Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Corinthians 9:24
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
24 27. Exhortation to Self-restraint
24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? ] Not that this is the case in the Christian course, but that each should manifest the same eagerness and sustained effort as if the prize could be given to one only. The Corinthians are now exhorted to follow the example of their teacher in all self-mistrust and self-restraint. There can be little doubt that there is an allusion here to the Isthmian games, which took place every three years at a spot on the seacoast about nine miles from Corinth. This was one of those festivals “which exercised so great an influence over the Grecian mind, which were, in fact, to their imaginations what the temple was to the Jews and the triumph to the Romans.” Stanley. At this period, he remarks, the Olympic games, the chief national institution of the Greeks (see Art. “Olympia” in Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities), had possibly lost some of their interest, while the Isthmus had been the centre of the last expiring struggle of Greek independence, and was destined to be the place where, a few years after the date of this Epistle, Nero stood to announce that the province of Achaia had received the honour of Roman citizenship.
in a race ] Literally, in the stadium, or race-course. See Art. “Stadium” in Smith’s Dictionary of Antiquities. This was a fixed course, oblong in shape, with one end semicircular, fitted round with seats, that the spectators might see all that went on. It was “not a mere resort for public amusement, but an almost sacred edifice, under the tutelage of the patron deity of the Ionian tribes, and surrounded by the most solemn recollections of Greece; its white marble seats rising like a temple in the grassy slope, where its outlines may still be traced, under the shadow of the huge Corinthian citadel, which guards the entrance to the Peloponnesus, and overlooking the blue waters of the Saronic Gulf with Athens glittering in the distance.” Stanley.
prize ] Greek, , from whence, through the late Latin word bravium, comes our English brave. See note on next verse.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Know ye not … – In the remainder of this chapter, Paul illustrates the general sentiment on which he had been dwelling – the duty of practicing self-denial for the salvation of others – by a reference to the well known games which were celebrated near Corinth. Throughout the chapter, his object had been to show that in declining to receive a support for preaching, he had done it, not because he was conscious that he had no claim to it, but because by doing it he could better advance the salvation of people, the furtherance of the gospel, and in his special case 1Co 9:16-17 could obtain better evidence, and furnish to others better evidence that he was actuated by a sincere desire to honor God in the gospel. He had denied himself. He had voluntarily submitted to great privations. He had had a great object in view in doing it. And he now says, that in the well known athletic games at Corinth, the same thing was done by the racers 1Co 9:24, and by wrestlers, or boxers; 1Co 9:25.
If they had done it, for objects so comparatively unimportant as the attainment of an earthly garland, assuredly it was proper for him to do it to obtain a crown which should never fade away. This is one of the most beautiful, appropriate, vigorous, and bold illustrations that can anywhere be found; and is a striking instance of the force with which the most vigorous and self-denying efforts of Christians can be vindicated, and can be urgeD by a reference to the conduct of people in the affairs of this life. By the phrase know ye not, Paul intimates that those games to which he alludes were well known to them, and that they must be famillar with their design, and with the manner in which they were conducted. The games to which the apostle alludes were celebrated with extraordinary pomp and splendor, every fourth year, on the isthmus which joined the Peloponnesus to the main land, and on a part of which the city of Corinth stood.
There were in Greece four species of games, the Pythian, or Delphic; the Isthmian, or Corinthian; the Nemean, and the Olympic. On these occasions persons were assembled from all parts of Greece, and the time during which they continued was devoted to extraordinary festivity and amusement. The Isthmian or Corinthian games were celebrated in the narrow part of the Isthmus of Corinth, to the north of the city, and were doubtless the games to which the apostle more particularly alluded, though the games in each of the places were substantially of the same nature, and the same illustration would in the main apply to all. The Nemean game were celebrated at Nemaea, a town of Argolis, and were instituted by the Argives in honor of Archemorus, who died by the bite of a serpent, but were renewed by Hercules, They consisted of horse races and foot races, of boxing, leaping, running, etc. The conqueror was at first rewarded with a crown of olive, afterward of green parsley.
They were celebrated every third, or, according to others, every fifth year. The Pythian games were celebrated every four years at Delphi, in Phocis, at the foot of Mount Parnassus, where was the seat of the celebrated Delphic oracle. These games were of the same character substantially as those celebrated in other places, and attracted persons not only from other parts of Greece, but from distant countries; see Travels of Anacharsis, vol. ii, pp. 375-418. The Olympic games were celebrated in Olympia, a town of Elis, on the southern bank of the Alphias river, on the western part of the Peloponnesus. They were on many accounts the most celebrated of any games in Greece. They were said to have been instituted by Hercules, who planted a grove called Altis, which he dedicated to Jupiter. They were attended not only from all parts of Greece, but, from the most distant countries. These were celebrated every fourth year; and hence, in Grecian chronology, a period of four years was called an Olympiad; see Anacharsis, vol. iii, p. 434ff. It thus happened that in one or more of these places there were games celebrated every year, to which no small part of the inhabitants of Greece were attracted. Though the apostle probably had particular reference to the Isthmian games celebrated in the vicinity of Corinth, yet his illustration is applicable to them all; for in all the exercises were nearly the same. They consisted chiefly in leaping, running, throwing the discus or quoit, boxing, wrestling, and were expressed in the following line:
, , , , Alua, podokeien, diskon, akonta, talen
, Leaping, running, throwing the quoit, darting, wrestling. Connected with these were also, sometimes, other exercises, as races of chariots, horses, etc. The apostle refers to but two of these exercises in his illustration.
They which run – This was one of the principal exercises at the games. Fleetness or swiftness was regarded as an extraordinary virtue; and great pains were taken in order to excel in this. Indeed they regarded it so highly that those who prepared themselves for it thought it worth while to use means to burn their spleen, because it was believed to be a hinderance to them, and to retard them in the race. Rob. Cal. Homer tells us that swiftness was one of the most excellent endowments with which a man can be blessed.
No greater honor eer has been attaind,
Than what strong hands or nimble feet have gaind.
One reason why this was deemed so valuable an attainment among the Greeks, was, that it suited people eminently for war as it was then conducted. It enabled them to make a sudden and unexpected onset, or a rapid retreat. Hence, the character which Homer constantly gives of Achilles is that he was swift of foot. And thus David, in his poetical lamentations over Saul and Jonathan, takes special notice of this qualification of theirs, as preparing them for war.
They were swifter than eagles,
Stronger than lions. 2Sa 1:23.
For these races they prepared themselves by a long course of previous discipline and exercise; and nothing was left undone that might contribute to secure the victory.
In a race – ( en stadio). In the stadium. The stadium, or running ground, or place in which the boxers contended, and where races were run. At Olympia the stadium was a causeway 604 feet in length, and of proportionable width. Herod. lib. 2. c. 149. It was surrounded by a terrace, and by the seats of the judges of the games. At one end was fixed the boundary or goal to which they ran.
Run all – All run who have entered the lists. Usually there were many racers who contended for the prize.
But one receiveth the prize – The victor, and he alone. The prize which was conferred was a wreath of olive at the Olympic games; a wreath of apple at Delphi; of pine at the Isthmian; and of parsley at the Nemean games – Addison. Whatever the prize was, it was conferred on the successful champion on the last day of the games, and with great solemnity, pomp, congratulation, and rejoicing, Everyone thronged to see and congratulate them; their relations, friends, and countrymen, shedding tears of tenderness and joy, lifted them on their shoulders to show them to the crowd, and held them up to the applauses of the whole assembly, who strewed handfuls of flowers over them. Anachar. iii, 448. Nay, at their return home, they rode in a triumphal chariot; the walls of the city were broken down to give them entrance; and in many cities a subsistence was given them out of the public treasury, and they were exempted from taxes. Cicero says that a victory at the Olympic games was not much less honorable than a triumph at Rome: see Anachar. iii, 469, and Rob. Cal. art. Race. When Paul says that the one receives the prize, he does not mean to say that there will be the same small proportion among those who shall enter into heaven, and among Christians. But his idea is, that as they make an effort to obtain the prize, so should we; as many who strive for it then lose it, it is possible that we may; and that therefore we should strive for the crown, and make an effort for it, as if but one out of many could obtain it. This, he says, was the course which he pursued; and it shows, in a most striking manner, the fact that an effort may be made, and should be made to enter into heaven.
So run, that ye may obtain – So run in the Christian race, that you may obtain the prize of glory, the crown incorruptible. So live; so deny yourselves; so make constant exertion, that you may not fail of that prize, the crown of glory, which awaits the righteous in heaven; compare Heb 12:1. Christians may do this when:
- They give themselves wholly to God, and make this the grand business of life;
- When they lay aside every weight Heb 12:1; and renounce all sin and all improper attachments;
- When they do not allow themselves to be diverted from the object, but keep the goal constantly in view;
- When they do not flag, or grow weary in their course;
- When they deny themselves; and,
- When they keep their eye fully fixed on Christ Heb 12:2 as their example and their strength, and on heaven as the end of their race, and on the crown of glory as their reward.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
1Co 9:24
They which run in a race, run all, hut one receiveth the prize.
The Greek athletic festivals and their lessons
1. Of these the most famous was that held every fifth year at Olympia in the west of Peloponnese. Very famous and ancient also was the Isthmian festival held every two years at the Isthmus, about eight miles from, and in full view of, the city of Corinth. Similar festivals were held at Nemea and Delphi. But in these the athletic element was less conspicuous. All these were instituted before the dawn of history. Other festivals, in imitation of them, were held in Pauls day in many cities of Asia, e.g., at Tarsus, and notably at Antioch in Syria.
2. All athletes, i.e., competitors for prizes, had ten months training, under the direction of appointed teachers and under various restrictions of diet. At the beginning of the festival they were required to prove to the judges that they were of pure Greek blood, had not forfeited by misconduct the right of citizenship, and had undergone the necessary training. Then began the various contests, in an appointed order. Of these, the oldest and most famous was the footrace. Others were wrestling, boxing, chariot and horse racing. The prize was a wreath (or crown) of olive at Olympia, and of pine leaves (at one time of olive) at the Isthmus. The giving of the prizes was followed by processions and sacrifices, and by a public banquet to the conquerors. The whole festival at Olympia lasted five days.
3. The importance of these athletic festivals in the eyes of the ancient Greeks it is difficult to appreciate now. They were the great family gatherings of the nation, held under the auspices, and under the shadow of the temples, of their gods. The laws regulating them were held as binding by the various independent states of Greece. The month in which they were held was called the sacred month, and was solemnly announced. And all war between Greek states ceased, under pain of the displeasure of their gods, while the festival lasted. The festivals were attended by immense crowds from all the Greek states, and from even the most distant colonies. The various states sent embassies, and vied with each other in the splendour of them and of the gifts they brought. The greatest cities thought themselves honoured by the victory of a citizen. The victor was received home with a triumphal procession, entered the city by a new opening broken for him through the walls, was taken in a chariot to the temple of its guardian deity, and welcomed with songs. In some cases a reward in money was given, and release from taxation. In honour of the successful athlete poems were written; of which we have specimens in the poems of Pindar. A statue of the victor was permitted to be placed, and in many cases was placed, by townsmen or friends, in the sacred grove of the presiding deity. An avenue of these statues, shadowed by an avenue of pine-trees, leading up to the temple of Poseidon, which stood within two hundred yards of the racecourse at the Isthmus of Corinth, is mentioned by Pausanias (bk. 2:1, 7). Close by this temple with its avenue of statues Paul probably passed on his way from Athens to Corinth. The Olympic festival, which survived the longest, was abolished in A.D. 394, four years after the public suppression of paganism in the Roman Empire. The Greek athletic festivals must be carefully distinguished from the bloody Roman gladiatorial combats. That these athletic festivals permeated and moulded the thought both of classic writers and of the apostle to the Gentiles, we have abundant proof. Eternal life is to be obtained only by contest and victory (Php 3:14; 1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 2:5; 2Ti 4:7 f; cf. Luk 13:24; Heb 12:1; Jam 1:12; 1Pe 5:4; Rev 2:10; Rev 3:11. The Christian life is both a preparation for conflict (verse 25; 2Ti 2:5), a race (verse 24; Php 3:12; Act 20:24; 2Ti 4:7); a boxing (verse 27); and a wrestling (Eph 6:12), Pauls converts will be his crown in the great day (1Th 2:19; Php 4:1). And, just as the athlete, victorious but not yet crowned, lay down to rest on the evening after conflict, waiting for the glories of the morrow, so Paul (2Ti 4:7 f). This metaphor–
I. Presents a needful complement of Pauls doctrine of justification by grace and through faith. Though eternal life is altogether a free gift of God, it is given only to those who strive for it with all their powers. Therefore we must ever ask, not only whether an action open to us is lawful, but whether it will increase or lessen our spiritual strength. Just so, an athlete would forego many things otherwise harmless, and some not even forbidden by the laws for athletes, simply because he was striving for a prize.
II. Receives in turn its needful complement in the doctrine of the holy spirit. Had we to contend for life in our own strength, we might be doubtful of the result, as was many a resolute athlete on the morning of the contest. But in us is the might of God, crushing (Rom 16:20; 1Jn 4:4) our adversary under our feet, and carrying us (1Ki 18:46) forward to the goal. Therefore, day by day we go down into the arena, to fight with foes infinitely stronger than we, knowing that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. Conclusion: That the crowded Isthmian festival was held each alternate year at the very gates of Corinth and almost under the shadow of its Acropolis, must have given to the metaphor of verse 24 special force in the minds of the Corinthians. And, possibly, Paul was himself present at a festival during (Act 18:11) his eighteen months sojourn at Corinth, using perhaps the opportunity to summon the assembled strangers to a nobler contest. (Prof. Beet.)
The Christian race
In a race generally there are multitudes to compete, but out of those multitudes bow few win! The same fact in the Christian race can be accounted for on two grounds:–
I. The lack of earnestness. Consider this in–
1. Its sources.
(1) Lack of knowledge, or confusion of thought. Because of such passages as Rom 6:23; Tit 3:5-7; Joh 3:16, &c., some do not see what there is for the believer to strive after. As though merely being a child were enough; as though it were not possible for a father to give his children special marks of his love. How pleased father will be when he sees how much we have done. Are not children, when speaking in this way, really labouring for just the kind of prize held out here? the expressed approbation (Mat 25:21) of the righteous judge (2Ti 4:8).
(2) Lack of appreciation. All who see the nature of this gracious reward do not also see its great value. Besides, how dim and distant! Like Esaus despised birthright, how intangible the whole promise!
2. In its results. Those who have never succeeded in grasping this prize with their hearts, naturally never do so with their hands. Such halfhearted competitors have lost the race even before they begin. Never starting, how are they to arrive? In such an undertaking as this, would it not be more than a miracle if they did?
II. Lack of suitable training. Consider–
1. What training Signifies. Living by rule. To be temperate (verse 25) is to rule oneself. It is to keep under the body, &c. (verse 27). It is to deny ourselves everything that would in any way impede us in running our race (Heb 12:1). Hence we see–
2. What the lack of it does. It secures failure.
(1) On account of the greatness of the enterprise. What we are striving for is nothing less than the mastery. In such an enterprise, if we do not rule our desires, our desires will rule us–and ruin us too. In such a work we not only need no self-inflicted hindrance, we need all the help we can get.
(2) On account of the insufficiency of our strength. Even those who are strong, if out of condition, are unequal to their task. Much more we, who are weak.
Conclusion: To stir us up, consider in the case of failure
1. How much is lost. How can we hope that we are true Christians if we do not even study to show ourselves approved unto God? There are those who have just enough religion to make them miserable.
2. How little is gained, viz., too little to be described. The man who misses the approbation of Christ obtains no other in its stead, not even his own. How many centuries have passed since the question of Mat 16:26 was first asked? How much nearer are we, even now, to finding a reply? (W. S. Lewis, M. A.)
The Christian athlete
I. His exercises. The Christian life may be compared to–
1. A race.
2. A combat.
II. The conditions of success in these exercises.
1. Personal mastery.
2. Moderation.
3. Distinctness of aim.
4. Concentration of purpose.
5. Activity.
6. Courage.
7. Perseverance.
III. The reward of success.
1. Its intrinsic value.
2. Its permanence.
Application: This reward should make us–
1. Burn with ambition.
2. Watchful
3. Enduring and contented. (W. Stevens.)
The spiritual racer
I. The race. Christian life is a race. It is no haphazard thing; it is marked off and measured; it has a starting-point and a goal.
1. The race begins at the Cross. The Christian, at his conversion, enters the racecourse, and his name is recorded and published.
2. The race ends at death. The most hopeful beginning may have a hopeless ending. A good start is of immense value; but it is not he that maketh a fine start, but he that endureth unto the end, that shalt be saved. It does not take very long for the racer to lose all the advantage of a good start: and a life, though nobly run, if it fail in the home stretches, will be sure to miss the crown.
II. The racers are all who have forsaken sin, accepted Christ, and publicly entered the path of obedience. The Bible does not speak of invisible racers, but of those who are compassed about by a great cloud of witnesses. Those Grecian athletes were in training long before the day of conflict came. But the Christians training begins with the race. He trains in the race, and thus gains agility and skill through the turmoil of the contest. The racers–
1. Strip for the race. Lay aside every weight. Nothing that hinders must be left on.
2. Make progress. Run. Think how ridiculous a lounger would have appeared, hanging around the ancient stadium, professing to be a racer, but never getting out of sight of the starting-point. Dash into the race, or leave the ground.
3. Persevere. A race. Not a little jet of speed, because one feels like it, or down street for fun. Christianity demands not only prompt action, but continuity of effort. If religion were only a thing of frames and feelings, some would soon fly to the goal, especially if the feeling held out.
4. Concentrate effort. Run a race. Christianity harmonises all mans powers, and, with a noble obliviousness to surrounding attractions, hurls the whole man into the race.
5. Are watchful. So run that ye may obtain. Christian activity is not a blind, haphazard thing. We are to keep our eyes about us, lest we stumble.
III. The reward. In the stadium, the prize, like all earthly honours, was perishable. But the Christian prize is an incorruptible crown. Proud moment, that, when the successful racer had the chaplet placed upon his brow, amid the applause of thousands. Grander moment for the Christian athlete, when amid the shouts of rejoicing myriads, the pierced hands of Jesus place upon his head the crown of glory, with the blessed words of approval: Well done, &c. (T. Kelly.)
The great race
I. The duty enjoined–running. The word implies–immediate attention–strong exertion. Not that easy, quiet religion which takes salvation as a matter of course, and regards condemnation as out of date. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, &c.
II. The manner of discharging this duty.
1. Previous preparation.
(1) Moderation.
(2) The removal of every weight.
(3) Once more: we should take care in what manner.
(4) Being shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace.
2. An actual exercise. Running implies–
(1) Going forward.
(2) In a direct line.
(3) Without halting.
(4) Without looking back.
(5) Lawfully (2Ti 2:5), i.e.,
(a) In dependence on Christ–
(b) With a view to the glory of Christ.
3. Patient endurance. Blessed are they which endure to the end, for they shall be saved.
III. The object at which we are to aim. Everlasting life–to be found in Christ–to know Christ, whom to know is everlasting life. (Bishop Montagu Villiers.)
The great race
I. The prize competed for. An object in life is necessary to every one. Without it our energies are like the shafts and wheels of a machine, when there is no steam in the boiler. Put before a man the prospect of a fortune, and how cheerfully will he devote himself to his business. An objectless man can only be indolent and wretched. How these conditions remain when we rise to the higher ranges of life. There is an object in religion. Nowhere is a higher incentive needed or furnished.
1. This is not happiness. There are many whose creed is–Be good that you may be happy. But the principle is wrong. It is not for that a good man runs. He knows that happiness is like a little bird which will sit on your shoulder and sing for you all day, if you do not turn to look at it. But the moment you begin to look at it, it takes its flight. Hugo says truly–Being in possession of the false aim in life, happiness, we forget the true aim, duty!
