We have seen that the believers experience the dispensing of the divine Trinity in serving and worshipping God. Now we need to see that they also experience this dispensing in working and laboring for the Lord.
The believers serve and worship God, and they work and labor for the Lord. In 1 Corinthians 16:10 Paul says of Timothy, “He is working the work of the Lord, even as I.” In 15:58 Paul says to the Corinthians, “Wherefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” The context of this verse is Paul’s dealing with the matter of resurrection (15:1-58). Disbelief in the truth of resurrection disappoints us concerning our future, thus discouraging us in the work for the Lord. Faith gives us a strong aspiration that we may abound in the work of the Lord with the expectation of pleasing the Lord in resurrection at His coming back.
The believers work and labor for the Lord by the Lord’s resurrection life and power. Because 1 Corinthians 15 deals thoroughly and absolutely with the matter of resurrection, Paul’s word in verse 58 implies resurrection life and resurrection power. Our work and labor for the Lord is not by our natural life and natural ability but by the Lord’s resurrection life and power.
First Corinthians 15:10 indicates how Paul worked and labored for the Lord by His resurrection life and power: “By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace unto me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.” Grace, mentioned three times in this verse, is actually the resurrected Christ becoming the life-giving Spirit (v. 45) to bring the processed God in resurrection into us to be our life and life supply that we may live in resurrection. Thus, grace is the Triune God becoming life and everything to us. It was by this grace that Saul of Tarsus, the foremost of sinners (1 Tim. 1:15-16), became the foremost apostle laboring more abundantly than all the other apostles. His ministry and living by this grace are an undeniable testimony to Christ’s resurrection.
“Not I, but the grace of God” equals “not I, but Christ” in Galatians 2:20. The grace that motivates the apostle and operates in him is not some matter or thing but a living person, the resurrected Christ, the embodiment of the Triune God becoming the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, who dwells in him as his everything. By this grace Paul could be what he was and labor more abundantly than all the other apostles. Throughout the centuries, all the living servants of the Lord have had this resurrected Christ living in them. We can testify that He lives in us, enabling us to do what we could never do in ourselves.
In 1 Corinthians 15:58 Paul encourages us by saying that our “labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Our labor for the Lord in His resurrection life with His resurrection power will never be in vain, but will result in fulfilling God’s eternal purpose through preaching Christ to sinners, ministering life to the saints, and building up the church with the experiences of the processed Triune God as gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12), and will be rewarded by the returning Lord in the day of the resurrection of the righteous (1 Cor. 3:14; Matt. 25:21, 23; Luke 14:14).
We need to realize that 1 Corinthians 15:58 speaks of something in resurrection and is closely related to resurrection. If we are in resurrection, this verse applies to us. But if we are not in resurrection, we may have the mistaken idea that this verse encourages us to strive and to be energetic. The fact that this verse is related to resurrection is indicated by the word “wherefore” at the beginning of the verse, a verse that refers to all that Paul has said in this chapter. Based upon what he has written in 15:1-57, Paul encourages the believers to be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. According to the natural life, we can be shaken even by a small thing. How, then, can we be steadfast? We can be steadfast only by the resurrection life within us. Resurrection makes us steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord. Furthermore, it causes us to know that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. Without resurrection, whatever we do is vain. But in resurrection our labor in the Lord is not vain. Therefore, resurrection is not only an encouragement; it also motivates us to the work of the Lord.
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