Because He Lives

Your toil is not worthless in the Lord. Toil. Hard, painful work. If you choose to follow Christ, many times it will feel like hard work. Always fighting against the sin that so easily entangles you. Always, having to keep your wits about you to look out for danger, and to be alert for the devil who would like to sift you like wheat. Always fighting against the waves that you might stand firm with the Lord Jesus Christ. But take heart my brothers. Your toil, your fighting, is not worthless because the Lord Jesus Christ lives!

Paul speaks a lot of things being worthless, or in vain, in this chapter.

He warns the Corinthians in verse 2 that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ saves you, unless you believed in vain. That is, unless your faith is worthless, you are saved by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Then in verse 14, Paul says that if Jesus Christ died and did not rise from the grave, then his preaching is worthless. And then in verse 17, he says that if Christ did not rise from the dead, then our faith is worthless. And then Paul gives a big, “But” in verse 20.

“But now Christ has been raised from the dead.”

In other words, your faith is worthless if Jesus Christ is dead. BUT He lives! And because Jesus Christ lives, our faith is full of great value. Because He lives, He brings us life, and life abundant. Because He lives, when He returns to raise us up to glory, we will be changed, transformed, given new incorruptible bodies that will see no more pain, or sicknesses, or death, or be subject to our sinful passions. Because He lives, our work in the Lord brings the savor of the knowledge of Christ to every place. Because He lives, our toil is not in vain in the Lord.