2. It is not heaven. That is, undoubtedly, a home of the soul. But Christ never urged men to believe in Him in order that they might get it. The assurance of it is a very different thing from making it the reason of a good life. If the only reason one has for serving God is that he may receive his pitiful denarius at the end of the day, he will find that he has been running a race for a corruptible, not an incorruptible end. His heaven will be no heaven, since his heart will still be full of that self-seeking in whose train follows a hell of discontent and misery. Out of the heart the love of Christ must thrust the selfishness which makes not only present self-good, but eternal self-good, the aim of religion.
3. The thing for which we run is a kingdom of heaven which is within us–a Christlike character. The good man runs the race that he may be perfect and entire in goodness, lacking nothing. Heaven will at last fall to his lot, but to get it is not his ambition. He aims at a life made holy by the pursuit of righteousness.
II. Certain conditions accepted.
1. The back must resolutely be turned on wrongdoing. No one can lawfully enter on the contest for holiness with any love of sin in the heart. The merchant who conducts his business upon dishonest principles, cannot at the same time be a disciple. He is not running lawfully, and will never win the prize.
2. A strong faith in Christ who takes away the sin of which we have repented. Many hold that for a good life one has only to recognise the voice of conscience, and to follow its directions. But let us not be deceived. History can tell us something of the fruits of this so-called independent morality. The teaching of Socrates and Plato wrought no radical reformation in Athenian morals. The precepts of Seneca could not save his pupil Nero from the depths of brutality and shame. The moral philosophy of Hume culminated in the French Revolution. It is impossible to rise above the low levels of a sinful self without a high faith in Him who is the power of God unto salvation. Argument is not needed to enforce this. It is prescribed by the eternal Judge.
3. Open confession of our fidelity to. Christ. We cannot, lawfully, run the race in secret. Here is the plain word of the Master. He requires us to enter into open fellowship with His cause on the earth.
4. Great and continued effort. It is not an easy thing to do right. In this contest, every energy of the soul is called into play. Amateur Christianity may do for show, but it tells for nothing in the great sum of life. This is the vice of our age. We are enthusiastic about everything but religion. (H. R. Harris.)
The race of life
1. The style of Paul is peculiar in its directness. We may hesitate to illustrate religious truth by sports as now conducted. The Greek games, however, were not of a mercenary character. No entrance fee was demanded, no betting, and no disreputable people were allowed.
2. Physical culture was more esteemed than now. We often have well-trained minds in thin, sapless bodies. Our schoolrooms rob vitality. In Greece the instruction was given outdoors. Manly struggles ennobled the physical nature.
3. Picture to yourselves the temple of Neptune, the stadium, and the circling seats where sat the beauty and the wealth of Greece, a great cloud of witnesses applauding the efforts of the racers. Here is the starting-post and there the goal, with a tripod holding a garland of pine. Now the judge is seated, and the herald cries out that no unclean, no criminal or foreigner, shall draw near. The signal is given and the race begins.
4. We are all runners. Life is earnest. It may be a triumph or a disastrous failure. What is required:–
I. Temperance. This word is belittled if referred to mere abstinence from drink. It means self-mastery. The whole nature must be under constraint and restraint, lest we slip and fall.
II. Watchfulness. Temptations creep upon us stealthily. Wealth, pleasure, ambition, and cupidity have their golden apples. Unless we keep our eye on the goal we are lost.
III. The laying aside of every weight. The Pilgrim lost his load at the Cross. We must drop there everything which hinders. Men of this world make every sacrifice to gain money or power. Politicians run with zeal. They do it for a corruptible crown. (D. M. Reeves, D. D.)
Earnest counsels on the race of life
I. Trifle not–the business is earnest.
II. Delay not–the opportunity is short.
III. Err not–the path is narrow.
IV. Divide not your attention–the work is difficult.
V. Relax not your efforts–he only that endureth shall be saved.
VI. Faint not–the prize is glorious. (J. Lyth, D. D.)
The Christian race
You are called, every one of you, for the kingdom of God; but it depends upon yourself whether you will work this salvation out. Life is a race, in which many will run but will not gain a prize. What is the meaning of the simile?
I. Run with all your speed. There are some who labour from morning to night to win the treasures of this life, who are slothful in the work of saving their souls. And if they could gain the whole world and lose their own souls, what is the profit? Run with all your speed, for the way is long to the kingdom of God. The wise men from the East, when they saw the star, followed it through all the dangers and difficulties of a long journey. The attaining of eternal life, i.e., so to live that eternal life may be in us here, is the greatest work that we can do. The prodigal who departed from his fathers house into a far country, has to go back step by step as far as he departed. Surely this work is not the work of a day but of a life; and life is short for so great a work, and life is fleeting and uncertain. We cannot promise ourselves to-morrow; tomorrow is Gods, to-day is ours.
II. Run with all your strength. If you see a man set about doing a task, you can see by the way he goes about it whether his heart is in it or not. Men who decide to get rich or to make a name will overcome every obstacle. But such men are often cowardly and slack in the work of their salvation. And yet we are warned that no man can serve two masters. There must be no half-heartedness in the work of our salvation, and there can be no neutrality. He who is not for Me is against Me.
III. With self-denial and temperance. Our Lord has said, If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, &c. The thing most necessary to you, you must cast off, if it cause you to sin. Remember that out of the seven deadly sins four are spiritual–pride, jealousy, anger, and strife. Such sins you must cast out. St. Paul says, I keep under my body, &c. And if he had need to say that, how much need we? Venial sins are still important sins, and grow into great sins. And therefore, as St. Paul says here, Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Men who desire to exhibit great feats of endurance have to mortify and control themselves in everything; and we cannot live with a little hardness for our eternal reward.
IV. Run with all your hearts. There are two failures in this race–the one is to have too much hope in salvation. Some are as presumptuous as if they had received a revelation that they must be saved. The other is in not having confident hope. We must have confidence in God, and in experience. St. Paul says, I know whom I have believed, &c. If a man is running for his life, as long as he has a hope of escape he will continue running; but the moment he despairs he slackens his efforts. A man who is swimming for his life will strike out strongly if he can hope, but the instant he despairs he sinks. So with those who lose their confidence in God, who are overcome by servile fear. Why are we to trust in God? Because–
1. God is Love.
2. You have His promises. He has promised you that if you believe in Him He will give you life eternal, What more do you need?
Conclusion:
1. Take care you are in the right way. St. Augustine said, You are making great strides, indeed, but you are out of the right way. If we are out of the way, every step we take we are going from the kingdom. Our Lord says, I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.
2. Having begun to run, do not let your heart do what Lots wife did. Do not look back on the world which you have given up. (Cardinal Manning.)
The Christian race
I. Its nature–So run. It implies–
1. Piety towards God. The love of God must be the all-constraining principle, the Spirit of God the Guide, and the Word of God the constant companion of every candidate.
2. Equity towards all their fellow-creatures. They will, by Gods grace, endeavour to render to all their dues, and it will be their daily habit to do unto others as they would others should do unto them.
3. Sobriety as to ourselves. It is not enough to abstain from drunkenness, &c., but the candidates Christian course must be temperate in all things, even in lawful matters, keeping under his body, and bringing it into subjection. He is to use this world as not abusing it, and to let his moderation be known unto all men, because the Lord is at hand.
II. The manner. So run.
1. Lawfully.
2. With the understanding. We must, ere the resolution be formed, sit down and count the cost.
3. Looking forward to Jesus the Author and Finisher of faith.
4. Penitently–i.e., godly sorrow for and hatred to sin.
5. Prayerfully.
6. Cheerfully.
7. Believingly (Heb 11:1).
8. Continually. The Christian, unlike the Olympic race, which was celebrated but once in five years, is to be run every day of our lives.
9. Perseveringly. Nothing honourable and desirable is obtained, even in this world, without this.
III. The resign. That ye may obtain. (T. Sedger, M. A.)
The Christian race
I. The christian life is compared to a race. There was a peculiar propriety in the selection of such an image when writing to a people who held the Isthmian games in such reverence, that no national calamity was ever known to hinder their performance. The city was sacked on one occasion, but the games went on. Public events were dated from the time of their celebration. The design of the apostle was to show that the advantage was always on the side of him who, instead of the pine leaves, was running for the crown of life.
1. There were points where the comparison held. The racer must keep to the rules of the course, and confine himself within the limits of the stadium. Speed will stand him in no stead without this: and though he may reach the goal, he will not receive the prize. And it is so with the Christian racer. He is not at liberty to choose his ground, to invent a short road, or to seek an easy road there; he must keep in the way of Gods commandments. The law of the Lord is perfect, and it is equally dishonoured, whether we multiply religious works and let these stand in lieu of the heart, or whether, under the plea of cultivating the heart, we neglect some plainly commanded duties. One man finds it easier to pray for an hour than to control his temper; another to cultivate a highly emotional religion than to part with his money. The gospel crown must be won in the gospel way.
2. There are points in which the parallel fails.
(1) In an earthly race, however many may start, only one can win, whereas in the Christian race all may win. He who is faithful over a little shall be as certainly rewarded as he who is faithful over much; each shall receive a crown as large as he can wear.
(2) In earthly competitions there must be jealousy and strife; the gain of one competitor is the loss of another, and each one feels it is his interest as far as he lawfully may, to keep all rivals back. But the Christian racer, instead of hindering a weak brother, would help him; he rejoices in the feeling that he has so many companions, and would carry all the world along with him if he could.
II. What is implied in the comparison.
1. The necessity of vigour, singleness of heart, steadiness of purpose, and determination; the concentration on that work in which we are engaged, of all effort and all hope. Thus the text is a protest against all half-heartedness, all matter-of-course religions, all views of salvation which make it a thing to be done by and by. If you are losers in this race, you lose everything.
2. Deliberation; carefulness, frequent looking both to ourselves and to our way, to see that we are running right. Many have run well who have not run rightly. They took their eye off Christ, and all went wrong with them; they missed the prize through having missed the way.
3. Habitual self-denial (verse 25). The restrictions are not meant to be unnatural, or such as to make life a burden, but mere restraints upon what would be a hurtful excess. We are to be temperate in all things–in our enjoyments, our griefs, our worldly ambitions, our most lawful and permitted affections.
4. The absolute necessity of holding on our way unwearied to the end. There is no prize for him who stops half way. If the disciple after taking up his cross grow weary in well doing; if he put his hand to the plough and look back, both labour and crown are lost. Vigour and alacrity in youth, noble self-sacrifice in manhood; the longest and the best running, all will be unavailing, if, like the Galatians, we suffer any influence to drive us back afterwards.
III. The encouragements.
1. Remember all eyes are upon you. The eyes of God are upon you; the eyes of Christ are upon you, rejoicing at each onward and victorious step, and in sorrow rather than in auger turning to look upon you when the voice of the cock-crowing proclaims a shameful fall; the eyes of the holy angels are upon you, watching their opportunities to strengthen you with invisible aids; and the eyes of the malignant powers of darkness are upon you, marking your steps to make you fall; the eyes of glorified spirits are upon you (Heb 12:1).
2. Think of the priceless worth of the prize for which we run. (D. Moore, M. A.)
The Christian life a race
I. The christian life is a race. Rapidity, energy, &c., required (Luk 13:24; Col 1:29; 1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 4:7; see Gr., and cf. Luk 22:44). Running often used in illustration of Christian course (Gal 2:2; Php 2:16; Php 3:3; Heb 12:1; and see Son 1:4, and Psa 119:32). Some are walking, crawling, loitering, &c. (1Co 16:13). Is not heaven worth running for? (Mat 11:12). Strive; for many will seek (only) and fail (Luk 13:1-35.).
II. The great difference between the figure and reality. There one receives the prize; here all may, though some come much behind others. Happy those with a finished course, a crown won! Some are lame, halt, feeble, slow, &c. Nevertheless, if in Christ, who is the way, they will yet win, and many first will be last, and last first.
III. How? Mark how these Greeks were trained.
1. What care, pains, self-denial, self-restraint in all things, hours, food, rest, &c. (Rom 8:13). The Corinthians self-indulgent, which St. Paul rebukes (cf. 1Pe 2:11; 1Pe 5:8; and especially 2Ti 2:3-5)
.
2. They were to strive lawfully. So we are under the law to Christ (v. 21).
IV. The prize. Great disparity between the reality and the figure. Astonishing what men will undergo to obtain–what? a little fame, gold, power, or authority. All the prizes of this world like those in Greece, which were wreaths, no sooner clutched than gone. But the Christian prize how glorious. A crown of righteousness (2Ti 4:8); of life (Rev 2:10; Jam 1:12); of glory (1Pe 5:4; cf. Rev 4:4; Rev 4:10; Rev 5:10; Rev 1:6; Rev 7:9). Hold fast that thou hast, &e. What hast thou?–hast thou Christ? Hold Him fast and run. Soon the race will be over (2Ti 4:7-8). Conclusion: Rev 3:21; Rev 2:10. (W. E. Light, M. A.)
The heavenly race
1. There are few things upon record in which the exertion was so violent, and yet so short, as a Greek race. And therefore it stands at least four times in St. Pauls epistles, as the emblem of the brevity and the struggle of the Christian life.
2. We can conceive how the believers career will look when he casts his eye back upon it from eternity. First there came a Divine influence–then a holy ambition–then an earnest determination–then all the happy self-discipline–then the race–severe even unto death: he rushed, passed by, and all is over–and then the rest, and the joy.
3. In that course all of you are occupying now your positions. Your stadium is the little span of your present existence–the spectators are the holy angels, the heralds are the ministers who call you to the contest, and animate you by the way–the umpire is the Lord Jesus, and the crown is life eternal.
4. Already some have run their course, and are not uninterested in those who are filling, after them, the same exciting scene. Others are just offering themselves; while many are midway. But alas I some have never set out, and others who did run well–but, bewitched with the worlds sorcery, they have ceased to run. We shall only be fulfilling our duty, as the heralds, if we set before you–
I. Some of the conditions of the course upon which your admission and your subsequent victory must depend.
1. In those Isthmian games none could join who were not freemen of unspotted character. As soon as the combatants appeared, the crier, having commanded silence, laid his hand on the head of each in succession, demanding of all the assembly, Is there any one here who can accuse this man of being a slave, or of being guilty of any moral wrongs of life? If any stain was found upon his character, he was excluded; but if otherwise, then he was led to the altar of Jupiter, there to make solemn oath that he would conform to all the regulations, and so he proceeded to the brunt.
2. And now what if God should make proclamation that none should be candidates for the crown of life but those who, free from sin, are obedient to His laws? Could you pass the scrutiny? The very scrutiny of which St. Paul speaks in verse 27, castaway meaning not approved in the scrutiny. If there be any secret love of sin, men may reckon you in the number of candidates, but God does not!
II. But suppose that the examination has shown you one who, believing in Christ, is emancipated from sin, and obedient to Gods law. Follow me to the stripping room (Heb 12:1). There are some who are sadly weighted with many things, Hoarding money–personal vanity–worldly amusements–society where God is not–self-indulgence. What are these things but clogs? You cannot run with those things on. Will you cumber your energies when you need to stretch them to the uttermost? In the natural course, men are accurate to the ounce–and will you trifle with those fearful odds? You may set out; but if your heart is not in it, it will only be soon to creep, then to crawl, then to stop, then to lie down, then to go to sleep, and then to die! Go into the stripping room at once, undress yourself, else do not call yourself a runner.
III. But now, entered on the race, Press toward the mark for the prize.
1. The mark was a certain line drawn along tile course, to show the runners exactly where they were to run–so that if you would run lawfully, take care not only that you are going to the right object, but that you are pursuing that object along the right line. The Christians mark, in general words, is the Scriptural method of salvation. This mark stretches itself out all along. Press to it. Every day consult your Bible to find your mark.
2. At the time when St. Paul was writing there was a particular race in which every runner carried a torch; and he won the race who came in first, bringing with him his torch still alight. Some, running very fast, put out their torch; others, running slowly, kept their torch in, but arrived too late. Beware lest a false excitement put out the flame of love! and yet beware, equally, lest over-caution hinder too long! but let zeal and love, patience and speed, go hand in hand, with equal pace–for so heaven is won!
IV. And now I see you in the midst of your career. Every race quickens as it proceeds; and the competition grows greater. You must stretch to the point. The secret of every race, perhaps, is fixedness of eye. Therefore the apostle has given us two directions.
1. Forget the things which are behind–counting our own past attainment nothing.
2. Look unto Jesus. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)
The heavenly race
I. What are we to run for?
1. Some think they must be religious in order to be respectable. Verily, if this be what you seek after, you shall get it; for the Pharisees who sought the praise of men had their reward. But is it worth the drudgery?
2. Others go a little farther and desire to be considered saints. We have a considerable admixture of persons in our churches who only come for the mere sake of obtaining a religious status. They have their reward, and they shall never have any but what they obtain here.
3. Another set take up with religious life for what they can get by it. I have known tradespeople attend church for the mere sake of getting custom. Loaves and fishes drew some of Christs followers, and they are very attracting baits, even to this day. They have their reward; but at what a price they buy it!
4. Another class take up with religion for the sake of quieting their conscience; and it is astonishing how little of religion will sometimes do that. I have known a man who was drunk in the week, and who got his money dishonestly, and yet he always had an easy conscience by going to church on Sunday.
5. If you run for anything else than salvation, should you win, what you have won is not worth the running for.
II. The rules of the race.
1. Some never will obtain the prize, because they are not even entered. These will tell you, We make no profession. It is quite as well, perhaps, that you do not; because it is better to make no profession at all than to be hypocrites. Yet it is strange that men should be so ready to confess this. People are not so fast about telling their faults: and yet you hear people confess the greatest fault. God has made them, and yet they wont serve Him; Christ hath come into the world to save them, and yet they will not regard Him.
2. There is another class whose names are down, but they never started right. A bad start is a sad thing. There are some who on a sudden leap into religion. They get it quickly, and they keep it for a time, and at last they lose it because they did not get their religion the right way. They have heard that before a man can be saved, it is necessary to feel the weight of sin, make a confession of it, renounce all hope in his own works, and look to Jesus alone. But they look upon all these things as unpleasant preliminaries and therefore, before they have attended to repentance, &c., they make a profession of religion. This is just setting up in business without a stock-in-trade, and there must be a failure.
3. Some cannot win because they carry too much weight. How hardly shall a rich man enter into the kingdom of heaven! Carry the weight of this worlds cares about you, and it will be as much as you can do to stand upright under them, but as to running a race with such burdens, it is just impossible.
4. We have known people who stopped on their way to kick their fellows. Such things sometimes occur in a race. The horse, instead of speeding onwards to the mark, is of an angry disposition, and sets about kicking those that are running beside him–there is not much probability of his coming in first. Now they that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. There is one, however, who never gets it, and that is the man who always attends to his fellow-creatures instead of himself. It is a mysterious thing that I never yet saw a man with a hoe on his shoulder, going to hoe his neighbours garden; but every day I meet with persons who are attending to other peoples character. They have so few virtues of their own that they do not like anybody else to have any.
5. Those will not win the race who, although they seem to start very fair, very soon loiter. At the first starting they fly away as if they had wings to their heels; but a little further on it is with difficulty that with whip and spur they are to be kept going at all.
6. Another class start well too, and they run very fast at first, but at last they leap over the rails and go quite out of the course altogether. They are like the dog that returned to his vomit, and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. The last end of that man shall be worse than the first. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Running in the race
I. The necessity of self-denial.
1. Difficulty of winning the crown. If he who makes every exertion is the only winner, what becomes of the sluggish, selfish soul? All roads downward are easy; all roads upward difficult.
2. Greatness of the loss of the crown. Some will be saved–so as by fire (chap. 3.). Scarcely saved, but the reward lost.
II. Its nature.
1. All sin must be laid aside. Progress is impossible so long as one sin is deliberately indulged or one duty wilfully neglected.
