Making a Difference

11/14/2015

1 Corinthians 15.2,58 2 …and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

58 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. – St. Paul

In this world there is a thing called belief. Everyone believes something and I would add, they believe in something. Having belief is one thing, doing something with your belief is another.

On September 11, 2012 the American Embassy in Benghazi, Libya was attacked by terrorists and four American citizens, including the Ambassador to Lybia, J. Christopher Stevens, were killed. At one point in the investigation that followed, then Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, threw up hers hands in exasperation and exclaimed: What difference does it make!? What difference does belief make?

It appears that belief chooses sides. Sometimes belief of one kind gets in the way of belief of another kind; belief in a cause sometimes conflicts with belief in an agenda. The agenda conflicting the Corinthian Church was: there is no resurrection from the dead. Not surprising, many, many people still have an incredibly difficult time believing that Jesus is alive – a fable, a myth, they surmise. What difference does it make?

When Paul wrote his famous letters to this church he said it makes a great deal of difference. He wrote: Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. It’s all there, it’s all truth, but it’s truth only if you fully believe – unless you’ve believed in vain and thrown up your hands in: What difference does it make!?

Paul went on to write, some 56 verses later, after making his defense of what he wrote 56 verses earlier: 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. Belief makes all the difference. Belief in vain, is useless, hopeless, and makes no difference in this world at all.

So, the Gospel which Paul preached made a difference, and the abounding in the work of the Lord makes a difference because agendas of the dogmatic kind, don’t make a difference. Dogmatic agendas tend to end up in people getting killed in vain belief, and what is the use in that?

If one is to die, let one die abounding in the work of the Lord because, that death is never in vain. Vain belief is unproductive at the highest level; abounding in the work of the Lord is meaningful, purposeful, and pleasing to the One who did, indeed, rise from the dead: the Righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. Belief, in the right place, makes a difference on earth and for eternity. Jesus rose from the dead.

Lord, as he asked You one day long, long ago: Lord, “I believe; help my unbelief!” In the face of all of the conflicting agendas, the death, and the disappointment today, I ask the same. Amen