" back to what the chapter has just proved:
Charles Henry Mackintosh"Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable." The "therefore" throws the soul back on the solid foundation laid earlier in the chapter. There Paul unfolds the greatest and most precious truth that can fill a Christian's heart. That truth lifts the soul above the dark, cold fog of the old creation and plants it on the solid rock of resurrection. On this rock He tells us to be steadfast and immovable. This is not stubborn attachment to our own ideas, or to a pet theory, or to one school of teaching. It is a firm grasp and faithful confession of the whole truth of God, and a risen Christ is its everlasting Centre.
Two Halves That Correct Each Other
This verse commands both standing still and moving forward. Each one guards against the failure of the other.
Charles Henry MackintoshThere are some who are so afraid of doing harm that they do nothing, and others who would rather do wrong than do nothing at all. The verse corrects both. It teaches us to stand like flint where truth is at stake. It also sends us out with a large heart, throwing all our energy into the work of the Lord.
Being unmovable in conviction does not make a person rigid in service. It produces the opposite:
F. B. HoleThe Christian who is most unmovable in faith and character will be the most mobile in service for the Lord's interests. He will not wander in the zig-zag way of a butterfly. He will move with the steady, purposeful line of a bee.
Spoken to People Who Had Failed
Paul writes this to people he had been correcting hard, and the name he calls them is striking.
J Wilson SmithHe urges the believers at Corinth to "abound in the work of the Lord," because such labour can never be in vain in Him — never! He appeals to them as his beloved brothers... the very ones who had caused him such deep sorrow, and whom he had to rebuke and correct so unsparingly. He calls them his beloved brothers, hoping they will recover. Despite their past failures and sins, he urges them to give themselves to the only work of lasting value: "the work of the Lord."
Not Every Activity Qualifies
One phrase both widens and limits what we take on.
Charles Henry MackintoshThe field of service is wide. Only one phrase limits it: "the work of the Lord." The Christian worker must not take on anything that will not fit under that holy and all-important heading. Before he starts any service he must ask one great practical question: "Is this really the work of the Lord?"
When the Work Looks Wasted
Paul's guarantee is not that our labour will look successful. One writer weighs man's verdict against God's:
F. B. HoleFor every believer who truly abounds in the work of the Lord, we often find half a dozen who abound in talk. They know how things ought to be done, but they do not do them. Yet we have the strongest reason for hard work in the Lord's interests. We know that "in the Lord your labor is not in vain." It may look useless to man and his little world. But in the Lord, and in the new order that resurrection has set up, it is not in vain.
The same certainty covers the smallest and most ordinary acts of service:
W. H. WestcottYou visit a sick man. Before you go, get in touch with your Lord, then visit him, and simply be in His hand; say what He gives you to say and commit it to Him. Do you think the Lord will ever forget that visit?... Perhaps it all seemed to be in vain. But so far as your visit was in the Lord, you will see that visit again in glory... Not one word spoken in the Lord, not one thing done in the Lord, at home or abroad, will go without God's answer in resurrection.
Where the Fruit Appears
The verse points forward to the moment when hidden labour is finally displayed.
H J VineNo toil, no testing, no suffering gone through in faith for the Lord will be lost. God stores it all up. At the resurrection, when our Lord Jesus Christ is revealed, it will come out as praise and glory and honour.
Summary
- Ground. The "therefore" rests the whole command on a risen Christ — not on our opinions or a favourite school of thought.
- Balance. The same verse cures two opposite failures: doing nothing for fear of doing wrong, and doing wrong rather than nothing.
- Scope. The field is wide but bounded by one test question — can this honestly be called the work of the Lord?
- Certainty. Work that looks wasted by man's measure is never wasted in the Lord's — and Paul says this to the very people who had failed.
- Harvest. Nothing done in the Lord is forgotten; it is stored up and shown at His revelation, to praise and glory and honour.