Toil in Hope

Thus speaks Paul in 1 Timothy 4.10. The end to which Paul and his companions toiled was the hope that they had in the living God. Admittedly, Paul's life was not easy, it involved toil and struggle (ἀγωνιζόμεθα). He could bear up in the toil and struggle because his hope was fixed, not on earthly reward, or fame, or money; not on retirement in the golden years when he could get a villa on the beach and collect seashells. His hope was eternal. It rested in the living God.

Like Paul, we do not work for retirement. Our end is hope in the living God, it is to this end, that with Paul, we too toil and struggle in the work that God has given us to do. May we endure in the work sustained by hope in the living God.