One of the greatest privileges of my life is to work for the LORD. As I age, one of the greatest “worries” is that I will reach a point when I am no longer able to do so. Since surrendering my life to the LORD 53 years ago, I have strived to live the command found in I Corinthians 15:58b: “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” [NIV]
There are three interesting words in that verse, fully, labor, and vain.
The Scripture exhorts us to give ourselves to the work of the Lord. Work here is simply talking about effort, about an occupation or daily deed. We work for the Lord. The exhortation though is not simply to work; it is to give ourselves “fully to the work of the Lord.” The Greek word for fully means to excel, to exceed, to give enough and some to spare. The NLT translates it as “enthusiastically.”
When we combine work and giving ourselves fully to the work of the Lord, we end up with the word labor, “because you know that your labor in the Lord . . ..” Labor means toil and includes in its meaning trouble and pain. Any woman who has ever experienced labor pains knows exactly what this word means! We are to approach the work of the Lord with the understanding that at times it is toil. It leaves us weary. It produces pain.
But we are to know one other thing—that our labor, no matter how hard, how painful, or how wearisome at times is not in vain. The word vain means empty. Our labor for God will never be unfruitful or empty. When we work for the glory of the Lord, we never work in vain.