He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:8-9 (NRSV)
Each day we live for Christ is a day closer to the coming of Christ. We look forward to this day because all of our trials and hardships here on earth will end. Then, we will be able to fully live for Christ, unencumbered by earthly cares and concerns.
What does it look like to live each earthly, 24-hour period, for Christ? To many of us, this looks like a never-ending struggle to keep Christ first in our lives. We may start the day with prayer and devotion, but by noon, an encounter with an angry unbeliever has diverted our thoughts towards a problem and taken our thoughts away from God. Work, errands, eating, and sleeping take up so much of our time that our devotion to God can sometimes be something we eke out of our spare time.
If a person’s supervisor gives him a project to do, and a deadline to accomplish it, the person will, most likely, work hard to meet the deadline with a quality product. The supervisor has control over employees’ time, and it is the supervisor who can decide the allotted time for what needs to be done. A good supervisor will support the employees in order to accomplish the goal.
This is exactly what Paul is saying in verse 8. God, who is in complete control of all of the time that has ever existed or ever will exist, will strengthen us, day by day, hour by hour, and minute by minute to accomplish His goals for us. God will strengthen us to the end, and He is faithful--He will take responsibility for all of the work we do.
The end goal is going to be good. Satan will be destroyed and we will have everlasting fellowship with Jesus Christ the Lord. There will be no more day-by-day, hour-by-hour or minute-by-minute. It will be fellowship with God forever. What a gracious God He is.
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