IN VAIN!

IN VAIN!

2 Cor 11:2-3

2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.

1 Cor 15:1-2

15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand;

2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

           The word “vain” as it is used here means “futile; unsuccessful.” The Greek is “eike” which means “without reason” or “without effect.” The Wycliffe Bible Commentary sheds some light with this: “Believed in vain does not indicate loss of salvation as a possibility. The apostle means either that a faith that does not persevere is not true saving faith, or that a faith lodged in a purported resurrection of the Messiah would be groundless if the message of Christ's resurrection were untrue. The latter interpretation is probably correct. If Christ was not crucified and resurrected, salvation is impossible.”

           The “jealousy” which Paul felt in Second Corinthians chapter eleven is the Greek words “zelos” or “zeloo” which is the foundation for our word “zeal.” Paul owned an ardor and anxiety until the bride could be delivered without spot or blemish. He felt personally responsible for it although it is clear the responsibility rested with the bride.

           Every minister knows the feeling of frustration when it seems his preaching and ministering seems ineffective. We have acknowledged God’s call and have done our best. Somewhere along the way we have wrested responsibility from the grasp of God and our hearers and the result is a guilt that we should not own. Our responsibility is to faithfully proclaim the truth but if that truth falls on deaf ears and obstinate hearts the results are indeed vain. It is clear in several places that Paul felt it deeply.

Phil 2:14-16

14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings:

15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.

           The same fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians which introduces the possibility of vain belief ends with an encouragement to be steadfast. Paul lays the responsibility at the feat of his hearers with the following verse.

1 Cor 15:58

58 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.

Heb 13:20-21

20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep , through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.