What Do Our Deeds Say?

 

“And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, ‘Write, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!”’ ‘Yes,’ says the Spirit, ‘so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them’” (Rev. 14:13).

 

Monday is Labor Day, considered unofficially as the end of summer, the last work holiday for most people before Thanksgiving. Labor Day honors the contributions that workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country. There may be parades and speeches that accompany this holiday, but for most people it’s a day off from work that allows them to enjoy a variety of activities with family and friends.

 

From a spiritual perspective, the term translated labor in the above passage means a wearisome effort generally, being used to denote not so much the actual exertion which a person makes, but the weariness which is experienced from that. Here it is referring to the labor those Christians who had died offered in service to the Lord, and how those labors followed them to eternity, commending them before the Father’s throne as those who truly belong to Him.

 

Scripture is filled with references of how living the Christian life is a life of service to the will of God. Such was God’s plan for those who would be His, even from eternity. “For we are His creation, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). This is fitting, as we are to reflect the image of Christ, who came to serve the Father in obeying His will, so we could have the forgiveness of our sins (Heb. 10:7). If we have the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5), we are integrally connected with Him when we as His followers seek to obey Him. “He gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to cleanse for Himself a people for His own possession, eager to do good works” (Titus 2:14).

 

How does God accomplish His goal of forming us in the image of Christ, in perfecting us in holiness? One way is through our willingness to submit our lives in obedience to Him, that we might leave sin behind and experience the power of real fellowship with Him. It is not a labor given grudgingly, or reluctantly, but from love, the same love that Christ offered in doing the will of the Father. So He says to us, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (John 14:15). How can our lives not be drawn to serve Him if we truly are connected to Him, if we genuinely love Him?

 

There are trials that go with our labors here and now. Satan continually tempts us to sin, to thwart God’s work of forming us in His image. There can be opposition from those who reject the will of God. For those first century Christians John witnessed, they labored strenuously for the sake of their Lord, for many of them even to death. Their rest, however, came, not in the form of a legal holiday, but of an eternity in the presence of the Almighty God and Christ His Son, where the struggles of the flesh are no more and the joy of salvation is fulfilled. Paul wrote, “We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone mature in Christ. I labor for this, striving with His strength that works powerfully in me” (Col. 1:28-29). May we have such a labor of love, knowing the rest God provides.

 

μαράνα θᾶ (1 Cor. 16:22)

Robert