1 Corinthians 15:58  

I. A threefold exhortation:  

1. Be steadfast - hedraioi, firm, fixed in the faith of the gospel, that gospel which he had preached and they had received, namely, That Christ died for our sins, and arose again the third day, according to the scriptures (1Cor_15:3-:4), and fixed in the faith of the glorious resurrection of the dead. “Do not let your belief of these truths be shaken or staggered. They are most certain, and of utmost importance.” Christians should be steadfast believers of this great truth  about resurrection. It is evidently founded on the death and resurrection of Christ. Because he lives, his servants shall live also, Joh_14:19. And it is important to believe in a future life; that we don’t live like beasts that eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.  We believed that there is life after death. How foolish to reject the doctrine of the resurrection, and to lie down in the grave without peace, without hope, without any belief that there will be a world of glory; living without God, and dying like animals.  
2. Immovable – Firm, fixed, stable, unmoved in their expectation of this great privilege of being raised incorruptible and immortal. Christians should not be moved away from this hope of this gospel (Col_1:23), this glorious and blessed hope; they should not renounce nor resign their comfortable expectations. They are not vain, but solid hopes, built upon sure foundations, the purchase and power of their risen Savior, and the promise of God, to whom it is impossible to lie - hopes that shall be their most powerful supports under all the pressures of life, the most effective antidotes against the fears of death, and the best motivations to diligence and perseverance in Christian duty. We should not stop from hoping and we should avoid shaking our faith.  
3. Abound -  Always engaged in doing the will of God; in promoting his glory, and advancing his kingdom. And in the Lord's service; in obeying the Lord's commands. Christians should be diligent, persevere, and going on towards perfection; they should be continually making advances in true move, and ready for every good work. The most cheerful duty, the greatest diligence, the most constant perseverance, we can do only if we have such glorious hopes. Can we too much abound in zeal and diligence in the Lord's work, when we are assured of such abundant recompenses in a future life? What vigor and resolution, what constancy and patience, should those hopes inspire! Note, Christians should not stint themselves as to their growth in holiness, but be always improving in sound religion, and abounding in the work of the Lord.   II. The reasons of exhortation;
their “labor shall not be in vain in the Lord”; They have the best grounds in the world to build upon. They have all the assurance: as surely as Christ is raised, they shall rise; and Christ is as surely raised as the scriptures are true, and the word of God. The apostles saw him after his death, testified this truth to the world in the face of a thousand deaths and dangers, and confirmed it by miraculous powers received from him. Note, True Christians have undoubted evidence that their labor will not be in vain in the Lord; their most diligent services and their most painful sufferings; they will not be in vain, not be vain or unprofitable. Note the labor of Christians will not be lost labor; it means that they shall be abundantly rewarded. He will never be found unjust to forget their labor of love, Heb_6:10. he will do exceedingly abundantly above what they can now ask or think. Neither the services they do for him, nor the sufferings they endure for him here, are worthy to be compared with the joy hereafter to be revealed in them, Rom_8:18. Note those who serve God have good wages; they cannot do too much nor suffer too much for so good a Master. If they serve him now, they shall see him hereafter; if they suffer for him on earth, they shall reign with him in heaven; if they die for his sake, they shall rise again from the dead, be crowned with glory, honor, and immortality, and inherit eternal life.   Conclusions: Forasmuch as ye know - Greek “Knowing.” You know it by the arguments which have been urged for the truth of the gospel; by your deep conviction that that gospel is true. Your labor is not in vain - It will be rewarded. It is not as if you were to die and never live again. There will be a resurrection, and you will be suitably recompensed then what you do for the honor of God will not only be attended with an approving conscience, and with happiness here, but will be met with the glorious and eternal rewards of heaven. In the Lord - This probably means, “Your labor or work in the Lord, that is, in the cause of the Lord, will not be in vain.” And the sentiment of the whole verse is, that the hope of the resurrection and of future glory should stimulate us to great and self-denying efforts in honor of Him who has revealed that doctrine, and who purposes graciously to reward us there. Other people are influenced and excited to great efforts by the hope of honor, pleasure, or wealth. Christians should be excited to toil and self-denial by the prospect of immortal glory; and by the assurance that their hopes are not in vain, and will not deceive them.  1Co_15:6. A Christian has the assurance that his Savior rose, and that his people shall therefore also raise, 1Co_15:12-20. He encounters peril, and privation, and persecution he may be ridiculed and despised; he may be subjected to danger, or doomed to fight with wild beasts, or to contend with people who resemble wild beasts; he may be doomed to the pains and terrors of a martyrdom at the stake, but he has the assurance that all these are of short continuance, and that before him there is a world of eternal glory; 1Co_15:29-32. He may be poor, unhonored, and apparently without an earthly friend or protector; but his Savior and Redeemer reigns; 1Co_15:25. He has nothing to fear in death; nothing to fear in the dying pang, the gloom, the chill, the sweat, the paleness, the fixedness of death; nothing to fear in the chilliness, the darkness, the silence, the corruption of the grave. All this is in the way to immortality, and is closely and indissolubly connected with immortality; 1Co_15:55-57. And in view of all this, we should be patient, faithful, laborious, self-denying; we should engage with zeal in the work of the Lord; we should calmly wait till our change come; 1Co_15:58. No other system of religion has any such hopes as this; no other system does anything to dispel the gloom, or drive away the horrors of the grave. How foolish is the man who rejects the gospel - the only system which brings life and immortality to light!