2. All weights must be laid aside (Heb 12:1-3). What is lawful in itself may weigh us down. The true runner will sacrifice everything to progress.
III. Its inducement. Throughout the moral universe there runs a law of compensation. Self-denial is but a postponement of pleasure to the future.
1. Sacrifice is reward by self-mastery. To keep the body under implies the reason and conscience enthroned and regnant, and the Spirit of God ruling over all. That is the ideal estate of man.
2. Progress and coronation. To make advance is reward enough to a true disciple; but to get to the goal and get the prize too–that is heaven.
Conclusion:
1. We must run lawfully, i.e., according to the Scripture rules of the race.
2. We must be temperate in all things.
3. We must run perseveringly; pursuing even when faint.
4. We must run hopefully.
5. We must run purposefully–not as a boxer who beats the air, not as one who runs uncertainly–a definite goal and the eye always on it. (Homiletic Monthly.)
Running, the true Christian attitude
Cecil says that some adopt the Indian maxim, that it is better to walk than to run, and better to stand than to walk, and better to sit than to stand, and better to lie than to sit. Such is not the teaching of the gospel. It is a good thing to be walking in the ways of God, but it is better to be running–making real and visible progress, day by day advancing in experience and attainments. David likens the sun to a strong man rejoicing to run a race; not dreading it and shrinking back from it, but delighting in the opportunity of putting forth all his powers. Who so runs, runs well. (The Christian.)
Not all who run win
As victory in the games was the incentive which stimulated the youth of Greece to attain the perfection of physical strength and beauty, so there is laid before us an incentive which is sufficient to carry us forward to perfect moral attainment. The brightest jewel in the incorruptible crown is the joy of having become all God made us to be. But there are men who when opportunity is given them to win true glory turn away to salaries and profits, to meat, drink, and frivolity. The incorruptible crown is held over their head; but so intent are they on the muck-rake, they do not even see it. To those who would win it Paul gives these directions:–
I. Be temperate (verse 25).
1. Contentedly and without a murmur the racer submits to the ten months training without which he may as well not compete. The little indulgences of others he must forego. His chances are gone if in any point he relaxes the discipline. So if the Christian indulges in the pleasures of life as freely as other men, he proves that he has no higher aim than they and can of course win no higher prize.
2. Temperance is complete and continuous self-rule. No spasmodic efforts and partial abstinences will ever bring a man victorious to the goal. One days debauch was enough to undo the result of weeks in the case of the athlete; and one lapse into worldliness undoes what years of self-restraint have won. One indiscretion on the part of the convalescent will undo what the care of months has slowly achieved. One fraud spoils the character for honesty which years of upright living have earned.
II. Be decided. I run, says Paul, not as uncertainly, not as a man who does not know where he is going or has not made up his mind to go there. We have all some kind of idea about what God offers and calls us to. But this idea must be clear if we are to make for it straight. No man can run straight to a mere will-o-the-wisp, or who first means to go to one station and then changes his mind. Paul had made up his mind not to pursue comfort, learning, money, &c., but the kingdom of God. He knew where he was going and to what all his efforts tended. What then do the traces of our past life show?
III. Be in earnest. So fight I, not as one that beateth the air, not as one amusing himself with idle flourishes, but as one who has a real enemy to encounter.
1. How much of mere parade and sham-fighting is there in the Christian army! We seem to be doing everything that a good soldier of Jesus Christ need do save the one thing: we slay no enemy. We are well trained: we could instruct others; we spend much time on exercises which are calculated to make an impression on sin; but where are our slain foes?
2. Even where there is some reality in the contest we may still be beating the air. Many persons who level blows at their sins do not after all strike them. Spiritual energy is put forth; but it is not brought into contact with the sin to be destroyed. Pauls language suggests that the reason may be that there remains in the heart some reluctance quite to kill and put an end to sin. We pray God, for example, to preserve us from the evils of praise or of success; and yet we continue to court them. Therefore our warfare against sin becomes unreal.
3. The result is detrimental. Sin is like something floating in the air or the water: the very effort we make to grasp and crush it displaces it, and it floats mockingly before us untouched. Or it is like an agile antagonist who springs back from our blow, so that the force we have expended merely racks and strains our own sinews and does him no injury. So when we spend much effort in conquering sin and find it as lively as ever, the spirit is strained and hurt. It is less able than before to resist sin, less believing, less hopeful, and scoffs at fresh resolves and endeavours. Finally, Paul tells us that the enemy against which he directed his well-planted blows was his own body. Every mans body is his enemy when, instead of being his servant, it becomes his master. When the body mutinies and refuses to obey the will, it becomes our most dangerous enemy. The word Paul uses is the word used of the most damaging blow one boxer could give another. It was probably by sheer strength of will and by the grace of Christ that Paul subdued his body. Many in all ages have striven to subdue it by fasting, &c., and of these practices we have no right to speak scornfully until we can say that by other means we have reduced the body to its proper position as the servant of the spirit. There is a fair and reasonable degree in which a marl may and ought to cherish his own flesh, but there is also needful a disregard to many of its claims and a hard-hearted obduracy to its complaints. In an age when Spartan simplicity of life is almost Unknown, it is very easy to sow to the flesh almost without knowing it until we find ourselves reaping corruption. (M. Dods, D. D.)
How to win the crown
I. Make up your mind to run. Decision: This must be settled once for all: Put my name down, I will run. St. Paul says, So have I; I therefore so run. Have you?
II. Put yourself in training. Discipline: For even Christ pleased not Himself.
III. Strain every nerve. Earnestness: See them, each one alert, waiting for the signal–then, away, each one with desperate eagerness seeking to cover the course. So run that ye may obtain. Strenuous effort is needed. Look at rowers in a boat-race, or players in a football match. Are we to be put to shame by these?
IV. Aim at the winning-post. Singleness of mind: Straight for the mark! No step can he afford to take outside the line which leads right to it.
V. Hit straight and hard! Reality: It is no sham-fight. He cannot afford to hit wildly, as one beating the air. Our own besetting sin must be found out. We must learn, what the tempter knows so well, where our weak place is. There we must meet the enemy.
VI. Never give in. Persistence: Keep at it to the end. (T. Puddicombe.)
The Christian race
I. How we ought to conduct ourselves in the Christian life, or, to preserve the metaphor, how we ought to run so as to obtain.
1. We ought to make ourselves well acquainted with the nature of the Christian life, with its duties and advantages, its difficulties and its dangers. This knowledge lies at the foundation of all spiritual improvement. The history of Christianity abounds with examples of the dangerous effects of partial and mistaken views of religion. To this source we may trace that system of corruption and superstition which, after the days of the apostles, gradually spread over a great part of the world. To the same source we may trace the overwhelming influence of the papal power, the thunders of excommunication, and the horrors of the Inquisition, the practice of retiring from the world to a life of monastic seclusion, together with many of those wars, persecutions, and massacres, which in the Middle Ages deluged with blood the nations of Europe. A plan of mercy has been devised and executed for the salvation of man. This plan, together with the means by which we become interested in it, has been fully unfolded in the gospel. But if we are ignorant of those means, we cannot possibly avail ourselves of them. Hence the necessity of being acquainted with the Scriptures. They contain a full revelation of the Divine will. In them the path of duty is clearly pointed out, and they unfold the mystery which had been hid for ages, but which was at last made known by Jesus Christ.
2. Having become acquainted with the nature of tile Christian life, we ought also carefully to avoid everything that may obstruct or retard us in our spiritual course. Christians ought to guard against the beginnings of sin, and shun every appearance of evil. They ought to subdue every evil passion, and to mortify every unhallowed lust. Without doing this, it is in vain to think of making progress in religious attainments. Every commandment of the law is enjoined by the same authority, and therefore whoever habitually violates any one of them, may be justly reputed a transgressor of the whole.
3. But Christians ought not merely to abstain from sin, they ought to discharge the duties of the Christian life with patience, with ardour, and with perseverance.
(1) They ought to discharge them with patience. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Patience is opposed to a hasty, fretful, and discontented temper, and consists in a disposition to bear the severest trials without murmuring, and to fulfil the part assigned to us, notwithstanding all the difficulties with which we may have to struggle.
(2) We ought to discharge the duties of the Christian life with ardour. This temper of mind is directly opposite to that lukewarmness, and difference about religion, which the Scriptures so much condemn. Why are men so ready to lay hold of every little excuse to justify their criminal attachment to the enjoyments of the present life, and their neglect of future blessings? It is because they want that ardour which penetrates the heart of the disciples of Christ, and alone can raise them above the enjoyments of the world.
(3) We ought to persevere in well-doing to the end of our days.
II. Some motives to encourage you to comply with the exhortation in the text.
1. Consider, first, that you have many spectators of your conduct. To be approved of by those whose approbation we esteem; to be respected by those among whom we live; to be extolled by the wise and the good, and to obtain a name among such as have distinguished themselves among men; this conveys to the mind a pleasure, to which no man can be insensible.
2. Consider, next, the example of those who have gone before us. The duties to which we are called have already been performed; the difficulties with which we have to struggle have already been surmounted; and the troubles which we feel have already been borne by many of our brethren.
3. Consider, again, that the discharge of our duty is itself attended with pleasure; that the service which God requires of us is the most conducive to our present peace, as well as to our future happiness.
4. Consider, also, that a crown of glory is reserved for the faithful disciple of Christ. It is not a garland made up of flowers and leaves, which soon wither and decay; it is a crown which will flourish, when the most precious gems on earth are dissolved, when the luminaries of heaven are extinguished, and the moon and the stars fade away in their orbs.
5. We have the promise of Divine aid in every difficulty and in every trial. God sendeth no man a warfare on his own charges. When He calls us to duty, He invariably promises to fit us for the discharge of it. (John Ramsay, M. A.)
I. To give you a general account of the race we have to run. In general, the race we have to run comprehends the whole of that duty we owe to God; namely, obedience to His laws, and submission to His providence; doing what He commands, and patiently enduring whatever He is pleased to appoint.
II. To illustrate the fitness and propriety of this similitude, and to show that the Christian life doth very much resemble a race in several important respects. There is a certain limited way in which the Christian must run, emphatically called the way of Gods commandments. This we must keep with the utmost precision, neither turning aside to the right hand, nor to the left. Mere activity will not avail us: we may be very keen and busy, but if we are not busy according to rule, we only lose our labour: God can never accept it as a service done to Him. Again, as running a race is a swift and constant progression, so ought the life of a Christian to be. There are several important respects in which the Christian race doth widely differ from all others.
1. In other races, though many may start, and hold out to the end, yet none but the foremost receiveth the prize: whereas it is quite otherwise in the Christian race. There may be a great disparity among the candidates, but every one who endureth to the end shall be saved.
2. They who run in the Christian race have no envy, no jealousy, among themselves; far less do they molest and hinder one another: on the contrary, the stronger help forward the weaker, and give them all the assistance in their power.
3. They who run in other races have nothing but labour till they obtain the prize; but in the Christian race, the exercise itself carries part of the reward in its bosom: Wisdoms ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
4. A distinguishing property of the Christian race; namely, the certainty of gaining the prize at last.
III. Let me now exhort you so to run that you may at length obtain. And for this end let us consider–
1. That many eyes are upon us.
2. That many have already run this race who are now in possession of tile glorious prize.
3. The unspeakable worth of the prize to be obtained. (R. Walker.)
Human rivalries
I. Nothing is more undeniably true than that rivalries are among the most fruitful sources of evil in every department of life.
1. People are agitated by heated political contests which, for a time, absorb every other interest.
2. Commercial rivalries. The rivalries of the street, the shop, the drawing-room, when and where do we not hear their echoes?
II. How universal is the training that produces these rivalries. It begins in childhood and runs all through life. How many people are there who covet a thing because it is intrinsically good, compared with those who covet it because it is better than somebody elses. The race of competitive display we see on every side. No place is so sacred as to be free from it.
III. Yet competition, a strife to excel, nay, if you choose, downright rivalry, has a just and rightful place in the plan of human life.
1. It is the equitable thing that the best man should win.
2. But the rivalries of our daily life must be exercised under manly and Christian sanctions.
3. But having said this, let us see to it that no eagerness for victory persuades us for one moment to forget that greater than any other triumph is the triumph of inflexible principle.
4. It is just here that we touch what may be called the heroic side of human rivalries.
5. In the eagerness of business competition, in the race for a prize, whether it he social, or commercial, or political, what a rare field for that magnanimity which will not take an undue advantage of another.
6. And even so, nay, still more, when there comes that harder strain upon the nobility of our nature which comes with our successes. How hard to bear meekly and generously the intoxication of success. (H. C. Potter, D. D.)
Try a run
On one occasion I had taken my boys with me to the top of a mountain 2,500 feet high. The youngest of them got very tired on the way back; I thought he would fairly give in, and that I would have to carry him. As we were crossing the valley we came within sight of home, a mile and a half off. I said, Shall we run and see who will be home first? He put his hand in mine, and we started off with this idea: We will be home before the boys. On we went, leaping over streams, jumping over every boulder, on and on across the fields. Disheartened worker, if you get tired and weary in Gods service, try a run, holding your Fathers hand. (J. Carstairs.)
Parabolic use of the occupations of life
Learn—
I. That the lower occupations of our life serve as a parable of the highest. Probably, few parables of Christian life could have been more clearly understood and keenly appreciated than these national pastimes. Pastimes become parables of Christian life. Yes, and if pastimes, why not all the engagements of life? Assuredly Scripture warrants us letting commerce become such a parable. Buy the truth, &c. Do not agriculture, travel, art, music, &c., stand out to thoughtful eyes as indications of the true merchandise, exploration, painting, harmony, of which all that concern merely the material are but shadows. The things that are seen are temporal, &c.
II. That the highest occupations of life challenge and employ all the best qualities of manhood that are employed in the lower. St. Paul clearly recognised certain moral elements of great worth in those ancient games. There was the perseverance of the runner, the self-mastery of the wrestler; arid such perseverance and self-mastery were to be imitated by men in the highest region of human experiences. So it is in the whole realm of occupation. The industry, persistence, frugality, heroism, &c., we may see in any course of human affairs are to be imitated by us in our concern for, and contact with, the sublimest spiritual realities. Why? This leads us to notice–
III. That there is urgent need for the exercise of these qualities, because in the highest concerns of life the difficulties are greater, the rewards richer, and the failure more terrible than in the lower.
1. The race to be run by the soul who would reach the true goal is longer, has more obstacles, requires more strength than that old race.
2. The rewards are higher for they are incorruptible, perfectly pure and unfading.
3. The failure is more deplorable. To miss the goal is nothing in comparison with becoming a moral castaway. (U. R. Thomas.)
Jacobs ladder, or the way to heaven
1. The apostle saith that you must run. It is not an easy nor a short journey, which a dreamer, a snail, or any careless man may perform and take his ease. A man must always run, from the first day he setteth forth till he come to his journeys end.
2. Christ saith, I am the way, and therefore He bids us to follow Him. He began betime, for at twelve years of age He was about His Fathers business (Luk 2:49). He made speed; for He spake and did more good things in three and thirty years, than could be written! (Joh 21:25). He kept the right way; for none could accuse Him of sin, though they watched Him for that purpose. He continued well; for He died like a lamb, and prayed to His Father, and forgave His enemies. Therefore do you–
I. Begin betime. God requiring the firstborn for His offering, and the first-fruits for His service, requireth the first labours of His servants, because the best season to seek God is to seek Him early. And therefore Wisdom saith, They which seek me early shall find me; but to them which defer, she saith, Ye shall seek me, but ye shall not find me. Therefore the Holy Ghost crieth so often, This is the acceptable time; this is the day of salvation; to-day hear His voice. Who is so young that has not received some talent or other? Therefore the fathers were charged to teach their children the same law which they had themselves (Deu 6:7), and Christ rebuked the disciples which forbade the little children to be brought to Him (Mat 19:14), for, should children honour their father, and not honour God? Manna was gathered in the morning, because when the sun arose it did melt away; so virtue must be gathered betime, for if we stay till business and pleasures come upon us, they will melt it faster than we can gather it. Yea, doth not God require morning as well as evening sacrifice? It is an old saying, repentance is never too late; but it is a true saying, repentance is never too soon; for so soon as ever we sin, we had need to ask forgiveness. Therefore linger not with Lot; for if the angel had not snatched him away, he had perished with Sodom for his delay. They were but foolish virgins, which sought not for oil before the bridegroom came. Samuel began to serve God in his minority (1Sa 2:18). Timothy read the Scripture in his childhood (2Ti 3:15); John grew in spirit as he ripened in years (Luk 1:80).
II. Keep the way. As God taught Israel the way to Canaan, sending a fiery pillar before them, which they followed wheresoever it went; so when He ordained a heaven for men, He appointed a way to come unto it, which way he that misseth shall never come to the end. There be many wrong ways, as there be many errors; there is but one right way, as there is but one truth. And, therefore, Jacob did not see many, but one ladder, which reached to heaven. It is not enough to run, but we must know how we run. Therefore, if ye ask, like the scribe, how ye shall come to heaven, the right way to heaven is the Word, which came from heaven, and the way by which the Word doth set thee into heaven is, to do to others as thou wouldst have others do to thee; to exercise good works, and yet believe that Christs works shall save thee; to pray without doubting, and yet be content that thy prayer be not granted; to keep within thy calling, and do nothing by contention; to bring thy will unto Gods will, and suffer for Christ, because He hath suffered for thee; to apply all things to the glory of God, and of everything to make some use. Thus the Word goeth before us like the fiery pillar, and shows us when we are in, and when we are out.
III. Make haste. For this cause Paul saith, Run, which is the swiftest pace of man; as though he should go faster to heaven than to any place else in the world. His meaning is this, that as a man doth watch, and run, and labour, to be rich quickly, so he should hear, and pray, and study, and use all means, to be wise quickly. Therefore St. James says, Be swift to hear (Jam 1:19). We must be swift to pray, to obey, to do good; for he is not cursed only which doeth not the Lords business, but he which doeth it negligently (Jer 48:10). The hound, which runs but for the hare, runs as fast as possibly he can; the hawk, which flieth but for the partridge, flieth as fast as possibly she can; and shall he which runs for heaven creep more slowly than the dial?
IV. Persevere to the end. For if you begin betimes, and go aright, and make haste, and continue not to the end, your reward is with them of whom Peter saith, Their end is worse than their beginning (2Pe 2:20). Therefore the Holy Ghost cries so often, Be faithful even unto death, Be not weary of well-doing, Take heed lest ye fall. For when thou art weary of thy godliness, God doth not count thee good, but weary of goodness. Therefore Paul saith, Pray continually, as though prayer were nothing without continuance. Some came into the vineyard in the morning, and some at noon; but none received any reward but they which stayed till night. To have the ark but a while doeth more hurt to the Philistines than benefit them; so to serve God but a while doth more damage us than help us. Let the dog turn to the vomit, and the swine to the wallow; but thou, like Abraham, hold on thy sacrifice until evening, even the evening of thy life, and a full measure shall be measured unto thee. When one told Socrates, that he would very fain go to Olympus, but he feared that he should not be able to endure the pains; Socrates answered him, I know that thou usest to walk every day between thy meals, which walk continue forward in thy way to Olympus, and within five or six days thou shalt come thither. How easy was this, and yet he saw it not. So is the way to heaven. If men did bend themselves as much to do good as they beat their brains to do evil, they might go to heaven with less trouble than they go to hell. (H. Smith.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 24. They which run in a race run all] It is sufficiently evident that the apostle alludes to the athletic exercises in the games which were celebrated every fifth year on the isthmus, or narrow neck of land, which joins the Peloponnesus, or Morea, to the main land; and were thence termed the Isthmian games. The exercises were running, wrestling, boxing, throwing the discus or quoit, c. to the three first of these the apostle especially alludes.
