Jump Start # 1403

1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”

  Our verse today is that familiar passage that ends Paul’s powerful discourse about the resurrection. Paul gives proof that Jesus was raised. He was seen. He was seen, not by just a handful, but hundreds saw Him. Paul identifies the ugly conclusion of a faith that does not include a resurrection. Paul answers the practical questions such as, “what will we be like?” Great stuff. Things we need to know and believe.

The chapter ends with our verse today. The verse seems to have two conflicting movements within it.

First, Paul wanted the Corinthians to be steadfast, immovable. Parents would say to their children, “Stand still.” This is not about standing in line without fidgeting but rather remaining true to the principles of the resurrected Christ. Stand upon those things. Don’t drift off of those things. Don’t be moved. Don’t be moved by fancy words. Don’t be moved by slick authors in new books. Don’t be moved by friends who have other ideas. Even among the brethren in Corinth, there were some who denied the resurrection. Don’t lean that way. Don’t be curious about those things. Don’t give up what you know is true.

Second, Paul wanted these folks to abound in the work of the Lord. Abounding is movement. It’s the idea of going forward, progressing, doing yet more. The work wasn’t done. There was more awaiting them. More to be taught. More to be encouraged. Abound in the work.

So, there you have it. On one hand don’t move, yet on the other, being moving. The context teaches us what the difference is. Stand and don’t move on doctrine and yet be working more and more in kingdom activities. Moving but not moving.

It seems that some folks get these two ideas  flip flopped. They are not moving in areas where they ought to be moving and they are moving in areas where they ought to stand.

For instance, both in individual lives and in what is going on in a congregation, some are content just to be content. Nothing changes. Stuck is a way of describing the condition. Stale seems to be the tone of things. Dry, dull, and stuck. Not much abounding taking place. Not much moving in Kingdom work. Just doing about the best we can seems to be the most popular statement. But are they? Are they really doing the best that they can? This is true of families and this is true of congregations. We are talking about engaging in the work of the Lord. We are talking about letting our light shine. We are talking about letting others know that Jesus died for them. Maybe it’s time to kick stale to the sidewalk and try pumping some energy into our efforts. Maybe a home devotion with another family. Maybe a detailed study of things that challenges us to think and do. Maybe putting real goals in front of us, such as each person inviting five people this month to come to services. Maybe starting a church bulletin. Maybe using social media to spread the message.

When we get Paul’s words mixed up, we become immovable in the areas where we are supposed to be abounding. The lazy bones are easy to set in and we become comfortable just maintaining. Abounding takes energy, planning and effort. It takes some brainstorming. Abounding leads to new faces showing up. New people that we don’t know. New people that may not be like us. Abounding may mean giving up a Saturday morning or missing my favorite show in the evening. I’m not the cook in our house. It’s a bad day if I cook. But sometimes in the fall my wife will make chili. If we are having folks over, she’s often busy doing thirty things at once. She’ll ask me to come and stir the chili. If it doesn’t get stirred, it sticks and then it burns. That’s not good when it comes to chili. It’s not good when it comes to churches either. Stir things not by being controversial, unusual, out there, but stir things by being busy in the kingdom. Clean the place up. Be the encourager. Be the hospitable one. Be the one who greets with a smile and a hug. Be the one who is always on time and ready to go. Be the teacher. Be the one who invites. Always abounding. Don’t be content with being content. What more can we do? What more should we do?

The other aspect of Paul’s words that we can get mixed up is the immovable part. We are to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered is what we read in Jude. Timothy was told to teach faithful men who would in turn teach others the same thing. In describing the Lord’s Supper, Paul tells us that he received instructions from the Lord and then gave those same instructions to the Corinthians. He passed the baton on. The teachings about the resurrection are immovable. They are to be steadfast in our hearts and in our faith. Not just the resurrection stuff, but all of the New Testament teachings. Stand upon those teachings. Don’t wander away from them. Don’t go chasing wild ideas. Don’t, as the Ephesians were warned, be tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine. Put a stake in the ground. Draw a line in the sand. Here is where we stand, and here is where you will find us.

This is hard for some. They like new. They like different. They like the strange sound. They like thinking and teaching things that no one else does. They like chasing rabbits that lead them far away from home. The blogs are full of such ideas. New books come out with new ideas. A new way at looking at a passage and some will run past Jerusalem to embrace those ideas. What’s so wrong with the old way of looking at a passage? Some of the new stuff is just speculations. Some of the new things are being floated by men who don’t have an anchor placed in the faith. They are goofy on salvation, organization, moral issues, worship, life after death, Heaven and Hell. But they have a new way of looking at things, and folks line up and buy into those new ways. They bow down to those new thinkers and they go back home and teach those unproven ideas and spread discord among the righteous of God.

What’s the problem? Some are abounding where they ought to be immovable. Some are going on from where they ought to be standing. They’ve gotten Paul’s words mixed up.

Stand and move—we just need to figure out where these apply. We need to know where we are to stand and we need to know where we are to be moving.

Roger