The church at Corinth had a significant segment who were beginning to deny the resurrection from the dead.  In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul addressed this issue with them in detail.  Being one of the foundational truths of Christianity, it was absolutely vital for them to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and their own bodily resurrection from the dead in the future when Christ returns.  Heaven awaits those who are saved, who will be resurrected with spiritual bodies to enjoy endless bliss with the Lord.  Paul concludes this chapter with this exhortation, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.”  The enjoyment of their reward in their resurrected state was an incentive for them to abound in their work for the Lord.  One may work in vain in many endeavors on earth.  A farmer’s crop can be ruined, an investor’s savings can be lost or stolen, but the work we do for the Lord is guaranteed to be rewarded if we stay faithful (1 Peter 1:4). Jesus said, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Matthew 6:19-21).

Often when we are considering certain verses in the Scriptures, we fail to recognize the context that helps round out our understanding of a particular verse.  This failure is even more common when a verse is located next to a chapter division.  Chapter and verse divisions, handy as they may be in finding a particular portion of the Scriptures, were not part of the original documents but were added centuries after the Bible was completed (Langton gave us the chapters in 1200s and Stephanus gave the verse divisions in the 1500s).

The verses following 1 Corinthians 15:58 show a labor in the Lord that is not in vain – helping the poor (1 Corinthians 16:1-4).  The particular need at the time Paul wrote the letter was a famine that afflicted the people of Judea.  The churches of Christ were committed to sending relief to these people by the hands of Paul and Barnabas (Acts 11:27-30).  The principle we learn is that we should be giving when we are gathered together, motivated by love for the Lord and others.  Second Corinthians shows the continuation of this process and the good it did for all that were involved.  Jew-Gentile relations in the church were healed because so many Gentiles were willing to help the Jews of Judea.  While the church makes providing for the poor in the family of God the first priority, all men, even those outside the church, are benefited by God’s people doing good works (Galatians 6:10; 2 Corinthians 9:13).

Instead of being focused on accumulating as much wealth for ourselves as possible, we should help the poor who are in true need (Galatians 2:10; 2 Thessalonians 3:10).  If we do not help them, we are not of the truth, and have no good eternal reward to anticipate (1 John 3:17-18; cf. Luke 16:19-31).  Thus, in view of the resurrection, where we will experience riches that are incorruptible, we should abound in doing the work of the Lord, including giving to the poor.

-Mark Day

In describing the growth of the first-century church of Christ in the city of Jerusalem, Luke writes, “And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women” (Acts 5:14).  This is not the first account of individuals being “added” to the Lord’s church in the book of Acts.  Acts 2:47 notes, “And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”  To be “added to the Lord” (Acts 5:14) and to be “added to the church” (Acts 2:47) are the equivalent expressions.  After all, the church is the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:22-23; Colossians 1:18).  When one is baptized, one is united with the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 6:3-8); one is baptized into the one body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13).  To be part of the church is to be part of the saved body of people (Acts 2:47) who have all spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).  To be outside of the church is to be outside of that sphere of blessings, not forgiven of sins, not united with the Lord’s atoning death, not a child of God (Galatians 3:26-27).

When Acts 5:14 says that “believers” were “added to the Lord,” it indicates that one must believe first before being added to the Lord, i.e. to His church.  James 2:17 emphatically shows that faith without works is dead.  A living faith is needed for salvation (2 Timothy 3:15).  A living faith moves one to repent, confess, and be baptized.  John 1:11-12 says of Jesus, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.”  Faith gives one the right to become a child of God, but the moment one accepts the truth of the Gospel, believing it, is not the moment one is added to the Lord, i.e. added to His church.

Several on Pentecost day following the resurrection of the Lord Jesus heard Peter’s sermon, and believed.  They were pricked in their hearts because they recognized Jesus was the Christ, whom they were guilty of crucifying (Acts 2:36-37).  It was not at this moment of believing these facts that they were saved, i.e. added to the Lord’s church.  They asked what they should do and Peter told them to repent and be baptized for the remission of their sins (Acts 8:37-38).  Some three thousand gladly received the word and were baptized; at the point of baptism they were “added” (Acts 2:41).  It was not at the point of believing the facts, not even at the point of gladly receiving the word, but at the point of baptism, where all that culminated into a commitment of obedience, that they were saved, added to the Lord, added to His church.

Jesus said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16).  Faith makes one a proper candidate to be added to the Lord, but until it manifests itself in obedience to the Gospel, salvation has not been secured (2 Thessalonians 1:8). If one believes in Christ, but because of social pressures will not confess that faith before others, one is not saved (John 12:42).  If a man will not be baptized, then he rejects the counsel of God against himself as the Pharisees and lawyers did when they rejected John’s baptism (Luke 7:29-30).  The saved are a group of baptized believers (Acts 2:47; 5:14).  One must be a true believer in order to be baptized, but one is not added to the Lord until one is a baptized believer.

-Mark Day