1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 

In this chapter Paul (the writer of Corinthians) is taking time to explain the resurrection of Christ and why it is important. He was showing that Jesus rising from the grave showed his power to conquer sin and death, and that if we believe in Jesus, we too will do the same. And one day will rise with Christ and be with God forever. And this is the hope that we have in Jesus, that through his death on the cross and resurrection from the grave everyone who believes Him will be saved. And in case you are unaware, we need saving because of this thing called sin, which just means things that we do or think that disobey God. And everyone including you and I have sinned and needs Jesus to save us. 

And this is what paul is talking about in chapter 15 of 1 Corinthians. This is why he is trying to get us to see as he closes out the chapter. In verse 58 he starts out with the word therefore which means we need to remember what he just talked about as we look at this verse. In other words, he saying that because Jesus died and rose from the grave, this is what you need to do. And He gives us three things that we can do as we remember what Jesus has done for us. 

First he says that we are to be steadfast which means to be firmly fixed in place. This reminds me of a brick wall. Maybe it’s the outside of your house, or the classroom at school. If you look at that wall it looks pretty solid, its not going anywhere. In fact if you ran full speed at the wall you would most likely fall down and get hurt… not the wall. But the wall isn’t going anywhere because its steadfast, its fixed in place. And its fixed in place because it has a strong foundation. 

And this is what Paul is getting at when it comes to our relationship with God. Our foundation is God’s word. When we study the bible, we learn more and more about God and what he says is true. If we are steadfast with God, then nothing can move us or convince us that God isn’t the most important thing in life. And no matter what life throws our way we can be steadfast and remain strong to do what God says, because we know what he says by studying his word. The world is full of things that may cause us to question things or wonder if what we are doing is right, and we will do well to remember what God’s word says so that we can remain steadfast to his truth. 

Second, he tells us to be Immovable which means: not yielding to pressure or persuasion.  You see if we are honest with ourselves there are a lot of things around us that try to convince us to believe it or that we need it. Whether that be social media, tv commercials, or our friends, we are surrounded by things that are going to tempt us to do and believe things that are not right according to God. And sometimes they will simply tempt us to focus on them more than God.  There are lots of things that are going to try and convince us that we need to focus on them. Things that may even try to pull us away from God and tempt us to believe things that simply aren’t true. And when it comes to God and his word we need to be immovable so that nothing can take us away from Him and his truth. We need to acknowledge God and love him so much that nothing can move us away from him. Not our love for sports, or video games, or tiktok, or even our friends. We are to acknowledge God in everything and remain immovable in our knowledge and understanding of God and His word. So that God remains the most important thing in our lives.

Lastly, he tells us to always abound in the work of the lord. Think of the first time you played soccer. Were you as good then as you are now? Definitely not, but as you have practiced you have gotten better and better at the sport.  And what Paul challenges us at the very end of this passage to do is to keep working. But its not to get good at a sport. Its to serve God. We are to always be at work for God. Whatever we do, do it so that we can lead other people to God. So that we can show them the same love that God has shown us. As Christians, as people who believe in Jesus. We are called to point other people to him. So that means that how we treat others, what we say and what we do should point people to Jesus. And I know that’s hard to do. Sometimes people make us upset, sometimes we don’t make good choices, but we should always work hard to serve God and to point people to Him and to do what he says. And the cool thing is, its always going to be worth it. We have this hope that we will be with God one day and that day will make all this hard work of studying God’s word, of focusing on Him, and living for Him worth it. Its not pointless to serve God, but instead when we do so, we point people to a hope of being with God through Jesus Christ. 

As always, if you have any question about your faith or how to have a relationship with Jesus, I would love to talk with you about it!

-Coach Nick