Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, since you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
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Ambrosiaster
AD 400
Those who persevere in a life of faith and good works have the assurance that they will be accepted by God and receive their reward and that they will not be led astray by wicked arguments. Commentary on Paul’s Epistles.
We exhort you also, according to the word of the apostle, to be "stedfast and immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not vain in the Lord."
We ought not merely to labor in the Lord but to do so abundantly, to overflowing. The labor of man after his expulsion from paradise was punishment for his transgressions, but this labor is the basis for the rewards which are to come.
5. Wherefore , brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable.
Just and seasonable is this exhortation after all that had gone before. For nothing so disquiets as the thought that we are buffeted without cause or profit.
Always abounding in the work of the Lord: i.e., in the pure life. And he said not, working that which is good, but abounding; that we might do it abundantly , and might overpass the lists.
Knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
What do you say? Labor again? But followed by crowns, and those above the heavens. For that former labor on man's expulsion from paradise, was the punishment of his transgressions; but this is the ground of the rewards to come. So that it cannot in fact be labor, both on this account and by reason of the great help which it receives from above: which is the cause of his adding also, in the Lord. For the purpose of the former was that we might suffer punishment; but of this, that we might obtain the good things to come.
Let us ...