But one receiveth the prize?] The apostle places the Christian race in contrast to the Isthmian games; in them, only one received the prize, though all ran; in this, if all run, all will receive the prize; therefore he says, So run that ye may obtain. Be as much in earnest to get to heaven as others are to gain their prize; and, although only one of them can win, all of you may obtain.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The apostle presseth all his former discourse by minding them of the difficulty of getting to heaven, and of the obligation that lay upon them to be the first in the spiritual race. To this purpose he fetcheth a similitude from what they saw daily, in the practice of those who frequented those games by which the Romans and Corinthians were wont to divert themselves. They had several, known by the names of the Olympian, Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian games, the latter of which were most proper to Greece. At these games there were several that ran races, either on foot or on horseback: and several that wrestled. The reward was a crown, or garland: and for those that ran, we read that the crown or garland was hung up at the end of the race, and those who, running on foot or on horseback, could first lay hold upon it, and take it down, had it, so as though many ran, yet but one had the crown. So, he saith, it is as to getting to heaven; men might think it was a light matter, but they who would have the crown of glory must run for it, and it was a work which required so much striving and labour, that not many would have that crown: which is the same with that which our Saviour saith, Luk 13:24. For many will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 2Ti 2:5, If a man strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully. Therefore, saith the apostle, make it your business,
so to run, that you may obtain; not only to do things in themselves lawful or good, but which are so clothed with all their circumstances, and in the best manner, for the glory of God, and the good of others.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
24. Know ye notThe Isthmiangames, in which the foot race was a leading one, were of course wellknown, and a subject of patriotic pride to the Corinthians, who livedin the immediate neighborhood. These periodical games were to theGreeks rather a passion than a mere amusement: hence theirsuitableness as an image of Christian earnestness.
in a raceGreek,“in a race course.”
all . . . oneAlthoughwe knew that one alone could be saved, still it Would be well worthour while to run [BENGEL].Even in the Christian race not “all” who enter on the racewin (1Co 10:1-5).
So run, that ye mayobtainsaid parenthetically. These are the words in which theinstructors of the young in the exercise schools (gymnasia)and the spectators on the race course exhorted their pupils tostimulate them to put forth all exertions. The gymnasium was aprominent feature in every Greek city. Every candidate had to take anoath that he had been ten months in training, and that he wouldviolate none of the regulations (2Ti2:5; compare 1Ti 4:7;1Ti 4:8). He lived on a strictself-denying diet, refraining from wine and pleasant foods, andenduring cold and heat and most laborious discipline. The “prize”awarded by the judge or umpire was a chaplet of green leaves; at theIsthmus, those of the indigenous pine, for which parsley leaves weretemporarily substituted (1Co 9:25).The Greek for “obtain” is fully obtain. It isin vain to begin, unless we persevere to the end (Mat 10:22;Mat 24:13; Rev 2:10).The “so” expresses, Run with such perseverance inthe heavenly course, as “all” the runners exhibit in theearthly “race” just spoken of: to the end that yemay attain the prize.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Know ye not that they which run in a race,…. The allusion in this and the following verses is to the Grecian games, which consisted, among other things, of running of races, and of wrestling, combating, and fighting; and which are in this and the context particularly mentioned: and the apostle the rather makes use of these terms, and refers to these things, because they were well known to the Corinthians, and refers to them as well known; for the Isthmian games were performed in their neighbourhood, and doubtless had been seen by many of them, for the Corinthians were presidents of them. The race, or stadium in which they ran, was the space or interval between the place they set out from, and that which they ran unto, and consisted of 125 paces, or 625 feet; it was the space of a furlong, and about the eighth part of a mile: in this they
run all; as many as would, that came around from all parts, striving who should be foremost and get the crown;
but one receives the prize; which was held by the president of the game, or judge of the race, and received by the winner, who was judged to be so by him; and was no other in the Isthmian games, which are most likely to be referred to here, than a crown made of pine tree branches, or leaves, and sometimes of dried parsley s:
so run that ye may obtain. The apostle accommodates or applies the above account to the Christian’s course of life, and exhorts to run in it in like manner as racers do in a race. The “stadium”, or “race” plot in the which the believer runs, is this world, or this present life; he is only a runner now and here, for no sooner is the time of his departure come, but his course or race is finished; and, as his forerunner Christ, sits down in full rest from all his labours as at a table, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and on a throne with Christ: the course he runs includes the exercise of every grace, particularly faith, which is expressed not only by going to Christ, walking in him, but by fleeing and running to him; and the discharge of every duty, signified by a running in the way of God’s commandments; and, in a word, the whole of a Christian profession, and the holding of it fast, and holding on in it unto the end. The act of “running” is a motion forward, a following on to know the Lord, a going from strength to strength, from one degree of grace to another, a pressing forward toward the mark for the prize; and requires spiritual strength from Christ, and a daily renewal of it; is to be performed with readiness, swiftness, and cheerfulness, in opposition to a slowness of heart to believe, and a slothfulness and sluggishness in the business and service of Christ. The manner of running, “so”, that is, as the Grecians ran in their races; they ran “all”, so should all believers run, ministers and churches, churches and the several members thereof, old and young professors; so the church determines for herself, her members, and the daughters of Jerusalem, “we will run after thee”, So 1:4 and they have this encouragement which the others had not, for only one received the prize with the Grecians, but here all, that run well, obtain: again, they ran and strove to be foremost, who should get to the goal first and receive the prize, so should believers be emulous to outdo each other, to go before one another, in faith and holiness; striving in the strength of Christ, who should do most service for him, and bring most glory to him: moreover, as they ran in the way that was marked out for them, not turning to the right hand or the left, so should believers run in the way of salvation, which is Christ; in the way of holiness, faith, and truth; and in the path of duty and ordinances, which are all clearly pointed out unto them: once more, as they while running kept their eye upon the mark, so should believers, while running the race set before them, be continually looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of faith: to say no more, as they kept running till they came to the end of their race, so should the saints; there is no time for stopping or looking back; remember Lot’s wife. The end of running is to obtain the prize, the incorruptible crown of eternal life; not that this is to be procured in a way of merit by running; for the best services of the saints have no merit in them, they are previously due to God, nor can they be profitable to him; and besides, are done by the assistance of his own grace and strength; nor is there any proportion between the best works of men, and this crown of glory, life, and righteousness; yea, salvation, or eternal life, is expressly denied to be of him that willeth, or of him that runneth, and is always represented as this crown is, to be a free gift: the meaning of the expression is, that believers are to run on in their Christian race, that they may, and when they are come to the end of it they shall, as he that came foremost in the race did, stretch forth their hand, lay hold on, and receive the crown which the righteous Judge will give them; and is the true import of the word made use of here, and the sense the same with 1Ti 6:12. “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life”, and denotes that the persevering saint shall enjoy the crown.
s Schmid. Prolegam. in Isthm. Pindar, p. 5, 6. & Not. in Olymp. p. 312. Paschalius de Coronis, l. 6. c. 27. p. 441.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
| The Apostle’s Devotedness. | A. D. 57. |
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. 25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. 26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: 27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
In these verses the apostle hints at the great encouragement he had to act in this manner. He had a glorious prize, an incorruptible crown, in view. Upon this head he compares himself to the racers and combatants in the Isthmian games, an allusion well known to the Corinthians, because they were celebrated in their neighbourhood: “Know you not that those who run in a race run all, but one obtaineth the prize? v. 24. All run at your games, but only one gets the race and wins the crown.” And here,
I. He excites them to their duty: “So run that you may obtain. It is quite otherwise in the Christian race than in your races; only one wins the prize in them. You may all run so as to obtain. You have great encouragement, therefore, to persist constantly, and diligently, and vigorously, in your course. There is room for all to get the prize. You cannot fail if you run well. Yet there should be a noble emulation; you should endeavour to outdo one another. And it is a glorious contest who shall get first to heaven, or have the best rewards in that blessed world. I make it my endeavour to run; so do you, as you see me go before you.” Note, It is the duty of Christians to follow their ministers closely in the chase of eternal glory, and the honour and duty of ministers to lead them in the way.
II. He directs them in their course, by setting more fully to view his own example, still carrying on the allusion. 1. Those that ran in their games were kept to a set diet: “Every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things, v. 23. The fighters and wrestlers in your exercises are kept to strict diet and discipline; nay, they keep themselves to it. They do not indulge themselves, but restrain themselves from the food they eat and so from the liberties they use on other occasions. And should not Christians much more abridge themselves of their liberty, for so glorious an end as winning the race, and obtaining the prize set before them? They used a very spare diet, and course food, and denied themselves much, to prepare for their race and combat; so do I; so should you, after my example. It is hard if, for the heavenly crown, you cannot abstain from heathen sacrifices.” 2. They were not only temperate, but inured themselves to hardships. Those who fought with one another in these exercises prepared themselves by beating the air, as the apostle calls it, or by throwing out their arms, and thereby inuring themselves, beforehand, to deal about their blows in close combat, or brandish them by way of flourish. There is no room for any such exercise in the Christian warfare. Christians are ever in close combat. There enemies make fierce and hearty opposition, and are ever at hand; and for this reason they must lay about them in earnest, and never drop the contest, nor flag and faint in it. They must fight, not as those that beat the air, but must strive against their enemies with all their might. One enemy the apostle here mentions, namely, the body; this must be kept under, beaten black and blue, as the combatants were in these Grecian games, and thereby brought into subjection. By the body we are to understand fleshly appetites and inclinations. These the apostle set himself to curb and conquer, and in this the Corinthians were bound to imitate him. Note, Those who would aright pursue the interests of their souls must beat down their bodies, and keep them under. They must combat hard with fleshly lusts, and not indulge a wanton appetite, and long for heathenish sacrifices, nor eat them, to please their flesh, at the hazard of their brethren’s souls. The body must be made to serve the mind, not suffered to lord over it.
III. The apostle presses this advice on the Corinthians by proper arguments drawn from the same contenders. 1. They take pains, and undergo all those hardships, to obtain a corruptible crown (v. 25), but we an incorruptible. Those who conquered in these games were crowned only with the withering leaves or boughs of trees, of olive, bays, or laurel. But Christians have an incorruptible crown in view, a crown of glory that never fadeth away, an inheritance incorruptible, reserved in heaven for them. And would they yet suffer themselves to be outdone by these racers or wrestlers? Can they use abstinence in diet, exert themselves in racing, expose their bodies to so much hardship in a combat, who have no more in view than the trifling huzzas of a giddy multitude, or a crown of leaves? And shall not Christians, who hope for the approbation of the sovereign Judge, and a crown of glory from his hands, stretch forward in the heavenly race, and exert themselves in beating down their fleshly inclinations, and the strong-holds of sin? 2. The racers in these games run at uncertainty. All run, but one receives the prize, v. 24. Every racer, therefore, is at a great uncertainty whether he shall win it or no. But the Christian racer is at no such uncertainty. Every one may run here so as to obtain; but then he must run within the lines, he must keep to the path of duty prescribed, which, some think, is the meaning of running not as uncertainly, v. 26. He who keeps within the limits prescribed, and keeps on in his race, will never miss his crown, though others may get theirs before him. And would the Grecian racers keep within their bounds, and exert themselves to the very last, when one only could win, and all must be uncertain which that one would be? And shall not Christians be much more exact and vigorous when all are sure of a crown when they come to the end of their race? 3. He sets before himself and them the danger of yielding to fleshly inclinations, and pampering the body and its lusts and appetites: I keep my body under, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away (v. 27), rejected, disapproved, adokimos, one to whom the brabeutes—the judge or umpire of the race, will not decree the crown. The allusion to the games runs through the whole sentence. Note, A preacher of salvation may yet miss it. He may show others the way to heaven, and never get thither himself. To prevent this, Paul took so much pains in subduing and keeping under bodily inclinations, lest by any means he himself, who had preached to others, should yet miss the crown, be disapproved and rejected by his sovereign Judge. A holy fear of himself was necessary to preserve the fidelity of an apostle; and how much more necessary is it to our preservation? Note, Holy fear of ourselves, and not presumptuous confidence, is the best security against apostasy from God, and final rejection by him.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
In a race ( ). Old word from , to place. A stated or fixed distance, 606 3/4 feet, both masculine (Matt 14:24; Luke 24:13) and neuter as here. Most of the Greek cities had race-courses for runners like that at Olympia.
The prize ( ). Late word, in inscriptions and papyri. Latin brabeum. In N. T. only here and Php 3:14. The victor’s prize which only one could receive.
That ye may attain ( ). Final use of and perfective use of – with (effective aorist active subjunctive, grasp and hold). Old verb and used in Php 3:12ff.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
In a race [ ] . Or, better, in a race – course. From isthmi to place or establish. Hence a stated distance; a standard of length. In all other New – Testament passages it is used of a measure of length, and is rendered furlong, representing 606. 75 English feet. From the fact that the race – courses were usually of exactly this length, the word was applied to the race – course itself. The position chosen for the stadium was usually on the side of a hill, which would furnish a natural slope for seats; a corresponding elevation on the opposite side, being formed by a mound of earth, and the seats being supported upon arches. The stadium was oblong in shape, and semicircular at one end; though, after the Roman conquest of Greece, both ends were often made semicircular. A straight wall shut in the area at one end, and here were the entrances and the starting – place for the runners. At the other end was the goal, which, like the starting – point, was marked by a square pillar. Half – way between these was a third pillar. On the first pillar was inscribed excel; on the second, hasten; on the third, turn, since the racers turned round the column to go back to the starting – point. 105 The isthmus of Corinth was the scene of the Isthmian games, one of the four great national festivals of the Greeks. The celebration was a season of great rejoicing and feasting. The contests included horse, foot, and chariot – racing; wrestling, boxing, musical and poetical trials, and later, fights of animals. The victor’s prize was a garland of pine leaves, and his victory was generally celebrated in triumphal odes called epinikia, of which specimens remain among the poems of Pindar. 106 At the period of Paul ‘s epistles the games were still celebrated, and the apostle himself may very probably have been present. 107 At the same time, he would have been familiar with similar scenes in Tarsus, in all the great cities of Asia Minor, especially Ephesus, and even in Jerusalem. Metaphors and allusions founded upon such spectacles abound in Paul s writings. Racers, 1Co 9:24; boxers, 1Co 9:26, 27; gladiators fighting with beasts, 1Co 14:32; the judge awarding the prize, 2Ti 4:8; the goal and the prize, 1Co 9:24; Phi 3:14; the chaplet, 1Co 9:25; 2Ti 2:5; 2Ti 4:8, the training for the contest, 1Ti 4:7, 8; the rules governing it, 2Ti 2:5; the chariot – race, Phi 3:14. These images never occur in the gospels. See on of life, Rev 2:10 Prize [] . Only here and Phi 3:14. The kindred verb brabeuw to be umpire, occurs once, Col 3:15. See note.
Obtain [] . Lit., lay hold of. Rev., attain. See on comprehended, Joh 1:5; come upon you, Joh 12:35; and perceived, Act 4:13. Compare Phi 3:12.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Know ye not.” (ouk oidate) “Do you not recognize a rhetoric question – indicating an affirmative answer.
2) “That they which run in a race run all.” (hoti hoi en stadio trechontes pantes men trechousin) “That the ones in a race-course running, all indeed or together run.” All run in the same direction. In like manner members of every church should run or labor together, 1Co 3:9.
3) But one receiveth the prize? (eis de [ambanei to brabeion) “But one (only) receives the prize.” Earth’s rewards and earthly rewards are inferior in quality and fewer in number than those available to each child of God.
4) “So run, that ye may obtain.” (houtos trechete hina katalobete) “Just like this you all run in order that you all and each may obtain or receive (a prize).” Each child of God, and each member of the Lord’s church in particular, is offered rewards according to his running, his labors, or his faithful service, 1Co 3:8; Col 2:18; 1Ti 5:18; Php_3:14; Luk 10:7.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
24. Know ye not, that they who run in a race. He has laid down the doctrine, and now, with the view of impressing it upon the minds of the Corinthians, he adds an exhortation. He states briefly, that what they had hitherto attained was nothing, unless they steadfastly persevered, inasmuch as it is not enough to have once entered on the Lord’s way, if they do not strive until they reach the goal, agreeably to that declaration of Christ — He that shall endure unto the end, etc. (Mat 10:22.) Now he borrows a similitude from the race-course. (508) For as in that case many descend into the arena, but he alone is crowned who has first reached the goal, so there is no reason why any one should feel satisfied with himself on the ground of his having once entered upon the race prescribed in the gospel, unless he persevere in it until death. There is, however, this difference between our contest and theirs, that among them only one is victorious, and obtains the palm — the man who has got before all the others; (509) but our condition is superior in this respect, that there may be many at the same time. (510) For God requires from us nothing more than that we press on vigorously until we reach the goal. (511) Thus one does not hinder another: nay more, those who run in the Christian race are mutually helpful to each other. He expresses the same sentiment in another form in 2Ti 2:5,
If any one striveth, he is not crowned, unless he strives lawfully.
So run. Here we have the application of the similitude — that it is not enough to have set out, if we do not continue to run during our whole life. For our life is like a race-course. We must not therefore become wearied after a short time, like one that stops short in the middle of the race-course, but instead of this, death alone must put a period to our running. The particle ὅυτω, ( so,) may be taken in two ways. Chrysostom connects it with what goes before, in this manner: as those who run do not stop running until they have reached the goal, so do ye also persevere, and do not stop running so long as you live. It will, however, correspond not inaptly with what follows. “You must not run so as to stop short in the middle of the race-course, but so as to obtain the prize.” As to the term stadium, ( race-course,) and the different kinds of races, (512) I say nothing, as these things may be obtained from grammarians, and it is generally known that there were some races on horseback, and others on foot. Nor are these things particularly needed for understanding Paul’s meaning.
(508) “ De ceux qui conrent a la lice pour quelque pris;” — “From those who run in the race-course for some prize.”
(509) “ Qui a mieux couru que los antres, et est le premier venu au but;” — “Who has run better than the others, and has come first to the goal.”
(510) “ I1 yen pent auoir plusieurs de nons qui soyent couronnez;” — “There may be many of us that are crowned.”
(511) “ Que nons ne perdions point courage, mais que perscuerions constamment jusques a la fin;” — “That we do not lose heart, but persevere steadfastly unto the end.”
(512) “ Qui estoyent anciennement en vsage;” — “Which were anciently in use.”
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(24) Know ye not . . .The illustration which follows refers to these Isthmian games (so called from their taking place in the isthmus where Corinth stood) with which his readers would be familiar. These, like the other games of Greecethe Olympian, Pythian, and Nemeanincluded every form of athletic exercise, and stood on an entirely different footing from anything of the kind in modern times. For the Greek, these contests were great national and religious festivals. None but freemen could enter the lists, and they only after they had satisfied the appointed officers that they had for ten months undergone the necessary preliminary training. For thirty days previous to the contest the candidates had to attend the exercises at the gymnasium, and only after the fulfilment of these conditions were they allowed, when the time arrived, to contend in the sight of assembled Greece. Proclamation was made of the name and country of each competitor by a herald. The victor was crowned with a garland of pine leaves or ivy. The family of the conqueror was honoured by his victory, and when he returned to his native town he would enter it through a breach in the walls, the object of this being to symbolise that for a town which was honoured with such a citizen no walls of defence were needful (Plutarch). Pindar, or some other great poet, would immortalise the victorious heros name in his verse, and in all future festivals the foremost seats would be occupied by the heroes of former contests.
So runi.e., run in the way referred to, so that you may gain a prize.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
24. Know ye not They had abundant chance to know, from the exhibitions at the Isthmian stadium, near their city.
A race Here, for the first time in the New Testament, occurs an allusion to the ancient games. They are mentioned neither in the gospels nor in the Old Testament. The solemn Hebrews never practised them; and when introduced, with theatres and other spectacles by the Herodian family, they were the abhorrence of all earnest Jews. In the days of his bigoted Judaism Paul would, probably, never have used them as a religious illustration.
