Paul begins this letter with this powerful phrase: “God the Father, who raised Him from the dead.” What is more powerful and affecting in our lives than death and that circumstances that surround it? Nothing changes things more (either for the person who died or for her family and friends). Nothing has a greater final outcome.
Except with the Lord Jesus. Through His resurrection, He brought us the ultimate hope, the ultimate ending to life: more life! “Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in 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” (1 Corinthians 15:51-52 NRSV). What seemed, prior to the Lord’s resurrection, to be eternal death, is now a temporary state because we are going to receive new bodies, bodies that are incorruptible! Bodies that cannot be sick, that cannot fail, that cannot sin. And Paul concludes this passage in Corinthians with this:
“Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (v. 58 NRSV).
In Galatians, Paul establishes his authority based on the fact that God the Father raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. In Corinthians, he establishes our authority based on the fact that God the Father is going to raise us from the dead (our labor cannot be in vain).
What does Paul mean in his description for us?
“Steadfast” is hedraios which means “moral fixity” (Vine’s G1476). The command is for us to be steadfast, to fix our morals upon the Word of God and to not waiver from that moral stand. Morality for the believer is far more than we think of morality. There are so many aspects to it, all of those being the fruit of the Spirit in our lives: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control” (Galatians 5:22b-23 NRSV). Most of us know by now that the “fruit” of the Spirit is one thing, not many things. We are expected to be all of these things all the time, not sometimes one and then sometimes another. Father God’s character is all of these all of the times. When we allow His Spirit to live in and through us, He is all of these things in us.
The only way that we can do that is to stay in the Word and stay in prayer. It is impossible for us to be gentle or self-controlled, to be kind or patient, but it is always possible (not only possible, but predictable) for God because this is Who He is!
“Immovable” means being fully committed through hope and trust in God, never wavering. James talked about the wavering believer:
“for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind; for the doubter, being double-minded and unstable in every way, must not expect to receive anything from the Lord” (1:6-7 NRSV).
The word picture is so descriptive! My parents and I used to sail small boats along the Pacific shore. We never went far enough to lose sight of land and were often within swimming distance of the shore. But one of the things we never did was to go out when there were small craft warnings. Small craft warnings are times in the ocean when the waves and wind are so severe that there is a danger of the smaller boats capsizing. A few times we were caught in the ocean when the warning occurred and had to scurry for the safety of the harbor. But being out in the ocean during those times was not fun. Our little boat was hurled from one wave to another, bobbing back and forth, with water drenching everyone on board. I’ve seen the wind whip the water back and forth, even taking it against the current or normal flow pattern.
As believers, we have two choices. We can look at our circumstances and allow those circumstances to raise doubts within our hearts and minds, tossing us back and forth with anxiety and distress. Or, we can look to the Word, to the heart of God, and trust, regardless of what is happening around us, knowing that this is the God Who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead; there is nothing too hard for Him!
Paul tells us in Galatians to be immovable. This means that our faith in the Lord is rock-solid; we refuse to doubt His love or His plan for our lives. We may be in a dark place temporarily, but in the end, He will resurrect us from the dead that this is all that matters!
Finally, Paul tells us to be “always excelling in the work of the Lord.” It’s interesting that he doesn’t tell us to “always being doing the work of the Lord,” but rather admonishes us to excel. God the Father excelled for us in giving us His very best, His only begotten Son. God had many choices in the dilemma of sin and death. He could have destroyed us all and started over. He could have turned His head and let us all die in our sin. He didn’t! His love compelled Him to solve the sin and death dilemma with no less than His best! Why would we then be content to give Him less than our best? And that can mean something as small as providing the best hospitality that we have, be it a feast on china or a sandwich on a paper plate; providing the best friendship to others that we have, be it a long conversation or a snippet email; providing the best witness that we can, be it a sermon or simply living morally straight for others to see.
Paul was empowered by the fact that God the Father raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. He recognized that, after that miracle, there was nothing that God couldn’t or wouldn’t do for His people. We are the same as Paul—believers whom the Father loves. There is nothing that He can’t or won’t do for our good, to demonstrate His love for us.
© 2012 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.
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