In the Lord Your Labor Is Not in Vain

Laboring for the Lord is difficult. It can get discouraging. Whether we’re on staff at a church or just trying to raise our kids well or talk about Christ to a coworker, laboring for Christ sometimes feels like we’re not getting anywhere.

This is why the promise of God from 1 Corinthians 15 is such an encouragement, and something perhaps we’d all do well to memorize. Paul writes,

“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.” (1 Corinthians 15:58)

When laboring for Christ is discouraging, we’re told to keep on keeping on—“be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” But why? Is it just because we’re told to? Not at all. It’s because that keep-on-keeping-on labor is meaningful: “…knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.” No matter what it looks like in those moments, or in those evenings when you come home and wish you did that thing or said that phrase differently, the work for the Lord still matters. We might be tempted to believe it’s vanity, but that’d be wrong: We “know” it’s never vain.

This is encouraging enough, but still, we might ask, how can we know that it isn’t in vain? On the surface, we might answer it’s because it’s a biblical promise in 1 Corinthians 15:58! But we can go deeper, because Paul does twice in the text. How do we ultimately know these Christian labors are not in vain? Because they’re “in the Lord.” Notice Paul’s two-fold emphasis in the text.

“[Be] always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

If our labor isn’t the work “of the Lord” it very well might be in vain. Furthermore, if we aren’t “in the Lord” our labor might be in vain. If we aren’t Christians, unified with our sovereign Savior, we might be working away in vanity—doing things that aren’t of ultimate significance, which won’t last. But if we are genuinely trying to do what Jesus has told us to do, and if we truly are connected to our sovereign Savior, then it cannot be in vain. Why? Because our work is his work, it’s in him, and he as the sovereign Lord is making sure the billions upon trillions of works of his people have meaning.

Jesus Christ himself is the meaningful force behind our works. As Charles Spurgeon said well,

“‘Therefore, let us be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.’ Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, therefore what we do is not done for a dead Christ. We are not fighting for a dead man’s cause…but we have a living captain, a reigning king, one who is able both to occupy the throne and to lead on our hosts to battle…Be ye stedfast, unmoveable, for he is risen, and he ever liveth to secure the victory” (C.H. Spurgeon, “Motives for Steadfastness“)

So when you or I engage in any type of Christian labor in the Lord, big or small, may we take heart that the bolster behind our labor which gives it meaning is our sovereign Lord. We are doing his work, united to him. With this being so, it cannot be in vain. It has meaning—more than we can fathom.