But with the Greeks these games, traceable to an heroic age of gods and demigods, were a part of their religion. They were practised to bring the human form to that same idealized perfection as Grecian genius endeavoured to produce in its statues of heroes and gods. They formed a part of the worship of beauty in the human person, as in all other noble forms. Hence the victor in those games, at which all Greece was ambitious to be present, was a noblest of the race, a masterpiece of humanity. He was gazed at, as he proudly passed, as a model of manhood. He was the pride of his family, and honoured by his state and city among her great generals and statesmen. From the victory he departed crowned with a garland, was escorted home in a triumphal chariot, and, in some instances, instead of being received through the ordinary gate, a breach was made in the city wall, that he might be received with a unique triumph.
When, a short time before the birth of Christ, Rome conquered the known world, she adopted the games, varying their form, and in every respect debasing them. By the Greeks they were idealized, by the Romans brutalized. They were no longer heroic exercises in which the noblest men engaged for self-perfection, but exhibitions of ferocious and bloody contests by professional or compulsory combatants, for the gratification of spectators gazing from their safe and cowardly seats upon scenes of savage bloodshed of which others were the inflictors or victims. There were beast fights; of men with beasts or beasts with beasts. There were gladiatorial fights of men with men. These sanguinary exhibitions were not, like the pugilistic fights of our day, followed solely by the baser classes in violation of law, but by the highest aristocracy, and provided for by either eminent individuals or the state itself. The civilization of the age exerted itself in the invention of new ferocities, or in the increased amount of the exhibition. Sylla, the despot of Rome, sent a hundred lions into the arena to be butchered by as many men. But Pompey had six hundred lions and twenty elephants thus slaughtered. Under the Emperor Titus (surnamed “The Delight of the human race”) five thousand wild and four thousand tame animals, and under Trajan eleven thousand animals, were slain for Roman amusement. Still more ferocious were the gladiatorial fights, in which professional combatants, or captives taken in war, or criminals, were made to slaughter each other. This practice began B.C. 264, and made such progress that Trajan exhibited a bloody fight of ten thousand gladiators on the arena for Roman amusement. These scenes created not bravery in the public heart, but a base and cowardly appetite for blood. They aided in spreading that utter depravity through all classes of society that prepared the empire to sink before the northern barbarians.
With these games in their Grecian form the Corinthians, and St. Paul at Corinth, would be familiar. As he travelled from Athens to Corinth he passed the stadium, or race-course, of the celebrated Isthmian games, so called from the Corinthian Isthmus. In the nature of those games he saw the elements of a vivid physical imagery (especially in the race) for the illustration of the Christian life. Almost every point of the gymnastic contest he has in some part of his writings brought into use. Gal 2:2; Gal 5:7; Php 2:16; Php 3:14; 1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 2:5; Heb 12:1; Heb 12:4; Heb 12:12. In the present passage we have the race, the racer, the prize, the temperance, the garland, the herald, the rejected combatant. At 1Co 9:26, by a momentary change, the boxing match is the source of allusion.
Run all All the competitors.
One Paul here illustrates by contrast. In the Isthmian race there could be but one victor among all the runners; in the Christian race every candidate that rightly runs may win the garland.
So run With such applied vigour, with such self-control and concentration, with such increasing persistence, to the end.
Obtain Win.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Even so run; that you may attain.’
Then he applies his thoughts to the Corinthians. Like he does, they also should put every effort into the race. They should consider that many run in the race but only one receives the prize. So the point is that they should run their race in such a way as to be prizewinners. They should not be satisfied with anything less than being top man in this regard. They should earnestly desire to come first, and sacrifice anything to do so honestly.
This is not saying that spiritual prizes are limited so that only the best obtain one. God has prizes for all who earn them. It is looking at what the attitude of the athlete is. Determination to be the very best. And that should be the Christian’s aim. To be the very best for God.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
The need of self-discipline:
v. 24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain.
v. 25. And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.
v. 26. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beats the air;
v. 27. but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. An attitude and a habit of self-denial such as Paul practiced is not acquired with ease, but it demands the application of the sternest self-discipline, and he illustrates from his own case how a Christian may reach this stage and maintain it. In order to make his meaning clear to the Corinthians, Paul uses the figure of athletic games, with which they were familiar on account of the fact that the Isthmian games were held in the vicinity of their city every three years: Do you not know that they that run in the stadium, in the race-course, indeed all run, but one only receives the prize? So run that you may surely get it. The point of comparison is the assiduous application to the thought of winning, gaining, the prize. The prize at the Isthmian games was only a garland of the Grecian pine, but to the Greeks its value could not have been measured in terms of money. The prize for which the Christians should strive with every nerve and fiber of their being is wonderful beyond compare, and therefore they should remember that entering the race is not equivalent to winning it; they should not be satisfied with merely running, but they should make sure of winning the prize.
The foot-race teaches one lesson, the boxing contest another: Every combatant, every athlete, practices temperance in everything; they, indeed, in order to receive a perishing crown, but we an imperishable. All the athletes of the Greek games, no matter where they were, especially the boxers, indulged in nothing which might tend to weaken their muscles or their power of resistance; they practiced such stern severity that they abstained from even the slightest concession to food or drink that might set them back one day in their training. And all this for a garland that withered away in a short time, for the honor of having their names sung in the odes of the festivals. How much more, then, should the Christians, that have before their eyes the imperishable prize of their heavenly calling, strive with all the power of their sanctified hearts and minds to obtain that glorious reward! Blessedness and glory eternal is the reward of grace, 2Ti 4:8; Jas 1:12; 1Pe 5:4.
The apostle holds before the Corinthian Christians his own example: I for my person, therefore, so run, as in no uncertain way; so do I box, not like one that beats the air. As the racer has only one thing in mind, the winning of the race; as he keeps his eyes with unwavering steadiness upon the goal, so the apostle keeps his mind firmly directed to the prize that awaits the faithful Christian when his course is run. As the pugilist does not waste his strength in a futile beating of the air with his fists, but tries to make every blow count, so the apostle, in his battle with Satan, the world, and his own flesh, did not gently stroke the enemy with kid-gloves, but delivered telling blows, knowing that upon his winning the battle depended the certainty of his salvation. For that reason, also, Paul (literally) benumbed his body, he beat it black and blue, he subjected himself to the severest corporal discipline in the pursuit of his goal; he subdued his body to carry out the dictates of his will. That is one of the reasons why this apostle, whose physical constitution seems to have been anything but robust, was able to accomplish so much in the work of the Lord. But he did it lest in preaching to others he himself should prove reprobate, that is, be ruled out, rejected, according to the laws which governed the contest, or, in case he should be admitted to the competition, be unsuccessful in his attempt to gain the prize. “What an argument and what a reproof is this! The reckless and listless Corinthians thought that they could safely indulge themselves to the very verge of sin, while this devoted apostle considered himself as engaged in a life-struggle for his salvation. It is the indolent and self-indulgent Christian that is always in doubt. ” (Hodge.)
Summary. The apostle defends his apostle-ship and his right to maintenance by the congregations and shows that his case is an exceptional one for the sake of the Gospel-preaching; he holds before his readers the example of his own self-discipline for emulation.
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
1Co 9:24. They which run in a race, &c. The Apostle here refers to the Isthmian games, so called from their being celebrated on the Corinthian Isthmus, or the neck of land which joins Peloponnesus to the continent. They are supposed to have been instituted in honour of Palaemon, or Melicertes, and Neptune. They were observed every third year, or rather every fifth, and held sacred and inviolable. When Corinth was sacked and totally destroyed by Mummius the Roman general, they were not discontinued; but the care of them was committed to Sicyonians, till the rebuilding of the city, and then it was restored to the inhabitants. The sports which composed those games, were running, wrestling, boxing, and other athletic exercises. The Apostle alludes here to the stadium, or foot-race, in which there was but one prize for the victor; though in some of the games there were several prizes. Nothing can be more forcible and emphatical than the argument which the Apostle draws from this comparison; whoever would see the full force of which, will do well to read Mr. West’s excellent Dissertation on the Olympic games, particularly ch. 6 and 7 and the conclusion. We here subjoin his translation and brief paraphrase of the passage before us: “Know ye not that they who run in the stadium, or foot-race, run all, and yet but one receiveth the prize?So run therefore, that ye may obtain. Moreover, every one that contendeth in the games, is temperate in all things. They, indeed, that they may obtain a corruptible crown; but we, an incorruptible. Wherefore I for my part so run, as not to pass undistinguished; so fight, not as beating the air (that is to say, practising in a feigned combat, without an adversary); but I mortify my body, and bring it under subjection; lest, &c.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1Co 9:24 ff. Exhortation to his readers to follow his example, clothed in figures borrowed from the relations of athletic competition among the Greeks (comp Phi 3:12 ff.).
Doubtless Paul, writing to the Corinthians, was thinking of the Isthmian games, which continued to be held even after the destruction of the city by Mummius (Pausanias, 1Co 2:2 ). There is no sufficient ground for supposing the Olympic games to be meant, as those in which the foot-race formed a peculiarly prominent feature (Spanheim, Wolf, al [1527] ), for running was not excluded at the other places of competition; and it is not necessary to assume that the apostle had a knowledge enabling him to make nice distinctions between the different kinds of contest at the different games.
] , , , Scholiast on Pindar, Ol. i. 5. (the Isthmian) ( pine ), (not ivy, but parsley ) , Scholiast on Pindar, Isthm. ; comp Plutarch, qu. symp. v. 3, and see Boeckh and Dissen, a [1529] Pind. Ol. xiii. 33; Hermann, gottesdienstl. Alterth. 50. 27, Exo 2 . In the application ( .), we are to understand the future Messianic salvation which all may reach. Comp 1Ti 6:12 .
, ] should not be rendered, as it is by most expositors, “ so run, that ,” which the , as a particle expressive of design, makes inadmissible (comp 1Co 9:26-27 ), but: in such way run (like the one referred to), in order that . This does away, too, with the awkwardness which would otherwise be involved in with the plural . Paul exhorts his readers to run in a way as worthy of the prize (so to shape their inner and outer life), as the one who, by decision of the judge, receives the crown for the foot-race, in order that they may attain to it ( i.e. the crown of the Messianic salvation). There is no need for the arbitrary insertion of the idea: “ as is necessary , in order that,” etc. (Hofmann).
[1527] l. and others; and other passages; and other editions.
[1529] d refers to the note of the commentator or editor named on the particular passage.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
C. Exhortation to earnest self-denial as the condition of obtaining an incorruptible crown; and a warning against carnal security
1Co 9:24 to 1Co 10:13
24Know ye not that they which run in a race [race-course, ] run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain [really lay hold of it, ]. 25And every man that striveth for the mastery [contends for a prize, is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown [chaplet, ]; but we an incorruptible. 26I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight 27[box, ] I, not as one that beateth the air; But I keep under [beat black and blue, ]30 my body, and bring it into subjection [enslave it, : lest that by any means, when I have preached [been a herald, ] to others, I myself should be a castaway [a rejected one, ].
1Moreover [For, ],31 brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; 2And were all baptized [had themselves baptized, ]32 unto Moses in the cloud and 3in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; 4And did all drink the same spiritual drink; for they drank of that spiritual Bock that followed them [out of a spiritual, following Rock, : and that Rock was Christ.33 5But with many [most, ] of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown [strewed about, ] in the wilderness. 6Now these things were our examples [became types for us, ] to 7the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted; Neither be [become, ] ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written,34 The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. 8Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in35 one day three and twenty thousand. 9Neither let us tempt [put to the full test, try fully, ] Christ,36 as37 some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. 10Neither murmur ye, as 11some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all [om. all]38 these things happened unto them for ensamples [typically, ]1Co 39: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come [last of the ages have come, . ]40. 12Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. 13There hath no temptation taken [trial seized upon, ] you but such as is common to man [human, ]: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with [in the midst of (Tyndale), .] the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye41 may be able to bear it.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1Co 9:24-27. [Having in the last verse (23) of the previous selection mentioned, as the second reason for the renunciation of his rights, his desire that he might thereby become partaker of the Gospel with those he labored for, he next proceeds] to bring home to the consciousness of his readers the extent of that self-denial and earnest endeavor which is requisite for the full attainment of the blessing in question. This he does by a reference to the Grecian games which were celebrated in their vicinity, viz., the Isthmian games. [It must be remembered in reading the Apostles allusions, that from the national character and religion of the Greeks, these games derived an importance which raised them above the degrading associations of modern times. How intense an interest these contests still excited may be seen from Suetonius graphic description of the agony of Nero in his desire to succeed; an exaggerated instance, doubtless; but yet illustrative of the general feeling. The stadium, or race-course, of which he speaks, was not a mere resort for public amusements but an almost sacred edifice, under the tutelage of the patron deity of the Ionian tribes, and surrounded by the most solemn recollections of Greece, its white marble seats rising like the foundation of a temple in the grassy slope, where its outline may still be traced, under the shadow of the huge Corinthian citadel, which guards the entrance of the Peloponnesus. The race, in which all run; the pugilistic contests, in which they strove not to beat the air, were not merely exhibitions of bodily strength, but solemn trials of the excellence of the competitors in the gymnastic art, which was to the Greeks one-half of human education. As the friends and relatives watched with breathless interest the issue of the contest, they knew that the victor would be handed down to posterity by having his name sung in those triumphal odes, of which Pindars are the extant model, and his likeness placed in the long line of statues which formed the approach to the adjacent temple. The prize which he won from the appointed judges, who sat in state at the end of the course, was such as could awaken no mean or mercenary motives; its very simplicity attested its dignity; it was a garland of the Grecian pine, which still, under its classical name, clothes with its light green foliage the plains of the Isthmus, and which was then consecrated to the sea-god, around whose temple its groves were gathered. (See Conybeare and Howson, 20).The application of the metaphor of the race to the progress of the Christian, here occurs for the first time. Afterwards, compare Php 3:12; Php 3:14; 2Ti 4:7-8 : Heb 12:1. Stanley.].Know ye not.[An abrupt and forcible appeal to a familiar fact, analogous to the ease in hand, fraught with obvious lessons]that those who run in the race-course.Here is the first illustrationthe race ()run all, but one receiveth the prize?The is the prize () awarded by the arbiter (), [Lat., bravium, Iren. IV. 7, whence the English, bravo. Wordsworth]. The point thus made is stated by Osiander in the practical remarks: The danger of failing of the end of our faith thro a lack of persistent earnestnessthe large number of the called, and the few that are chosen; or, as mere running on the course does not ensure the prize, so simple companionship with those who are striving for salvation does not ensure its attainment.Hence he briefly and forcibly enjoins.So run that ye may obtain.The simplest interpretation here would be to refer , so to that, in the sense of , as: so run as to obtain. But it certainly would be more in accordance with usage to make the reference to what precedes: as that one runs who obtains the prize, so run ye in order that ye may obtain. [Alford, on the contrary, makes the allusion more general: after this manner, viz., as they who run all, each endeavoring to be the one who shall receive the prize; for the others strive as earnestly as he.The is presently particularized by one point of the athletes preparation being specially alleged for their initiation]. After obtain, the word prize must be supplied as the object understood. The use of the suggests the personal effort shown in the matter, literally: that ye may seize, or grasp, the prize; as in 1Ti 6:12, , in distinction from which the simple would denote the mere receiving, or accepting the thing presented. The recommendation accordingly is to a course of conduct corresponding to the laudable race of him who wins the victors wreath, in order that they may obtain possession of salvation, [may work it out].That for this an earnest self-denying course was requisite, he shows from the example of the combatants.now every one.[The , now, specifies, referring back to . And the emphasis is on , every one, thus showing , so, to refer to the , all, who , run. Alford].that strives.The general term, , includes indeed in itself the idea of running in the race; but here the primal reference is to the preparatory training. [The article ( ) brings out the man as an enlisted and professed agonistes (or athlete), and regards him in that capacity. Had it been , the sense would have been, now every one while contending, etc., making the discipline to be merely accidental to his contendingwhich would not suit the original antitype, where we are enlisted for life. Alford].is temperate in all things.To this there belongs self-control in every particular: abstinere venere et vino, and especially a strict diet, to make one light, nimble and fit for the conflict. [The discipline lasted for ten months preparatory to the contest, and was at this time so severe, as to be confined to the professional athletes. The diet is thus described by Epictetus: Thou must be orderly, living on spare food; abstain from confections; make a point of exercising at the appointed time, in heat and in cold; nor drink cold water or wine at hazard;in a word, give thyself up to thy training-master as to a physician, and then enter on the contest. Stanley].But as the prize set before the Christian agonistes is nobler than that which awaits the earthly athlete, so much the more ready must the former be to practice that self-denial which is the condition of success.they indeed.[ , connects it with the general train of thought, and gives emphasis. Jelf, 730, b.].[The ellipsis here must be supplied from the previous clause: practice temperance].in order that they may receive a corruptible crown.Such was the prize of the racer in the Isthmian games, a mere garland of pine leaves; [and elsewhere, of olive, parsley or bay leaves].but weHe here includes himself in their ranks as a fellow-contestant. The ellipsis must be again supplied as aboveyet carrying the implication of a higher sort of temperance, even a moral one, according to the nature of the contest entered into.an incorruptible.i. e., blessedness and glory eternal as the reward of grace (comp. 2Ti 4:8; Jam 1:12; 1Pe 5:4).In 1Co 9:26 f., he turns now to speak of himself particularly, showing his own method of training and striving as an example.I then.[ is emphatic,recalls attention from the incidental exhortation and reminiscence of the Christian state to the main subject, viz., his own abstinence from receiving support and its grounds. Alford]. , serves to introduce particulars under a general proposition (Passow). So here where Paul comes to present himself as a specimen of the true athlete, who has put himself through a thorough discipline.so run as not uncertainlysc., running. , either, unobserved, unmarked, in contrast with one who distinguishes himself and makes himself noted, or, which corresponds better with the parallel clause, uncertainly, (1Ti 6:17), viz., in reference to the goal, being certain of the issue. In direct course to the goal. Meyer. (There are various modifications of this interpretation in relation to the goal itself, or to the reaching it, or to the way thereto, comp. Osiander),so fight I.He here passes over to another kind of contest, viz., boxing ().as not striking the air.This refers to those random strokes which instead of hitting the antagonist, spend themselves in the air; and not to the sham fight which is preparatory to the real conflict. He is representing himself as engaged in actual fight, and not in the safe prelude to it, as Chrys., Theoph. and others. The whole verse is a description of one occupied in the very heat of the conflict. In the positive exhibition of his conduct, he abandons the participial construction (as in 1Co 4:14), which a further explanation renders necessary, because he passes out of the metaphor to the literal fact.but I bruise my body.Here we have the adversary mentioned on which he was thus planting his effective blows. It was his body (the body of the flesh, Col 2:10); the members, Rom 7:23, as the seat of sinthat which in its affections and lusts was ever hostile to the inner manthe spirit. His energetic treatment he expresses by a term borrowed from the pugilistic combats: , to smite under the eyes, so as to make them black and blue; more generally, to batter, to benumb. According to Osiander, he means by it the mortification of the flesh by privations, labors, sufferings endured in consequence of his devotion to his calling, and, especially, of his renunciation of all right to support. We might also conceive an implication here of ascetic severities, such as fasting and the like,but not to self-flagellation [the absurd practice of which grew out of an abuse of this expression].and bring it into subjection. implies a complete conquest, quasi servum trahereso as to bring the body under the control of a moral will. (Meyer, Ed. 3). His motive for this he expresses negatively.lest somehow, having proclaimed to others.By , it is questioned whether Paul intended the preaching of the Gospel, which the word elsewhere means in the New Testament; or whether in the prosecution of his metaphor he alludes to the functions of a herald. The latter is the more probable, as the term in the next clause, belongs to the same category. The herald is one who calls the champions into the lists and proclaims the names of the victors. Paul also was a herald, who summoned men to the Christian warfare, announced the terms of the conflict, and was himself also a combatant.I myself should prove rejected. [unworthy, disapproved, reprobate]; by this we are not to understand disqualified for the conflict, but unsuccessful in the issue. [An examination of the victorious combatants took place after the contest, and if it was found that they had contended unlawfully, or unfairly, they were deprived of the prize and driven with disgrace from the games. Alford]. Apostolus suo timore nos terruit; quid enim faceit agnus, ubi aries tremuit?42 If we compare this passage, in which Paul so earnestly suggests the possibility of his own short-coming below the true standard of a Christian life, with 1Co 9:18, from which the Romanists would fain draw their doctrine of an opus supererogativum, implying a distinction between consilia evangelica and precepta (general Christian duties), we shall readily see how far removed Paul was from fancying that he could do aught transcending his moral obligationsa notion which stands in direct conflict with the whole ethical view of the Apostle. Neander. [What an argument and what a reproof is this! The reckless and listless Corinthians thought they could safely indulge themselves to the very verge of sin, while this devoted Apostle considered himself as engaged in a life-struggle for his salvation. The same Apostle, however, who evidently acted on the principle that the righteous scarcely are saved, and that the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, at other times breaks out in the most joyful assurance of salvation, and was persuaded that nothing in heaven, earth or hell could ever separate him from the love of God. The one State of mind is the necessary condition of the other. It is only those who are conscious of this constant and deadly power of sin, to whom this assurance is given. In the very same breath Paul says, O wretched man that I am! and, Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, Rom 7:24-25. It is the indolent and self-indulgent Christian that is always in doubt. Hodge].
