Why We Labor

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

Paul has just gone to considerable detail discussing the resurrection of Jesus—and this is his concluding statement. Not, “sit back and relax because God’s got a great future in store for you,” but “labor on, knowing that now your labor has even more meaning than it did before.”

In his book Surprised by Hope, N. T. Wright expounds on this connection. He writes, “You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that's about to roll over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that's shortly going to be thrown on the fire. You are not planting roses in a garden that's about to be dug up for a building site. You are… accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God's new world… what we do in Christ and by the Spirit in the present is not wasted. It will last all the way into God’s news world. In fact, it will be enhanced there… The work we do in the present, then, gains its full significance from the eventual design in which it is meant to belong.”

How will this translation happen? Will the trees we plant, the injustices we right, the art we create be present in the new world in a way they would not have if we hadn’t begun it all here? I don’t know. But I do think most of us tend to think of heaven as far less embodied than it actually will be: the point of resurrection is not that we will shed ourselves and this world, but that we and our world will rise, remade. Sown in dishonor; raised in glory; sown in weakness, raised in power (15:43). That is why Jesus’ resurrection is everything. It goes both ways: on one hand, we work looking forward, knowing that what we do is not lost and will in fact be brought into greater fullness in eternity. On the other hand, we work as new-creation people called to bring our vision of eternity into the present, to bring the restoration, redemption, and beauty of God’s kingdom into our world now as much as we can.

This time has changed the nature of our labors: we’re wrangling with more digital platforms; we’re doing more cooking and cleaning around the house. It has changed the value of our work, separating out what is deemed “essential” or not. But the resurrection changes how we see and do all our labors. It tells us why “inessential” things like beauty and creativity are necessary. It changes how and why we wipe a counter or try to get our kids to understand a math problem. None of it is pointless; none of it is lost. Abound in your work, Paul says. Persevere. Don’t give up. Your labor is not in vain.