1 Corinthians 15:58

Inference from the whole subject, 58.

1 Corinthians 15:58. Wherefore, my beloved brethren in view of all that has been held forth to you on this subject be ye stedfast, unmoveable not moved either by the specious reasonings or by the lax life of “men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth” (1 Timothy 6:5), always abounding in the work of the Lord. The way not to go back is to go forward, the way to be “unmoveable” is to be “always abounding.” The secret of stability is progress. The progressive principle is the grand conservative principle. Not to advance is to recede, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. Woefully “in vain” would their “labour” be if there were no resurrection. But holding this for a settled point, the apostle says, “ye know” it is “not vain;” and “the Lord,” he says, is pledged that it shall not be so.

Thus, with beautiful calmness and ease, does the apostle come down, in this closing verse, from the height to which he had risen in the verses immediately preceding, to the everyday work and warfare of life. Nor is this wonderful; for the spring of all Christian activity, energy, and progress Ties in such soul-stirring themes as are handled in this chapter, whose practical outcome is expressed in the closing verse.