See 1Co 10:1 ff for DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL and HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Footnotes:
[42][The Apostle terrifies us with his own fear; for what shall the lamb do when the ram trembles]?
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 1967
DIRECTIONS FOR RUNNING OUR RACE
1Co 9:24. So run, that ye may obtain.
THERE is not any thing around us from which we may not draw some hints for our spiritual instruction. The habits and customs of the world, if duly improved, will afford us many valuable lessons. A reference to these is peculiarly useful when we wish to convey instruction to others; because it strikes the imagination more forcibly, and carries stronger conviction to the judgment. St. Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, availed himself of the Isthmian games which were celebrated there, to illustrate their duty with respect to their souls. Amongst other sports, that of the foot-race was held in high estimation; and great preparations were made by those who engaged in them, in order to qualify them for their extraordinary exertions. In reference to these the Apostle speaks of himself as running in this race; and proposes himself to the Corinthians as a pattern for their imitation, if they were desirous to win the prize.
We shall consider,
I.
The direction here given
The words of the text are not a mere exhortation to run our race, but a special direction respecting the manner in which we are to run it [Note: refers to the manner in which the Apostle ran; and to the end for which such exertion was necessary. To enter into the full meaning of the text, the whole chapter should be borne in mind: and in that view it will unfold to us a subject of no ordinary importance. This should be distinctly marked in all the passages that are referred to in this chapter.]. We should be, like the Apostle,
1.
Disentangled from worldly cares
[St. Paul, as he tells us in the foregoing context, had equal liberty with others to marry, and to take a wife with him in his journies. But he knew that such a step would involve him in many cares, and impede his exertions in the cause of Christ. He therefore lived in celibacy himself, and recommended it to others, both men and women, especially during those seasons of persecution, when they were liable every day and hour to be called to lay down their lives for the Gospels sake [Note: ver. 5. with 1Co 7:1; 1Co 7:7-8; 1Co 7:26-27.]. Now, though there is not any necessity for us to imitate him in this individual act, yet we must admit the principle in its fullest extent, and live under its influence continually. We must study to be without carefulness [Note: 1Co 7:32.]. We must endeavour to serve the Lord as much as possible without distraction [Note: 1Co 7:35.]. We must not entangle ourselves more than is necessary with the affairs of this life [Note: 2Ti 2:4.], or multiply our cares in such a way as to rob our souls of the attention due to them. To do this would be as absurd as to load our feet with thick clay [Note: Hab 2:6.], when we were about to run a race. On the contrary, we should endeavour to lay aside every weight [Note: Heb 12:1.], conscious that cares of every kind impede our progress in the divine life, and, if suffered to increase, will endanger our ultimate success [Note: Mat 13:22.].]
2.
Divested of selfish principles
[Never was a selfish spirit more subdued and mortified, than in the Apostle Paul. Instead of claiming from the Corinthian Church that support, which God himself had assigned to every minister of the Gospel, he endured numberless wants and hardships, in order to set an example of disinterestedness to others [Note: ver 1215]. And, when he himself was perfectly acquainted with the extent of Christian liberty, he made himself the servant of all, becoming all things to all men, that by all means he might save some [Note: ver. 1922.]. Thus did he forego what he might have justly claimed, and consent, as it were, to pay, what none had any right to demand: he willingly sacrificed both his pecuniary rights, yea, and his Christian liberty too (as far as conscientiously he could) for the benefit of immortal souls.
Such is the way in which we are to run. But O, how many professors of religion have been retarded (yea, and have cast stumbling-blocks also in the way of others) by a rigorous exaction of their dues, or by an unwillingness to sacrifice their worldly interests! How many also have been kept from making a progress themselves, and from helping forward their fellow-sinners, by an unyielding zeal for Christian liberty on the one hand, or a bigoted attachment to human forms on the other! Happy would it be for every individual in the Church of Christ, if a desire of advancement in the Divine life disposed them to look, not on their own things only, but also on the things of others [Note: Php 2:4.]; and to seek the welfare of others not only in conjunction with, but (to a certain degree) in preference to, their own [Note: 1Co 10:24.].]
3.
Determined, if possible, to win the prize
[They who proposed to contend in the race, maintained, for a long time before, the strictest temperance [Note: ver. 25.], and habituated themselves to the most laborious exertions. In reference to them, St. Paul tells us how careful he was to keep under his body, and to bring it into subjection, in order that he might be the fitter to run the Christian race [Note: ver. 27.]. Thus must we be trained both in body and mind, in order that we may run well and endure unto the end. We must accustom ourselves to labour and self-denial, mortifying every corrupt affection, and giving all diligence to make our calling and election sure [Note: 2Pe 1:10.] ]
Let us next turn our attention to,
II.
The argument with which it is enforced
The Apostles expression is concise: but there is much implied in it:
1.
We cannot win the race without running in this manner
[However persons strove for the mastery in the games, they were not crowned, unless they strove according to the laws prescribed them [Note: 2Ti 2:5.]. Thus, however earnest we may be in running for heaven, we never can gain the prize, unless we conform to the rules that have been laid down. This is the course that we are to run over. It abounds indeed with rough places, and steep ascents: but we must not deviate from it. We may easily find a smoother path; but we must run in that which is marked out for us, and abide in it to the end
Let us then inquire, whether we be treading in the Apostle s steps And let the fear of coming short at last, stimulate us to unremitting exertions [Note: ver. 27.] ]
2.
If we run in this manner, we are sure of winning the race
[Of those who contended in the race, one only could win the prize [Note: ver. 24.]: but it is not so in the race that we run: every one that enters the lists, and exerts himself according to the directions given him, must succeed. None have any reason to despond on account of their own weakness; on the contrary, those who are the weakest in their own apprehension, are most certain of success Only let us not be satisfied with running well for a season; but let us hold on our way, till we reach the goal [Note: Php 3:13-14.]. Then we need not fear but that we shall finish our course with joy, and obtain a crown of righteousness, from the hands of our righteous Judge [Note: Col 3:23-24 and 2Ti 4:7-8.] ]
3.
The prize, when obtained, will amply compensate for all our labour
[Poor and worthless as the prize was to him that won the race, the hope of obtaining it stimulated many to contend for it. How much more then should the prize held forth to us, together with the certainty of obtaining it, call forth our exertions! Compare our prize with theirs in respect of honour, value and duration; how infinitely superior is it in every view! Theirs was but the breath of mans applause; ours is honour coming from God himself. Theirs was a green chaplet, that withered in an hour; ours is an incorruptible, undefiled, and never-fading inheritance in heaven [Note: ver. 25.] ]
Let every one that is engaged in the race, survey the prize. Let him at the same time contemplate the consequence of coming short, (not a transient disappointment, or loss of some desirable object, but everlasting misery in hell,) and the labour necessary to attain it will appear as nothing. None that have succeeded, now regret the pains they took to accomplish that great object: though thousands that have refused to run, now curse their folly with fruitless remorse Let not any then relax their speed: but all attend to the directions given; and so run, that they may obtain the prize.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
(24) Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. (25) And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. (26) I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: (27) But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
The figure which the Apostle hath here made use of, to draw a comparison by of the Christian warfare, is as beautiful as it is just, and as much suited to the present hour, as it was in the days of the Apostle. The ground and space of this life, in which the Christian race is ran, corresponds to what is marked out, both in the boundary and the time limited to the Grecian games, and have their determination alike to him that wins. But the pastimes of this world differ widely from the serious concerns of another. And, as in the things themselves, so in the issue. There was but one successful candidate in the earthly race. But in the heavenly, all that run in Christ, the Way, the truth, and the life, are alike successful. Moreover, he that ran in the earthly warfare, and came off victorious, soon yielded himself to the conqueror death. But he that wins Christ, and is found in him, subdues forever all that opposed him, and wears his crown forever. Hence, all the victors in Christ exalt in the same hymn of praise: blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, 1Pe 1:3-4 .
I beg the Reader to notice what the Apostle saith of himself, of keeping under his body, and bringing it into subjection. By which he could not be supposed to mean the mere animal flesh, by fastings, and the punishment of stripes, and scourging, and penance, and the like, which tend more to create spiritual pride and peevishness, than induce any reformation of the heart. Paul knew too well human nature to recommend such things. Besides, it is the corruption of the heart he desired to bring under, and which no doubt he sought for to accomplish, in mortifying the deeds of the body by the Holy Ghost, as he recommended to others, Rom 8:13 . And the motive Paul had in view, is a confirmation of his meaning, lest (said he) that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway; that is, lest from some corruption of his fallen nature, indulged, and rising up in rebellion to his renewed and better part; he should fall into some foul transgression, as David did; and, as this would tempt the enemy to blaspheme, as it did in the case of the Psalmist, the Lord should lay him aside from his public ministry, like a vessel in a family, which though once in continued use, was now no longer called for. Such a thought was dreadfully painful to the active and zealous mind of the Apostle, and, therefore, he desired eternal grace from the Spirit, to keep under the body of sin and death, which he well knew he carried about with him, and under which he groaned, being burdened. This appears to be the evident sense and meaning of the Apostle’s words. Some, however, have ventured to give this passage a different construction, as if the Apostle feared, that, if falling into sin from the corruptions of the body, he might be cast out of God’s presence forever. A thing totally foreign to all the Apostle’s uniform doctrine, and daily profession of his everlasting safety in Christ, Jesus had declared him to have been a chosen vessel; and Paul had assured every Church of his interest in Christ, and union with Christ. Being confident of this very thing, (said he to the Church at Philippi,) that he which hath begun a good work will perform it unto the day of Christ, Phi 1:6 . I know, (said he to Timothy,) whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them that love his appearing, 2Ti 1:12 and 2Ti 4:7-8 . Under such, well grounded and well formed assurances, it is impossible that the Apostle could have entertained the smallest apprehensions of being finally lost. And, as hath been shewn, the words could mean no other, than that he dreaded that from human infirmities, he might be laid aside from usefulness, to the very end of his life, in his Lord’s service. And I hope the Reader will also here from learn, that such holy jealousies as Paul here expressed, and the Lord’s people many of them know, are not at all inconsistent with the perfect safety at the same time; in which they are considered, according to the election of grace. It is the sweetest of all thoughts that as their original call to salvation resulted not from their own merit, so neither their final safety depends upon their improvement of grace. The Lord’s everlasting love, and the consequent call which in time followed, was neither bestowed for human deserving, nor preserved for human improvements. everything in the Covenant flows from the Lord’s purpose, will, and pleasure. What will exalt the divine glory in promoting the happiness of his people. And, as it is a Covenant ordered in all things and sure; so Jehovah undertakes the accomplishment of it, both for himself and them. I will not turn away from them to do them good: but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me, Jer 32:40 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
Ver. 24. Know ye not ] The apostle argueth from their profane sports, yet approveth them not; as neither doth the Lord patronize usury, Mat 25:27 ; injustice, Luk 16:1 ; thefts, 1Th 5:2 ; dancing, Mat 11:17 .
So run that ye may obtain, ] Here is the race, but above the crown, saith Ignatius to Polycarp. ( , .) Run to get the race, said Mr Bradford to his fellow sufferers, you are almost at your journey’s end. I doubt not but our Father will with us send to you also, as he did to Elias, a fiery chariot to convey us into his kingdom. Let us therefore not be dismayed to leave our cloak behind us, that is, our bodies to ashes. (Acts and Mon.)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
24 ff. ] ‘This is my aim in all I do: but inasmuch as many run in a race, many reach the goal, but one only receives the prize, I as an Apostle run my course , and you must so run yours , as each to labour not to be rejected at last, but to gain the glorious and incorruptible prize.’ This, as compared with the former context, seems to be the sense and connexion of the passage. He was anxious, as an Apostle, to labour more abundantly, more effectually than they all: and hence his condescension ( ) to all men, and self-denial: accompanied with which was a humble self-distrust as to the great matter itself of his personal salvation, and an eager anxiety to secure it. These he proposes for their example likewise.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
24. ] The allusion is primarily no doubt to the Isthmian games [‘celebrated under the shadow of the huge Corinthian citadel’ (Stanley)]; but this must not be pressed too closely: the foot-race was far too common an element in athletic contests, for any accurate knowledge of its predominance in some and its insignificance in others of the Grecian games to be here supposed. Still less must it be imagined that those games were to be celebrated in the year of the Epistle being written. The most that can with certainty be said, is that he alludes to a contest which, from the neighbourhood of the Isthmian games, was well known to his readers. See Stanley’s note: who, in following out illustrations of this kind, writes with a vivid graphic power peculiarly his own.
] Wetst. quotes from the Schol. on Pindar, Olymp. 1, , ,, and from the Etymol., .
. ] Thus (after this manner viz. as they who run all, each endeavouring to be the one who shall receive the prize : not, as the one who receives it (Meyer, De Wette), for the others strive as earnestly as he: still less must we take for , which is barely allowable, and here would not suit the sense; the being particularized presently by one point of the athletes’ preparation being specially alleged for their imitation) run (not , because the evident analogy between the race and the Christian conflict is taken for granted. If, as Dr. Peile imagines, a contrast had been intended, between the stadium where one only can receive the prize, and the Christian race where all may, it must have stood , ( ?) . But such contrast would destroy the sense), in order that ye may fully obtain (the prize of your calling, see Phi 3:14 . On and see note, ch. 1Co 7:31 ).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
1Co 9:24-27 . 30. PAUL’S ASCETICISM. The last words of 29 indicate that the writer feels his own salvation to be bound up in his mission to his fellowmen. The self-denial practised for the latter of these objects is necessary, in point of fact, for both . His example should teach the Cor [1383] the need of stern self-discipline on their personal account, as well as in the interests of weaker brethren. From 1Co 9:24 onwards to 1Co 10:22 P. pursues this line of warning, addressed to men who were imperilling their own souls by self-indulgence and worldly conformity. Of the danger of missing the prize of life through indiscipline P. is keenly sensible in his own case; he conveys his apprehension under the picture, so familiar to the Cor [1384] , of the Isthmian Games.
[1383] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
[1384] Corinth, Corinthian or Corinthians.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
1Co 9:24 . ; cf. 1Co 9:13 , etc. , , . . f1 .: “Those that run in the stadium, run all (of them), but one receives the prize”. As much as to say, “Entering the race is not winning it; do not be satisfied with running, but make sure of winning So run that you may secure ( the prize )!” The art [1385] is wanting with , as often after prps., esp. when the noun is quasi-proper; cf. our “at court,” “in church.” The stadion was the race-course, always a fixed length of 600 Gr [1386] , or 6o6 Eng. ft.; hence a measure of distance, as in Mat 14:24 a furlong . For the antithesis of and , conveying the point of the warning, cf. the emphatic of 1Co 10:1-4 (see note); also 1Co 6:12 , 1Co 10:23 . may point backward to (“run like that one”: cf. 14, 1Co 2:11 ), or forward to ( .) a particle substituted for the regular correlative, ( cf. Act 14:1 , Joh 3:16 ), where the result is an aim to be achieved; the latter connexion is more probable, since the following vv. dilate on the conditions of success.
[1385] grammatical article.
[1386] Greek, or Grotius’ Annotationes in N.T.
1 Corinthians
HOW THE VICTOR RUNS
1Co 9:24 ‘ So run.’ Does that mean ‘Run so that ye obtain?’ Most people, I suppose, superficially reading the words, attach that significance to them, but the ‘so’ here carries a much greater weight of meaning than that. It is a word of comparison. The Apostle would have the Corinthians recall the picture which he has been putting before them-a picture of a scene that was very familiar to them; for, as most of us know, one of the most important of the Grecian games was celebrated at intervals in the immediate neighbourhood of Corinth. Many of the Corinthian converts had, no doubt, seen, or even taken part in them. The previous portion of the verse in which our text occurs appeals to the Corinthians’ familiar knowledge of the arena and the competitors, ‘Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize?’ He would have them picture the eager racers, with every muscle strained, and the one victor starting to the front; and then he says, ‘Look at that panting conqueror. That is how you should run. So run-’meaning thereby not, ‘Run so that you may obtain the prize,’ but ‘Run so’ as the victor does, ‘in order that you may obtain.’ So, then, this victor is to be a lesson to us, and we are to take a leaf out of his book. Let us see what he teaches us.
I. The first thing is, the utmost tension and energy and strenuous effort.
And yet here, as in many other parts of his letters, Paul takes these foul things as patterns for Christians. ‘There is a soul of goodness in things evil, if we would observantly distil it out.’ It is very much as if English preachers were to refer their people to a racecourse, and say, ‘Even there you may pick out lessons, and learn something of the way in which Christian people ought to live.’
On the same principle the New Testament deals with that diabolical business of fighting. It is taken as an emblem for the Christian soldier, because, with all its devilishness, there is in it this, at least, that men give themselves up absolutely to the will of their commander, and are ready to fling away their lives if he lifts his finger. That at least is grand and noble, and to be imitated on a higher plane.
In like manner Paul takes these poor racers as teaching us a lesson. Though the thing be all full of sin, we can get one valuable thought out of it, and it is this-If people would work half as hard to gain the highest object that a man can set before him, as hundreds of people are ready to do in order to gain trivial and paltry objects, there would be fewer stunted and half-dead Christians amongst us. ‘That is the way to run,’ says Paul, ‘if you want to obtain.’
Look at the contrast that he hints at, between the prize that stirs these racers’ energies into such tremendous operation and the prize which Christians profess to be pursuing. ‘They do it to obtain a corruptible crown’-a twist of pine branch out of the neighbouring grove, worth half-a-farthing, and a little passing glory not worth much more. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; we do not do it, though we professedly have an incorruptible one as our aim and object. If we contrast the relative values of the objects that men pursue so eagerly, and the objects of the Christian course, surely we ought to be smitten down with penitent consciousness of our own unworthiness, if not of our own hypocrisy.
