“Be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord…” (1 Corinthians 15:58). That’s a verse we won’t hear in the media as we celebrate work and enjoy this Labor Day weekend.
What is “the work of the Lord”? Does it mean serving on a committee in your congregation? Are you doing the work of the Lord because you give money to your church? Are retirees who volunteer at church doing the work of the Lord? Is the work of the Lord something especially done by clergy? Yes, all that is the work of the Lord…but the fact that we identify the Lord’s work with congregational activities shows how our culture deceives us. American culture compartmentalizes everything. Conventional “wisdom” confines religious life to participation in a congregation. I once heard someone say, “There’s the work me and there’s the church me.” To which Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24).
Those Corinthian Christians didn’t have organized congregations like we have today. For them the work of the Lord was “to devote themselves to loving service to the Lord and others. The hope of the Gospel should energize them to labor diligently in their respective vocations, serving their families and neighbors wholeheartedly” (Gregory Lockwood, Concordia Commentary, 606). If Jesus is truly your Lord – is that a big “if”? – then you’re doing His work 24/7/365 and most of it will not be in church. You do it when your life and labor, your sleeping and waking, “is in the Lord.”
“In the Lord your labor is not in vain.” “You can never measure what God will do through you if you are rightly related to Jesus Christ. Keep your relationship right with Him, then whatever circumstances you are in, and whoever you meet day by day, He is pouring rivers of living water through you, and it is His mercy that He does not let you know it. When once you’re rightly related to God by salvation and sanctification, remember that wherever you are, you are put there by God” (Oswald Chambers, August 30). Happy Labor Day weekend!