1 Corinthians 15:58 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

Navigator

1 Corinthians 15:58

Comments

The exhortation is built on everything which has been previously said, and particularly in chapter 15. In the light of the fact that death has been swallowed up in victory, that Christ has suffered and died for our sin, that he has taken away the punishment and the condemnation, by satisfying the law of God, let us be full of zeal for the work of the Lord. From the day we are born, and as we grow up and come up through childhood, and teenage years; sin is gathering strength all the time with its captivating power, invading our being. Thanks be to God, that the aggressive stance of sin levelled against us has gone. Yes, we still battle with sin until death, until glorification, but no longer does it have mastery and dominion, and no longer are we under its condemnation. Look forward to the day of resurrection. Think of the resurrection of Christ often. Why did he rise publicly? For our encouragement, to lift our souls. The resurrection is an answer to ever discouragement we can ever face. What Paul has been saying in this chapter calls for a response from us and he tells us what it should be.‘My beloved brethren’ – beloved by Paul. The Corinthians were loved by him, though he probably didn’t know them all. But what is much more important – they were loved by Christ. Christ loves his people, and we don’t think of it enough. We know we don’t deserve his love; we don’t deserve his blessing. We say, ‘How could the pure and holy Son of God love a creature like me?’ Nevertheless, he does; and he loves us particularly for what he is going to do with us and how he is going to shape us. But he loves us more than we can ever imagine or contemplate. ‘Be ye steadfast.’ That will be followed by the word ‘unmovable’. The apostle is not just using two near identical words to reinforce the point. The word ‘steadfast’ translates a Greek word which comes from the idea of being seated. The picture is perhaps that of a ruler who would sit in the council chamber, or of a magistrate to whom people would come for decisions. Everyone else would stand, but the ruler, or magistrate, or judge, would always be seated, indicating that he represented a settled rule, and a set of rules that were written down somewhere. His position was solid and establish. The next word is ‘unmovable’. Here now the word indicates that we are under attack. It's quite different from steadfast – that magistrate isn't under attack; that ruler isn't under attack. But now be unmovable, because there are all kinds of forces seeking to drive you from your position. So this word bears them in mind more particularly. Don't be removed from the truth or from the practices by whatever forces are active in the church at the present time.

Application

Are we moved by these things? ‘Oh it’s a long time ago that I was converted’, you say. ‘I don't feel this indebtedness. I don't feel this compulsion within me to please him and to obey him. My heart is not melted regularly in daily devotions. It doesn't move me as it used to.’ What is the matter? Are you really saved? Did you really find him, or was salvation just a sentimental experience which lasted a while, but which wasn't the real thing? Or maybe you’ve let it slip from your grasp, because you never reflect, and stop and pause. With all life's complexities and troubles, and perhaps griefs which come to you, you never stop to balance things. Every Christian believer has a great responsibility to keep that sense of indebtedness and love to God alive in the heart. Don't be, as the Puritans would have called you, an unmoved professor of Christ.

Are we steadfast? This is addressed to a church, but also to individuals. We are to be steadfast in doctrine. Now this is particularly important today. There are so many things being taught even in Bible believing churches, which have little or no foundation in the word of God. This is an age of gimmicks and innovations. Over the last fifty years so many new ideas been introduced by so many figureheads, personalities and authors. Fad after fad has swept through the churches. But there is a settled body of doctrine in the word of God, so we don't expect teaching and doctrine to change every five minutes. The word of God is complete, and has been for generations, and it is our yardstick for everything. We love the great 17th-century English confessions of faith, the two Baptist Confessions, the Savoy Confession, all based on the Westminster Confession, so carefully thought out. And yet today there are people with little or no understanding of the historic Christian faith and its confessions, and they invent new things by the minute. Around the year 1900 the Pentecostal movement came into being – originally, it was a very tiny fraction of the Christian church. A number of people – and in the first days simple but earnest people – wrongly made the mistake of thinking that the signs and wonders of the New Testament ought to be manifested in every age, and they didn't rightly interpret or understand the clear teaching of the word of God. Over time, Pentecostal built-up, but it was still just a strand among the churches until about the 1960s. Then came the Charismatic Movement and picked it up and exploded everything, and all the innovations began and the crazy things. Although there are many people who are sincere and earnest, the conmen got in, the confidence tricksters, the charlatans, and the rogues, and now many of these churches are just run by moneymaking phonies. It’s true also of practice. You often find people who are defending the doctrines, but they give way on the practice. So they will allow the worldly music to come into the church, and all the entertainment stuff into the house of God, into the church, and there is utter confusion between the sacred and profane. So the ethics are as important as the doctrines.

What might cause us to be moved from the truth? Well, all these erroneous books that the devil makes sure are published with wrong methods and wrong doctrines in them Books are ubiquitous, and penetrate everywhere, and now we have the even greater influence of the Internet. For every sound sermon that is posted on the Internet, there are half a dozen unsound ones posted. For everything that defends the Lord and presents the gospel, there are heretics and atheists and unbelievers pouring out wrong doctrine on the Internet.

‘Always abounding’ – not just doing the work of the Lord, but ‘abounding in the work of the Lord’. What it your life for? You have come to Jesus Christ; you have trusted in him. He has saved you for all eternity, but now you are too occupied with feathering nests, homemaking, the worries of everyday life; and you let these things sweep you away. Some people are under very considerable pressures in their everyday lives, but many people just allow themselves to be swept from service to the Lord, and love for him; they worship only once a week, and do nothing for him when they could. One day we are going to be so rewarded, so blessed, so compensated.

‘Forasmuch as [because] ye know that your labour [hard work] is not in vain’; it is never in vain. God will use it. Maybe not straight away, maybe in the future; but it is not in vain. Paradise now, and then, one day, at the end of all things, the resurrection body. What a future! What a certainty! The goodness and mercy and power of God, and Christ the Saviour so vindicated and magnified. When we see what he can do in a split moment, at a word – the devouring of death itself; and all that he has purchased for us, we should be inspired to serve him and to be steadfast and unmovable for the Lord of glory.

Questions

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

1 Corinthians 15:58 Commentary and Bible Study