It is not even there that the lesson stops, because we Christian people may be patterns and rebukes to ourselves. For, on the one side of our nature we show what we can do when we are really in earnest about getting something; and on the other side we show with how little work we can be contented, when, at bottom, we do not much care whether we get the prize or not. If you and I really believed that that crown of glory which Paul speaks about might be ours, and would be all sufficing for us if it were ours, as truly as we believe that money is a good thing, there would not be such a difference between the way in which we clutch at the one and the apathy which scarcely cares to put out a hand for the other. The things that are seen and temporal do get the larger portion of the energies and thoughts of the average Christian man, and the things that are unseen and eternal get only what is left. Sometimes ninety per cent. of the water of a stream is taken away to drive a milldam or do work, and only ten per cent. can be spared to trickle down the half-dry channel and do nothing but reflect the bright sun and help the little flowers and the grass to grow. So, the larger portion of most lives goes to drive the mill-wheels, and there is very little left, in the case of many of us, in order to help us towards God, and bring us closer into communion with our Lord. ‘Run’ for the crown as eagerly as you ‘run’ for your incomes, or for anything that you really, in your deepest desires, want. Take yourselves for your own patterns and your own rebukes. Your own lives may show you how you can love, hope, work, and deny yourselves when you have sufficient inducement, and their flame should put to shame their frost, for the warmth is directed towards trifles and the coldness towards the crown. If you would run for the incorruptible prize of effort in the fashion in which others and yourselves run for the corruptible, your whole lives would be changed. Why! if Christian people in general really took half-half? ay! a tenth part of-the honest, persistent pains to improve their Christian character, and become more like Jesus Christ, which a violinist will take to master his instrument, there would be a new life for most of our Christian communities. Hours and hours of patient practice are not too much for the one; how many moments do we give to the other? ‘So run, that ye obtain.’
II. The victorious runner sets Christians an example of rigid self-control.
III. The last grace that is suggested here, the last leaf to take out of these racers’ book, is definiteness and concentration of aim.
Now, that definite aim is one that can be equally pursued in all varieties of life. ‘This one thing I do’ said one who did about as many things as most people, but the different kinds of things that Paul did were all, at bottom, one thing. And we, in all the varieties of our circumstances, may keep this one clear aim before us, and whether it be in this way or in that, we may be equally and at all times seeking the better country, and bending all circumstances and all duty to make us more like our Master and bring us closer to Him.
The Psalmist did not offer an impossible prayer when he said: ‘One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in His temple.’ Was David in ‘the house of the Lord’ when he was with his sheep in the wilderness, and when he was in Saul’s palace, and when he was living with wild beasts in dens and caves of the earth, and when he was a fugitive, hunted like a partridge upon the mountains? Was he always in the Lord’s house? Yes! At any rate he could be. All that we do may be doing His will, and over a life, crowded with varying circumstances and yet simplified and made blessed by unvarying obedience, we may write, ‘This one thing I do.’
But we shall not keep this one aim clear before our eyes, unless we habituate ourselves to the contemplation of the end. The runner, according to Paul’s vivid picture in another of his letters, forgets the things that are behind, and stretches out towards the things that are before. And just as a man runs with his body inclining forward, and his eager hand nearer the prize than his body, and his eyesight and his heart travelling ahead of them both to grasp it, so if we want to live with the one worthy aim for ours, and to put all our effort and faith into what deserves it all-the Christian race-we must bring clear before us continually, or at least with the utmost frequency, the prize of our high calling, the crown of righteousness. Then we shall run so that we may, at the last, be able to finish our course with joy, and dying to hope with all humility that there is laid up for us a crown of righteousness.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: 1Co 9:24-27
24Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. 25Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; 27but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
1Co 9:25 “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things” Paul is using athletic metaphors from the Isthmian games held in Corinth every two years. The emphasis here in on the supreme effort used by competing athletes, not half-hearted attempts (cf. Heb 12:1-3). The Christian does not compete to win salvation, but because he has experienced salvation.
We have won the race in Christ, now run the race for Christ!
“a perishable wreath” The winners of the Corinthian’s athletic contest received wreaths of pine (at Athens an olive wreath; at Delphi a laurel wreath), which soon withered. Believers receive the crown of (1) rejoicing (cf. 1Th 2:19); (2) righteousness (cf. 2Ti 4:8); (3) life (cf. Jas 1:12; Rev 2:10); and (4) glory (cf. 1Pe 5:4). These are wreaths that never fade. Should believers’ commitment and enthusiasm be any less than athletes? They strive for that which cannot last. We strive for that which cannot fade!
1Co 9:26-27 “I run. . .I box. . .beating” These are athletic metaphors to illustrate the need for rigid self control and discipline. The Christian life does have some rules and requirements. These relate to rewards, not salvation. Paul must have enjoyed the sporting events of his day, he uses them often as metaphors for the Christian life.
SPECIAL TOPIC: DEGREES OF REWARDS AND PUNISHMENT
1Co 9:27 “I discipline my body” This term, discipline, literally refers to being hit in the face just below the eyes. It is used figuratively in Luk 18:5.
Paul was serious about self-control in the Christian life. The body is not evil, but it is the battleground of temptation. If believers do not control the flesh/body it will control them (cf. Rom 8:1-11). This is not an easy one-time victory, but a long-term marathon of self-discipline for the cause of Christ. Self-control is the final virtue of the fruit of the Spirit in Gal 5:23.
The term “body” (sma) refers to Paul’s entire person. It is not one of three aspects of mankind. It often stands for the whole person (cf. 1Co 7:4; 1Co 13:3; Rom 12:2; Php 1:20). The Bible presents mankind as a unity (cf. Gen 2:7), not a dichotomy or trichotomy (cf. George E. Ladd, A Theology of the New Testament, pp. 464-466. See fuller note at 1Co 7:34.
NASB, NKJV “so that. . .I myself will not be disqualified”
NRSV”I myself should not be disqualified”
TEV”to keep myself from being disqualified”
NJB”I, myself may be disqualified”
This term “disqualified” is a metaphor related to breaking the rules of the athletic games and thereby being unable to win the contest (cf. 1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 4:7). It is from the root “to test” with a view toward approval (i.e., dokimazi), but with the alpha privative, which negates it (cf. 2Co 13:5).
This does not refer to Paul’s salvation (although it is used in this sense in 2Ti 3:8); even though the previous paragraph seems to (cf. 1Co 9:19-23). This would violate too many other doctrinal passages by Paul, especially in Romans and Galatians. He is discussing in this paragraph his fear of being undisciplined and being rejected as a proclaimer of the gospel. The NT records several who were disqualified (cf. 1Co 15:12; 1Ti 1:20; 2Ti 4:10). Paul wanted evangelistic fruit from converts and churches.
The training of young men for Greek games is mentioned in (1) Ars Poetica, 412 and (2) Ad Martyres, 3. It entailed ten months of strenuous physical, dietary, and social restrictions and regimens. Yet there is another valid way of viewing this text (cf. Hard Sayings of the Bible, by Kaiser, Davids, Bruce and Branch):
“In so writing the author strikes the balance found throughout the New Testament. The New Testament authors write out of an experience of the grace of Christ and a firm conviction that they are on their way to a greater inheritance in heaven. At the same time, they write with a concern that they or their readers could apostatize and thus lose what they already have. So long as people are following Christ, then the New Testament authors never express any hope that without repentance such people will enter heaven. This is a sobering, but not a fear-producing, type of tension seen in Paul (1Co 9:27; Gal 5:2; Gal 5:7-10; Php 3:12; 2Ti 4:7, sometimes speaking of the tension in his own life and sometimes speaking of his concern for others), James (Jas 5:20, the purpose of the letter being to ‘save [a sinner, meaning a believer who has turned to the world] from death’), Jude (Jud 1:23) and John (1Jn 5:16-17 KJV, the emphasis being on praying for people before they commit the ‘sin unto death’). The call to the modern reader is to pay attention to the warning and ‘to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised’ (Heb 6:12) so that the author would say of us as well, ‘We are confident of better things in your case-things that accompany salvation'” (p. 683).
race = race-course. Greek. stadion. Elsewhere translated “furlong”, the course being usually of this length.
prize. Greek. brabeion. Only here and Php 1:3, Php 1:14. Compare the verb, Col 3:15. (rule).
So. i.e. as these runners do.
obtain = lay hold of. Greek. katalambano. See Act 4:13.
24 ff.] This is my aim in all I do: but inasmuch as many run in a race, many reach the goal, but one only receives the prize,-I as an Apostle run my course, and you must so run yours, as each to labour not to be rejected at last, but to gain the glorious and incorruptible prize. This, as compared with the former context, seems to be the sense and connexion of the passage. He was anxious, as an Apostle, to labour more abundantly, more effectually than they all: and hence his condescension () to all men, and self-denial: accompanied with which was a humble self-distrust as to the great matter itself of his personal salvation, and an eager anxiety to secure it. These he proposes for their example likewise.
1Co 9:24. , know ye not?) The comparison is to a thing very well known to the Corinthians.-[80] , one) Although we knew, that one alone would be saved, still it would be well worth our while to run. [For what will become of those, who never cease to defend themselves by the inactivity of others. Comp. 1Co 10:5.-V. g.]- , , so run that ye may obtain) Paul speaks of himself to the end of the chapter; he does not yet exhort the Corinthians directly; therefore he seems here to introduce into his discourse by a third party[81] that sort of encouragement, which P. Faber, i. 2, Agonist. c. 32, shows that the judges of the combats, the instructors of the young in gymnastics and the spectators were accustomed to give;-also Chrysostom Hom. on the expression ; and Caesarius, quaest. 29; for the words, he says, they say,[82] are more than once omitted. See ch. 1Co 5:13, 1Co 15:32-33; Eph 6:2; Col 2:21; Psa 137:6; Jer 2:25; Jer 51:9. Therefore this is the sense here; they say, so run, etc.; and this clause belongs to the protasis, which is continued at the beginning of the following verse, , so, a particle expressive of praise as well as of exhortation, Php 4:1.-, run) All are urged, as if each, not merely one, was to obtain the prize.-, that) to the end that.
[80] , all) Comp. 1Co 10:1.-V. g.
[81] See Appendix, under the title Sermocinatio. So run that ye may obtain is not Pauls direct exhortation to the Corinthians, but the language of the spectators of the games, etc., to the racers, quoted by Paul as applying to himself. Comp. v. 26.Obliquely reference was meant to the Corinthians.-ED.
[82] Beng. means that Pauls omitting, in the allusion or quotation, As the saying is, does not militate against its being a quotation. For he elsewhere omits this express marking of quotations.-ED.
1Co 9:24
1Co 9:24
Know ye not that they that run in a race run all,-There is here an allusion to the Isthmian games, which took place every second year, at a place on the seacoast about nine miles from Corinth. These games had been one of the chief means of fostering the feeling of brotherhood in the Hellenic race. They were the greatest of the national gatherings; and even when one State was at war with another, hostilities were suspended during the celebration of the games. All competitors in the games had ten months training, under the directions of competent teachers and under various restrictions of diet. For thirty days previous to the contest the candidates had to attend the exercises at the gymnasium. At the beginning of the festival, they were required to prove to the judges that they were of pure Greek blood, and had not forfeited by misconduct the right of citizenship, and had undergone the necessary training.
Only after the fulfillment of these conditions were they allowed, and when the time arrived, to contend in the sight of assembled Greece. The race was not merely an exhibition of bodily strength, but solemn trials of the excellence of the competitors in the gymnastic art, and was to the Greeks one-half of the human education. Proclamation was made of the name of each competitor by a herald.
but one receiveth the prize?-Of the multitude of competitors one only received the prize. They ran with all their might-each exerted himself to the utmost. The desire to succeed was so intense that the contestants suffered great agony. The issue of the contest was watched by his relatives and friends with breathless interest. His success depended on his passing all rivals, so thy cheered him to greater exertion.
[The prize was a wreath of pine leaves, conferred on the successful contestant on the last day of the games. Every one thronged to see and congratulate him; his relatives, friends, and countrymen shedding tears of tenderness and joy, lifted him on their shoulders to show him to the crowd, and held him up to the applause of the whole assembly, who strewed handfuls of flowers over him. His family was greatly honored by his victory, and when he returned to his home, he rode in a triumphal chariot through a breach in the wall which enclosed the city, the object of this being to symbolize that for a city which was honored by such a citizen no walls of defense were needful. His name was sung in triumphal odes and his likeness was placed in the long line of statues which formed the approach to the adjacent temple. Such was the imagery before Pauls mind when he wrote these words.]
Even so run; that ye may attain.-That is, run as the victor runs, in order to attain. We have seen that the victors success depended on great self-denial in preparation, and the greatest possible effort in the contest. In the Christian race he who crowns is willing to crown not the first only but the last. Yet all must run in a certain way. What this so running is, we learn from the following. Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and hath sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2). This gives special prominence to the immense concourse which the Greek spectacle called together, as well as the necessity of being free from every hindrance and of straining to the utmost every nerve, in order to attain the heavenly runners prize.
Striving For A Crown
1Co 9:24-27
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (vv. 24-27)
There are two lines of truth running parallel through the Word of God; salvation, which is by grace alone, and reward for devoted service. Salvation is not a reward for anything that you or I may do, nor is heaven a reward for a life of faithfulness here on earth. Salvation is a free gift, eternal life is a free gift, heaven is the home of all the redeemed, open to every one who puts his or her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot pay for a place in heaven; we cannot earn it by tears, by sacrifices, by our gifts or by anything that we can do.
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.
Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress,
Helpless, look to Thee for grace.
That must ever be the confession of every saved soul. By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast (Eph 2:8-9). But while salvation, eternal life, a place in heaven, are all set before us as Gods free gifts to believing sinners, the Word of God has a great deal to say about the importance of service and about rewards for faithfulness. Behold, I come quickly, says our blessed Lord, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be (Rev 22:12). Manifestly, the reward is not a place with Himself in heaven, but it is the special expression of His satisfaction in the believer because of devotedness, because of faithfulness in the life. The importance of this is brought out in the passage before us.
The apostle Paul has the race course in mind. There is a great deal in the Bible about athletics. One can scarcely help coming to the conclusion that Saul of Tarsus was a thoroughly red-blooded young man, interested in games and sports and in everything that would challenge a normal, clean, decent young fellow such as he evidently was even before he was converted. What he saw in the games made a deep impression on his mind, and the Holy Spirit used all this in after years to give us some very striking and remarkable illustrations, one of which we have here. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? What is the prize at the end of the race? For a young Greek it would not be citizenship. It was a law with the Greeks that no young man could contend in the games unless he could prove that he was of pure Greek parentage; that had to be settled before he became a contestant. As the people watched the races they knew that those young men were already Greeks by birth. They were Greek citizens running a race. For what? To obtain honor, to obtain glory, to obtain a prize. And so the apostle here pictures those who are saved as running a race. We are already heavenly citizens. Of every Christian it is written, Our [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall [transform] our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body (Php 3:20-21). Our citizenship is settled if we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are not born Christians, but we are born-again Christians. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again (Joh 3:6-7).
It is a great moment in the souls history when he awakes to realize that by nature and practice he is an alien, alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works (Col 1:21), that he does not belong to the family of God; that ere he can belong to the family of God a change must take place, a change which he himself cannot effect, but which God brings about by His sovereign power. Of his own will, says James, begat He us [by] the word of truth (Jam 1:18). Notice, it is through the Word that we are begotten of God. Peter says, Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the Word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word [not the whole Bible as such] which by the gospel is preached unto you (1Pe 1:23-25). Believing the gospel we are born into the family of God. And now, as in the family of God, we are running a race, not to get to heaven for, as far as that is concerned, It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy (Rom 9:16), but we are running a race for reward for Christian service, Christian responsibility, and if we run our race well, there is a reward at the end. If we fail in the race, we fail in the reward. We do not fail of heaven, of salvation, because our work is not all it ought to be or all we would like it to be. If any mans work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire (1Co 3:15), provided he is a Christian.
So the apostle says, Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. If I am going to run in order to obtain a prize, I must do it in obedience to the Word of God. If a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully (2Ti 2:5). The 1911 King James Version translates it, If a man contend in the games yet is he not crowned if he hath not observed the rules. God has given us instruction in the Word concerning how we are to serve, how we are to run, what we are to do, and we will be rewarded if we go in accordance with the Book.
An incident struck me forcibly some years ago when working among the Indians in New Mexico. It was during the time of the Olympic games in Stockholm, Sweden. One Saturday night I went to the traders store. He was a very intelligent Christian Indian, and was also my interpreter. He was standing up on a chair with perhaps forty or fifty Indians crowded around him, and he was reading from a newspaper and interpreting it for these Indians. I stepped up behind him, and as I looked over his shoulder, I saw that he had a metropolitan newspaper containing an account of the games in Stockholm, Sweden, telling of the triumphs of that well-known Indian athlete, James Thorpe. Many of these Indians knew him well, and how proud they were to think that one of their race had gone over there and, contending with a great number of different athletes, had carried away the greater part of the prizes. Their enthusiasm knew no bounds when the interpreter translated the words of the King of Sweden as he took him by the hand and said, You, sir, are the greatest amateur athlete in the world today. Those Indians were so interested because he was one of their own, and had beaten the white man in his own games.
A few weeks later I went into the store again. Once more the trader was reading from a newspaper, but this time the atmosphere was tense. I could feel that something was wrong. The Indians were scowling and grunting and I wondered what it was all about, so I stepped behind the interpreter again and looked over his shoulder, and read that a certain white man had been indignant that an Indian should have carried off so many prizes, and so made an investigation of his past life and found that some years before when a student at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he had received five dollars a week during the summer months for playing ball with a village baseball team. They unearthed the evidence, sent it to the King of Sweden, and proved to him that James Thorpe had no right to participate in the games at all because they were entirely for amateurs. He had taken money for playing ball, and that put him out of the amateur class. The king had written to Thorpe and asked him to send back all the papers and medals, and it had nearly broken his heart. He sent all back and wrote to the king, I hope your majesty will not think too hard of me. Please remember that I am only a poor ignorant Indian boy. I did not know that taking five dollars a week for playing ball on the village baseball team made me a professional. I never meant to deceive. The sequel of that story was that the man who came next in the contests sent them all back to Jim and said, I wont keep them; you did better than I, and you deserve them. James Thorpe did his work well, but he had not observed the rules, and he lost out accordingly.
I am afraid there is many a one who does a great deal of what we call Christian work, works early and late, and hard and often, and yet who will fail of the reward at the judgment seat of Christ because instead of going by the Word of God he has simply been following his own ideas and inclinations. So run, that ye may obtain. How important, fellow Christians, that we study the Bible and learn what Gods mind is, and then work accordingly.
Now notice the importance of self-control. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. One cannot help but admire some of these splendid young athletes as they look forward to a field day or something of the kind. How self-denying they can be as they train down. They will set a mark and say, I must enter the field weighing just so much, and before that day I have so many pounds to lose, for I must be at my very best. Some of their friends may say, Come, now, let us go out and indulge in this and that. But the athlete who means to succeed says, I cannot do that, I must be at my best when I get into the arena. I cannot, I dare not dissipate. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown. In this instance it was a wreath of laurel which would fade away in a few hours, and yet how much young men were willing to endure to win that crown, to have it placed upon their brow by the judge among the plaudits of the people. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. We have an incorruptible crown in view, and shall we be less consistent, less self-denying, shall we show less self-control than they? For us there stands in the distance the blessed Lord Himself waiting to place upon our brow the incorruptible crown, and alas, alas, many of us are in danger of losing it because we are so self-indulgent, so careless, so carnal, and so worldly minded. Let us take a lesson from the athlete and be willing to give up present pleasures for future glory.
The crown, you see, is the symbol of reward. It is presented in different ways in the Scriptures. In the second chapter of 1 Thessalonians the apostle, speaking to his own converts, says, What is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming? (v. 19). What is the crown of rejoicing? That is the soul-winners crown. Oh, to get home to heaven to stand at the judgment seat of Christ, and see there a great throng that one has had the privilege of leading to Christ! What a crown, what a reward that will be! Think what it will mean for the apostle Paul when surrounded by all his converts he comes before the Lord and says, Behold I and the children which God hath given me. Are you going in for a crown of rejoicing? It is your privilege if you know Christ.
The apostle says to Timothy, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing (2Ti 4:7-8). The gift of righteousness is ours by faith. Every believer has been made the righteousness of God in Christ, but the crown of righteousness is the reward given so those who behave themselves in the light of the coming again of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you love His appearing? How do you show it? By ordering your behavior now in view of His close return. Every man that hath this hope [set on] him purifieth himself, even as he is pure (1Jn 3:3).
