Scripture Daily

Context No. 1232 of 4322 · 1 Corinthians

Context · Reflection

1 Corinthians 15:51-58: in context

51Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. 53For this perishable body must become imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54But when this perishable body will have become imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then what is written will happen: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55“Death, where is your sting? Hades, where is your victory?” 56The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the Lord’s work, because you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Paul reaches the climax of his great chapter on resurrection with a mystery: we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. The dead will be raised imperishable, and the perishable will put on the imperishable, the mortal immortality, and then the ancient word will come true: death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting? He traces the sting of death to sin, but thanks God, who gives us the victory through Jesus Christ. And he ends not in the clouds but on the ground: therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, because your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

The chapter's grand vision of resurrection ends in a strikingly practical command, and the connection is everything. Paul has just declared that death is defeated, that our perishable bodies will be raised imperishable, that in Christ the last enemy is swallowed up in victory. And his conclusion is not, therefore float away in otherworldly contemplation, but therefore be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. The resurrection is meant to fuel labor, not laziness. And the reason he gives is the key: your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Because there is a resurrection, because death does not have the last word, nothing done for God is finally wasted. In a world where so much effort seems to sink without a trace and everything we build eventually crumbles, the resurrection guarantees that work done in the Lord endures, that it is gathered up and not lost. That is what steadies the hand and keeps it working: not the hope that our efforts will succeed by visible measures, but the certainty that in the Lord no faithful labor is in vain. The empty tomb reaches all the way down into Monday morning, making ordinary faithful work matter forever.

Does the resurrection make me steadfast and abounding in the Lord's work, resting in the promise that no faithful labor is finally wasted, even when it seems to sink without a trace?

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