Good Friday (March 29). Your labor is not in vain

Prepare to Listen.  Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
 
Prayerfully Read 1 Corinthians 15:50-58
50What I am saying, brothers and sisters, is this: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.  51Listen, I will tell you a mystery!  We will not all die, but we will all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.  For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.  53For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality.  54When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.’
55‘Where, O death, is your victory?
   Where, O death, is your sting?’
56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  58Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain.
 
Prayerfully Wonder and Reflect
Five different pieces in Handel’s Messiah are from these verses.  Did you hum any as you read?
 
Verse 57, as sung by the choir, is exuberant: “But thanks [thanks, thanks] be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”  It doesn’t matter what has gone before, the struggles, the ups and downs, the defeats or losses, even death and the grave.  It doesn’t matter because God gives the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Victory isn’t about superficial and temporary winnings.  Victory is inheriting the Kingdom of God, winning over “flesh and blood,” that is, “humanity in its present corruptible state.”[1]  Our corrupt human state means access to God’s Kingdom is impossible.  But in Christ we have access to God!  Thanks, thanks, thanks be to God.
 
So how should we now live, still hampered by our corruptible human state?  Paul tells us: “be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”  There is the Lord’s work to be done.  We do it, not half-heartedly, but to the best of our ability so that we excel.  It’s never easy, often discouraging, therefore be steadfast, immovable, always excelling.  Sometimes we may feel we’ve wasted our time and labored in vain.  Hear again Paul’s encouragement, “in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”  As Wright states, “What we do in the present is not wasted.  It will all be part of the eventual structure, even though at the moment we have no idea how.”[2]
 
What encouraged you in these verses and how can you live that today?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord, you have given us the victory.  Thanks, thanks, thanks.  When it seems my labor has been in vain, keep me focused, with gratitude, on the victory won in you.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord.
[1] Wright, N. T.  Into the Heart of Romans.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic.  2023, p. 70.
[2] Wright, N. T.  Simply Jesus.  HarperOne 2011, p. 211.