The Apostle Paul had the understanding that a believer is joined to the Lord inseparably as one spirit (1Cor6:17) and that allows the power of God to be at work IN the believer (Eph3:20). He said in Colossians that the prior mystery which is now revealed to saints is: CHRIST IN YOU (Col1:27). Labouring with grace then would be the working by the strength that is supplied from our union with Christ. ‘Of his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace’. He said, ‘I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me’. That is strength from the innermost man, the spirit. It is strength available to the magnitude of the fullness of God. To labour with grace is to perform tasks by the spirit-power on the inside. ‘Whereunto I also labour, STRIVING according to his working, which worketh in me mightily;’ says Paul, just after revealing the mystery: Christ in you (Col 1:27-29). He himself strove. It is a working out of the inner working of God in the believer. There is a need for yieldedness. ‘For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.’ (Phil 2:13). Glory! Even God supplies the desire; willingness, we are to respond to it.

In the above text, The Apostle Paul expressed the fact that he is not worthy of this grace since He was a very proud and dedicated persecutor of the saints but Grace was made available for him, and this made him what he became. This same Grace was the reason behind his fervency in the things of God and His kingdom.

“Grace is NOT irresponsibility; rather, Grace makes man responsible and committed to the fulfillment of his assignment. This brings us to the first word; “laboring”. The kingdom of God is seemingly like the cause and effect principle, action and reaction, sowing and reaping, etc. Note that the grace of God you have received simply by your faith in Christ is for productivity and not for frivolity. God’s grace does not birth lazy folks, rather busy folks; busy with kingdom work, busy with the assignment God has committed into their hands in every sphere. First for God, for the church (body of Christ) and for personal profiting.”

However, with his long list of crimes, God still showered His unmerited favour upon him that totally transformed his life for good! Grace made him a die-hard follower of Christ. With this grace, he achieved much and laboured even more than others ahead of him and his contemporaries. Wow, he was highly favoured!