Abounding in God’s Work

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1 Corinthians 15:58 – Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.


None of us want to be drop-outs or quitters. But, unfortunately many Christian workers never make it to the finish line. Maybe they never understood the preliminaries – that no one is better than another (1 Cor. 16:10), or the purpose – that this is “the work of the Lord.” Who knows why they quit, but they do.

We must understand that the power behind our service is the resurrection power of Christ (1 Cor. 15:57). We use many electronic devices today that have great battery life, but they must all be plugged in to be recharged. We must stay plugged into the power source or we will drain out and quit.

Next, the priority of our service must constantly be checked. The “house of Stephanas…addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints” (vs. 15). Their addiction was the key to their abounding. They did their best job; not second best!

The progress of their service was consistent, compassionate, constructive, and charitable. You could depend on them. They didn’t fail to show up, neither were they late or unprepared. They did good quality work, and always did it with a charitable heart attitude. They wanted to be better year after year. We should too.

There are variables to the profit of our service. First, you can’t do everything alone (see vss. 1, 10, 12, 15, 17-19). Some things are unexpected (vss. 3-7), and “Lord willing” must be our mantra (vs. 7). People also have their own wills (vs. 12), and circumstances have an effect as well (vs. 12). Don’t discount that!

Finally, there will always be adversaries (vs. 9), but we must go through the open doors (vs. 9), and truly believe that our “labour is not in vain in the Lord.” Don’t be a drop out!