unwavering belief in the resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. It is
through His resurrection from the grave that we have hope and the
promise of life eternal with him. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the
apostle Paul explains that, because of these promises of a future
resurrection and of living eternally in the kingdom, believers have
not only the motivation but also eternal responsibilities for our
lives here on earth.
The apostle Paul touches on such responsibilities in his concluding
statement in the 15th chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians.
He declares that, if we really believe and if we are truly thankful
that our resurrection is sure, we should "therefore" demonstrate our
assurance and our thankfulness by "standing firm, letting nothing move
us" and "always giving ourselves full to the work of the Lord" (1
Corinthians 15:58). This, then, is the believer's responsibility: to
stand firm in the faith and give himself completely to the Lord.
The Greek for "standing firm" is hedraios, which literally refers to
"being seated, being settled and firmly situated." The Greek for
"letting nothing move you" is ametakinetos, and it carries the same
basic idea but with more intensity. It means "being totally immobile
and motionless," indicating that we should not even budge an inch from
His will. And with our being totally within the will of God, we are to
be "always giving ourselves to the work of the Lord," being careful
not to be "tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and
there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of
men in their deceitful scheming" (Ephesians 4:14).
Why did Paul give us this warning? Simply because, if our confident
hope in the resurrection wavers, we are sure to abandon ourselves to
the ways and standards of the world. Therefore, if there are no
eternal ramifications or consequences of what we do in this life, the
motivation for selfless service and holy living is gone. In other
words, our eternal responsibilities are abandoned.
Conversely, when our hope in the resurrection is clear and certain, we
will have great motivation to be attending to the responsibility we
have to "always giving ourselves to the work of the Lord." The Greek
for this phrase carries the idea of exceeding the requirements, of
overflowing or overdoing. A good example of this is found in Ephesians
1:7-8 where the word is used of God having "lavished" upon us the
riches of His grace. Because God has so abundantly provided for us who
deserve nothing from Him, we should determine to give of ourselves
abundantly in service to Him, to whom we owe everything.
The Bible teaches us that our responsibility as believers is to work
uncompromisingly as the Lord has gifted us and leads us in this life.
We must fully understand that until the Lord returns there are souls
to reach and ministries of every sort to be performed. We are
responsible for our money, time, energy, talents, gifts, bodies,
minds, and spirits, and we should invest in nothing that does not in
some way contribute to the work of the Lord. James tells us, "As the
body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead"
(James 2:26).
Our work for the Lord, if it is truly for Him and done in His power,
cannot fail to accomplish what He wants accomplished. Every good work
believers do has eternal benefits that the Lord Himself guarantees.
Jesus tells us, "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I
will give to everyone according to what he has done" (Revelation
22:12).
Simply put, our responsibility lies in working for the Lord, whether
it is in "looking after orphans or widows in distress" (James 1:27),
giving to the hungry, the naked, visiting those in prison (see Matthew
25:35-36), serving in our workplace (see Colossians 3:22), or doing
whatever we do (Colossians 3:23). And our motivation is that we have
God's own promise that our work "is not in vain" in the Lord "since
you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a
reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving" (Colossians 3:24).
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