Part 1.8 - Practical Conclusions (58)

58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, become ye steadfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the

Lord.

How many Christians of our day would have addressed the Corinthian believers, after the trouble they gave him, and the evils so rife among them, as " my beloved brethren ? " Would they not rather have refused them even the title of "brethren" till they had ’purged themselves of the evil?’ Would not Paul, in using such words, have been by many considered as encouraging them in evil, and himself defiled by participating in it, if he had not been owned to be an inspired apostle ? This verse is the general practical conclusion from, the previous argument and doctrine. Paul first lays doctrine firmly as the foundation, and then erects practice on it, as the superstructure. There cannot be true action where true faith has not gone before. And Christian service is a service of freedom, now that Christ has gone in advance, and has swept from our road the mighty robbers that seized, plundered, and detained in their dens and slavery, the passers by. "

Become ye steadfast, immoveable."

They were not steadfast when he wrote; but as the result of his inspired communication, they were to become so. The true believer may always, from Scripture, be adding to the certainty and sphere of his knowledge. True practice, also, is a great con- firmer of the truth in our hearts. Practice of the Saviour’s words is the founding the house upon the rock.

Why are two words used ? - ’ Steadfast, immoveable.’ In a writer so concise as Paul, every word has its own sense and weight.

1. By the first word seems intended the inward steadfastness communicated by the full acceptance of the truth (vii. 37 ; Colossians 1:23).

2. Probably the second may refer to the believer’s practice. He is not to be shaken from without by the efforts of those who would lead him into error. The truth here attacked was resurrection. That shaken, Christian practice was shaken along with Christian truth. If the truth of the resurrection were taken away, there was removed also the resurrection of the just, which Paul assures us is the Christian’s main hope and spur to activity. Overturners of that overturn the truth. "

Abounding in the work of the Lord alway."

Here is the command - the practical result of the fundamental truth of resurrection. This truth is undermined or disbelieved in the minds of many Christians. Where it is so, the fruits of grace are but few, and the source of activity is drying up. Paul was the man of strong faith, Paul the man of constant activity in the service of Christ.

There are, then, as these words hint, two spheres of labour, (1) The flesh, and (2) the Lord.

1. The flesh works from motives of nature, and with hopes of present reward on this side death. But it is full of vanity and vexation, and often empty of result. - 2. But there is a better field - the sphere of work for the Lord. This is a sphere among the things unseen. It supposes a man to be a child of faith, new-born to behold the things unseen and eternal.

Diligence in the labours of life is not always successful. The proverbs of nations tell us how precarious is the step between the cup and lip. ’ One sows, another reaps.’ One sowed in youth and health, but he is cut down ere the sheaves of his own field. Or yon farmer sowed indeed well, but as it came up it was blighted by frost, battered by hail, eaten by slugs, withered by mildew. Or he sowed, and it waved a plenteous harvest; but the bands of the enemy came in, reaped, and bore it away.

Now these things, which so often dishearten the labourer in the flesh and for the world, have no power over the Christian’s harvest. Our labours for Christ the Risen One are beneath His hand and keeping. The Syrian plunderers cannot cross this Jordan. The blights of earth do not affect the sowing in the Lord.

There no seeds are lost, or eaten up, or grow mouldy. Our treasures committed to Christ are beyond the incursions of death.

Herein, too, we may give God thanks for our difference of standing as compared with the Law. Read the book of Ecclesiastes, the wisdom of Solomon in stating the value of present things. And what does the King of kings say? ’All is uncertainty in result.

Even when all is enjoyed, and to the full, it leaves the spirit dissatisfied.1 He ends with the certainty of judgment, as the result of Law and of God’s government. But there is no certainty as to the issue on earth touching each one. The king confesses bitterly the truth which the apostle here implies. "I hated all my labour which I had laboured under the sun, because I should leave it to the man that should be after me. And who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man, or a fool? yet he shall have rule over all my labour wherein I have laboured, and wherein I have showed myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity" - ( Ecclesiastes 2:18-19). "For what hath man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his heart, wherein he hath laboured under the sun? For all his days are sorrows, and his travail grief; yea, his heart taketh not rest in the night. This is also vanity " - (ii. 22, 23).

Also iv. 1, 2. Solomon wrought in the flesh, and found only emptiness in all his wisdom. How great, then, the change which Christ’s work and wisdom have wrought ! Our gains shall not be lost ; shall not be left behind, or carried off by another. For we have really, in Christ, passed beyond our enemies, and the domain over which they plunder. We behold a sphere beyond death and above the sun. We see resurrection and the life therein, and the kingdom which is assured to Christ, a part in which He will give to the diligent servant. Oh then, Christian, work on ! Your footing is firm, march on boldly ! Work for Christ ; for there is reward in resurrection, reward in the resurrection of the just. ’ Each shall receive his own reward, according to his own labour.’ Christ is coming, and shall pay the labourers their wages. The reaper of God’s farm shall rejoice with the sower of God’s field in the early day. Not that the believer must go out of the way of his usual calling in order to serve the Lord. Many mistake here. They think that only service specially religious is work in the Lord. They cannot or do not see, that we may be working in the Lord and for the Lord, amidst the common-place duties of life. The needlewoman at her shirt-making, the kitchen- maid amidst her washing of dishes, the gardener in his digging and planting, may do all in the name and spirit of Christ, and to the glory of God. What ! Do we forget that Christ was some twenty years and more working with axe and chisel, with saw and plane, like any common carpenter of our day ? Was not that work which the Father had set Him ? And did He not do it to the glory of God ? Yes ! and so may you, Christian ! Do not think - ’ While I am in the world I must do the work of the world; I come to this Christian assembly to leave the world, and to serve God.’ Nay, you may do your work in the world according to the spirit of God. Do it to the Lord !

Servant, remember your service to your master and mistress, rightly rendered, is service to Christ.

Hold fast, then, the doctrine of reward ! All ob- jections to it spring of the flesh, and not from God. The more diligent you are, the more thoroughly you are spurred to labour by the hope of the praise of God, and partaking the glory of Christ, the more you glorify God.