In James and in the book of the Revelation we have another term used. In Revelation we read, Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life (2:10). And James says, Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him (Jam 1:12). Eternal life is ours by faith. The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 6:23). He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life (Joh 3:36). But the crown of life is earned by patient suffering, by enduring trial and temptation, taking it all as from the hand of God Himself, even unto death if need be rather than to deny the name of Jesus.
In 1 Peter we read, The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of God which is among you. He does not say, Fleece the flock, but, Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over Gods heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away (1Pe 5:1-4). I like that, a crown of glory! Every believer will be glorified. Whom he justified, them he also glorified (Rom 8:30), but the crown of glory is the reward for feeding the sheep and the lambs. In the earliest Chinese translations they had different terms for some of the idioms used. 1Pe 5:4 would read like this, When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, you will receive a bright hat that will never wear out. A crown of glory that fadeth not away is to be given by the blessed Lord Himself. My brethren, shall we allow the things of time and sense to so absorb us that we shall lose out in that day? Let us rather gladly say:
Take the world and give me Jesus,
All earths joys are but in vain;
But His love abideth ever,
Through eternal years the same.
Let us gladly lay aside every weight, and the sin that doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God(Heb 12:1-2).
This was Pauls determination, I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. Some people imagine that Paul was not quite sure that he would get to heaven, that he feared that something might happen that would turn him aside. But he is thinking of the reward at the end, and he is not afraid of losing this for he is determined to go through with God. He says that he is not uncertain; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air. I am not engaged in a sham battle. And then, how important this is!-But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. What does he mean? Is it just a haunting fear that he may backslide and be lost after all? Keep in mind what he is speaking of here. He is speaking of reward for service, and is saying, I want to so serve that I can have the Lords approval in that day. I must not be self-indulgent, I must not let my physical passions master me, but I must master them and keep under my body. My body is not to be the lord of me, I am to be the lord of my body. Sustained by divine grace I am to keep every physical appetite in its place, lest if I become careless and self-indulgent I bring dishonor upon the name of the Lord and become a castaway.
What does he mean by a castaway? The word adokimos means disapproved. Lest he be disapproved, lest the Lord shall say to him someday, Paul, I had a crown for you, I was counting on you, and for a while you ran well. What hindered you? You became self-indulgent and careless, and you broke down and brought dishonor upon My name. I cannot crown you, Paul; you will have to stand to one side and let someone else have the crown. To be set to one side when they are giving out the crowns! God grant that you and I may not have to endure this great disappointment.
Have you not known of those who ran well for years and then little by little began to let down? They were not as prayerful as they used to be, they did not give as much time to the careful study of the Word as they did in the early days, they gave freer rein to the natural appetites, they thought more of their own pleasure and of taking their ease, and one day the whole Christian community in which they moved was startled to hear that there had been a terrible breakdown. They may have confessed it all with breaking hearts and eyes from which the tears were streaming, they may have judged it all and turned from it, yet people never trusted them again as they had before, and possibly they were never able to go on with their ministry. No matter how freely and fully God had forgiven, they never could be what they once were. Some experiences are simply heartbreaking, and so the word to every one who attempts to help others in spiritual things is, be careful of yourselves. Take heed to thyself, says the apostle writing to Timothy. Keep your physical appetites in subjection, keep your body in its place, do not allow any appetite to master you, and thus you will be able to serve to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you become careless, He may have to put you to one side, and He who once used you will not be able to do so in the future in the way He did in the past.
The word disapprove is also used for complete disapproval. You may be a church member taking more or less part in so-called Christian work, but see to it that there is a real work of grace in your own soul, or the day may come when you will be utterly disapproved and you will find yourself outside the number of those who enter into the Fathers house in that day, not because you were once saved and are so no longer, but because your life has proved that you were never truly born of God.
race
race-course.
they: Hos 12:10
run in: Psa 19:5, Ecc 9:11, Jer 12:5
so run: 1Co 9:26, Gal 2:2, Gal 5:7, Phi 2:16, Phi 3:14, 2Ti 4:7, 2Ti 4:8, Heb 12:1, Jam 1:12, Rev 3:11
Reciprocal: Psa 119:32 – run Ecc 9:10 – thy hand Luk 13:24 – Strive Joh 5:7 – before Joh 6:27 – the meat Joh 20:4 – outrun Act 20:24 – I might Rom 6:3 – Know 1Co 3:16 – Know 1Co 6:9 – Know 2Co 13:5 – Know Phi 2:12 – work Phi 3:13 – and reaching 2Ti 2:5 – strive Heb 12:15 – Looking
THE HEAVENLY RACE
So run, that ye may obtain.
1Co 9:24
I speak to those who, really believing in Christ, are emancipated from the fetter of sin and are living in the obedience of Gods moral law, to those who feel that the vows of God are upon themthat they have solemnly pledged themselvesand that they are desirous to proceed, in the Lords Name, to the holy work of getting to heaven.
I. In the stripping-room.St. Paul, in another place (using the same image), calls all to go who would get to heaven to the stripping-room, to the stripping yourselves of all those unnecessary weights which must inevitably trammel your steps, and prevent your progress, and preclude your triumph, if you run. Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. There are some here who, while they could not be fairly charged with any particular breach of Gods moral law, are, nevertheless, sadly and fearfully weighted with many things. You call them pleasures. God calls them weights. Getting money, hoarding money, personal vanity, worldly amusements, society where God is not, self-indulgence, private selfishnesswhat are these things but clogs, clogs that have loaded your soul for many a year and dragged it down to the dust? And what has been will be again. You cannot run with those things on. Will you cumber and tie up your energies when you need to stretch them to the uttermost? Will you bind the soul which longs to fly? Why, in the natural course, men are minute and accurate to the weight of an ounce, and will you trifle with those fearful odds?
II. Pressing toward the mark.St. Paul, speaking of himself in the Epistle to the Philippians, says, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Do you understand the expression, I press toward the mark for the prize? It cannot be that the mark and the prize are the same thing. What does the mark mean? The mark means a certain line, which was drawn along the course, to show the runners exactly where they were to run; so that if you would run lawfully, take care not only that you are going to the right object, but that you are pursuing that object along the right line. Press to the mark. And what is the Christians mark to which he must press? In general words, the scriptural method of salvation which God has pointed outtrue doctrine, the use of all ordinances, prayer, public worship, sacraments, the Bible, personal holiness, the fellowships of Christians, works of love.
III. Every race quickens as it proceeds; and the competition grows greater. The whole man must be in it. Every faculty that God has given you must be put forth. Your intellect, your affections, your spirit, your body, must all work, and work intently. You must stretch to the point, and beyond the point where the stretch is pain. Your conflict, indeed, is not with those who are engaged with you in the same pursuitfor in this race he wins the highest prize who has urged on and assisted, all the way, his fellowsbut your race is to beat the world; your race is to outstrip your own wicked heart; your race is to overcome wicked deeds, and you are to emulate and strive to overreach that which is good.
IV. The secret of every race is fixedness of eye.Therefore this Apostle has given us, in two separate places, two directions in this matter of the fixed eye.
(a) The first is that we should forget the things which are behindwhich means, not the world, which we have abandoned; and our old tastes and pursuits, which we had once; but that we must be always counting our own past attainment nothing, utterly despising all we have done and all we are, contrasting it with the higher degrees always opening before us with infinite series, in which grace is always to be climbing up to glory, and glory climbing up to God.
(b) Secondly, the Apostle gives us this one short, emphatic, blessed exhortationthe very sum and centre of all the peace and of all the triumph of every soul that ever got to heavenLooking unto Jesus.
Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration
Your stadium is the little span of your present existence; the spectators are none other than the holy angels, who are encompassing you all round, and look down upon you from their higher spheres; the heralds are the ministers of Gods grace, who call you to the contest and animate you by the way; the competitors are the whole Church militant; the umpire, to award the victors crown, is the Lord Jesus; and the crown is life eternal.
(SECOND OUTLINE)
THE RACE OF LIFE
Man has to overcome sin, to subdue self, and to live a holy life. The Apostle compares that endeavour which lasts through all our life to a race. The life of man is like a race.
I. There is only a certain time allowed for it.The race must be won then, or not at all. The work of mans life must be done during life or not at all. Work while it is called to-day; for the night cometh, when no man can work, says our Lord Jesus.
II. It requires to-days duties to be done to-day; not left for to-morrow. We must not flatter ourselves with the idea that we will care for our souls by and by, that we will try to be good at some future time. To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
III. Another point of likeness is that we must be in earnest.That is the very thing the Apostle insists upon in the text. So run that ye may obtain. How does the runner behave himself in the race? Does he loiter, does he look from side to side, does he stop, does he even slacken his pace and go easily and slowly? Not at all. His eye is fixed upon the end of the course; every muscle is strained to the utmost; his whole frame is full of one desireto get forwards. His eagerness almost adds wings to his feet. What are the miles that lie behind him to his eager desire? It is those in front that engage his attention, that he longs to attain.
Illustration
At its times of eruption it is dangerous to go near Vesuvius. You may be suffocated by a shower of ashes, or consumed by one of the streams of lava (that is, liquid fire) which it casts out, and which flow down its sides like brooks. And this makes it still more dangerous to go any way up the mountain. It cracks open under your feet and throws up a fresh stream of boiling flame when you least expect it. You would not think that people would linger there exposed to such terrible danger, but they sometimes have done; they were held fast by the grandeur of the sight, they could not make up their minds to leave it; plenty of time yet, they thought, till a fresh gulf opened below them and the way to safety was cut off. Then the ground began to sway and bend under their feet, soon to give way altogether and give them alive into the very jaws of the fire. They had not been in earnest to escape. They had lingered too long. Now every human soul has a more fearful destruction than that of Vesuvius to escape from. He has to flee from the wrath to come.
(THIRD OUTLINE)
RULES OF THE RACE
The question for all of us is, How are we to run so that we may obtain? This question is for all, since, though in these old-world games only one received the prize while many ran, all who run the Christian race and reach the goal lawfully are crowned without exception.
I. Run, for the Christian life is a veritable race, with definite conditions and efforts and aims. Until this fact is realised by faith and spiritual enlightenment no one can or will run successfully. Unless a due sense of it is kept alive in our hearts by the impressions of Gods Word and providence made on them by the Holy Spirit, we do not feel, or we lose the feeling, that our life is a high and holy and arduous undertaking.
II. Run determined to win whoever else wins.This is specially emphasised by the Apostle in connection with the fact that only one of many competitors received the prize in any contest. Be like the winner, he says: run as he runs. Do not grudge any self-denial or preparation or effort; turn aside for nothing; halt for nothing; strive each of you to be the champion of the course. In the Christian conflict all who run lawfully are crowned, and no one will fail who is bent on winning. But this must not weaken resolution, or energy, or endurance; must not gender carelessness, easy-going contentment with a slow and faltering progress, listlessness, false security. Though certain of winning along with others the incorruptible crown, we must not relax effort until it is won.
III. Run with due preparation and fitting self-mastery.So St. Paul spoke of keeping under his bodyusing a sort of technical term or slang phrase of the Greek wrestlersliterally, I give my body a black eye. Regarding his body as the organ of sin, the seat of temptation, and the stronghold of ruinous self-indulgence, he showed it no mercy, dealt with it as an adversary, hit it hard, beat it black and blue, as it were, to subdue its sensuality, and make those fleshly lusts which warred against the spirit lose their power.
IV. Run with hope and fear.Keep the crown before the eye of faith.
(FOURTH OUTLINE)
SO RUN
I. Run with an obedient heart.Obey the rules of the course and fulfil the Divine command. Not as uncertainly.
II. Run with a self-denying heart, taking up your cross daily and following Christ.
III. Run with a persevering heart, daunted by no dangers, surprised by no difficulties, overcome by no temptations.
IV. Run with a charitable heart.Others in this race may gain a prize as well as you.
Those Whom God Chooses
1Co 9:24-27
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
There are none of us who would not desire to be used of God in a large way. This is not an unholy ambition. We should not seek great things for ourselves. We should seek them for God.
“I want in this short life of mine,
As much as can be pressed,
Of service true to God and man,
Help me to be my best;
I want in radiant garments, fine,
In Heaven to be confessed,
Among His chosen ones to stand,
His holiest and best.”
-Adapted.
Daniel Webster once said, “Strike for the top, my friend; there’s plenty of room at the top.” We use this quotation as an inspiration to us to strike for God’s best gifts.
Paul wrote of many running in the race, and of one receiving the prize; then he said, “So run, that ye may obtain.”
Men run in the games and stretch every nerve in order that they may obtain a corruptible crown; we run with the same energy and indomitable courage, but we run to obtain an incorruptible crown.
“The prize is set before us,
To win, His Word implores us;
The eye of God is o’er us
From on high.”
Paul also wrote of how he stretched the neck for God’s best. He wanted to know Christ and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death, if by any means he might attain the resurrection (out-resurrection) from the dead. He did not claim to have apprehended the goal, but he pressed, “for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
That it is right to strive for God’s best things, all, we believe, will grant. The question for us today, however, is, “That one that God chooses.” We will present seven different individuals who were chosen of God to accomplish a great work for Him. Surely all of these were people who had sought God’s best, and were chosen of God because of their fitness for the task.
Christians need to be prepared in spirit and life, so that when the exigency arises they may be prepared to answer to the call of God.
To obtain God’s best in the realm of rewards when Christ comes back, we must of necessity be our best down here in every way. It was the servant who had traded faithfully with his talent, and had gained ten talents, who was made ruler over ten cities. The slothful servant who hid his talent lost even the talent he had, and in addition received the chastisement of his lord.
If we are chosen of God to serve in any signal way among men, we will certainly be rewarded just as signally, if we prove worthy of our trust.
Let us magnify our privileges of serving the Lord Jesus Christ. It is no small matter to be called into partnership with the Eternal One. It is worth the while to spend and be spent for such an One.
Men of this world are delighted when chosen by the government to hold high office. A friend a few days ago was telling us how he was thrilled when he received from the king of Belgium, some medal or other for signal service rendered during the war. Another, a lady, who for faithful service during one of the English wars, received from the Queen the “Victoria Cross,” was made unspeakably glad.
Let us then seek to serve Him, and to be chosen of Him to any signal task, and we will rejoice in the day of Christ, when we receive His “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”
I. ENOCH CHOSEN TO WALK WITH GOD (Gen 5:24)
Enoch lived half way from Adam to Noah. He lived in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. The world was fast ripening in wickedness and was hastening on toward its judgment. The hearts of men were continually set in them to do evil; God was not in all of their thoughts. Every imagination of the thoughts of the hearts of men was only evil.
In the midst of conditions ripening fast in all iniquity, Enoch walked with God.
God rejected the sons of men; but He chose Enoch to walk with Him. Others may have loved God, but Enoch loved Him supremely. Others may have testified of God and preached His righteousness among the men of Enoch’s day, but only Enoch was chosen to so signal an honor.
The New Testament bears record, that Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God. How did he please Him? Perhaps it was because he prophesied that the Lord was coming with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment against all of the ungodly, and to convince them of their ungodly deeds, which they ungodly committed, and of their hard speeches which they in ungodliness had spoken.
How then can we be among those whom God will choose and bless with His comradeship? We must be clean, and separated from the evil ways of men; but we must also give true testimony against their ungodliness.
Remember that Enoch was brought forth in that little Book of Jude, the Book that says, we should contend earnestly for the faith. Days similar to those which faced Enoch, are before us. He lived before the flood; we live before the tribulation-let us go forth with Christ outside the camp, bearing His reproach; let us testify to the ungodliness of men, and let us proclaim that Christ is soon coming; then we shall have the joy of walking with God, as Enoch walked; and we may be caught up into the skies by our Lord before the end of our days, and be not, because God has taken us.
II. MOSES CHOSEN TO DELIVER ISRAEL (Exo 3:10)
The moment the mind goes to Moses, it involuntarily lingers a moment around the ark of bulrushes down by the river’s brink. It was there that God had in preparation the future deliverer of His people.
The command of Pharaoh was that all the male children of the Israelites were to be slain; therefore God not only outwitted Pharaoh, but forced Pharaoh to bring up a Jewish lad, instructing him in all the custom and wisdom of the Egyptians.
Moses had an eventful life as the adopted son of Pharaoh’s daughter. That he was a real man we know, because even in the lap of Egyptian luxuries he was not unmindful of his own race, which, under the king’s cruelty was daily being subjected to utmost cruelty.
Moses therefore, when he had come to years, made his choice. First, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; secondly, he chose rather to suffer affliction with the Children of Israel than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; thirdly, he esteemed the reproach of Christ as greater riches than all of the treasures of Egypt, and, finally, he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king.
Back of all of this, in Moses’ mind and heart, were two things: first he saw Him, who is invisible; and, secondly, he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.
Do you wonder that when the time struck for God to deliver Israel, He chose Moses? Moses was worthy of choice. Moses was, by this time, tried, and proved. Few men were ever more fitted for leadership, and none more fitted for the leadership of so great a host under so trying conditions.
God knew the need and God knew the man. May we be made ready, not for Moses’ task, but for ours.
III. DAVID CHOSEN AS KING (1Sa 16:11-13)
Saul had been the people’s choice as king over Israel. They had chosen him for his splendid physique, and human appeal.
When the time came for God to intervene and choose a king, He sent His Prophet Samuel to Bethlehem, to the house of Jesse. As the sons of Jesse came forth, Samuel thought within himself, as he saw Eliab, Jesse’s oldest son, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is before Him.” Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth.”
One by one the other sons came up, but none of them were chosen. Finally, David was brought in from the sheep-fold-“Arise, and anoint him: for this is he.”
Is it possible for us to discern why God chose David? We suggest some things that his early manhood displayed:
1. David was a youth of marvelous courage. He had met a bear that had sought to destroy his sheep, and had slain him. He was ready to meet the giant Goliath, panoplied only with a sling and five smooth stones.
2. David was a man of undaunted faith. He trusted in God. He said as he met the giant, “This day will the Lord deliver thee into my hand.”
3. David was a man of becoming humility. He took no praise to himself as Goliath fell, but said, “That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.”
4. David was possessed with a heart of praise. His chief delight was playing his harp as he gave glory unto the Lord. In after years he wrote many hymns of praise; and appointed sweet singers in Israel.
5. David was willing, uncomplainingly, to endure hardships and privations for the Lord. He was driven from the face of Saul, and was made an outcast from home and nation.
Let us prove true to God at any cost, and God will soon be laying His hands on us for special service.
IV. AMOS CHOSEN TO BE A PROPHET IN A TIME OF NEED (Amo 1:1)
Elisha left his oxen to follow Elijah. Amos was one of the herdsmen of Tekoa. Should we expect God to enter the realms of the lowly to discover the stalwart and the strong to bear His banner to the front of the conflict?
It still is true that God hath chosen the weak things to confound the mighty, and the things that are not to bring to naught the things that are.
God looks deep into the heart and life. He sees through the outer roughness of dress and poverty of environment, and reads character, and character under stress and trials. He chooses those who will pass through fire and flood unflinchingly. He chooses men who will not turn back when once their hands have touched the plow.
Amos was first a seer in the real sense of the word-he saw things concerning Israel. He was a man who took orders and obeyed commands. What he was told to speak, he spoke. He did not prophesy smooth things. He was in no sense a dumb dog, lying down and loving to slumber, Amos courted no favor and feared no frown. He said, “Thus saith the Lord,” with a conviction of truth that accepted no gainsaying. He was a man sent from God, delivering the Word of God, and never caring or daring to add one word of his own by way of addition or subtraction. He did not adopt soft and meaningless phrases to express the judgments of God on a disobedient nation. He continually thundered out, “Hear ye the word of the Lord.”
Amos was not all gloom; but he was gloom when God said gloom. Amos also saw the light of another and a better day for Israel. He told of the time when the ruins of David’s tabernacle would be rebuilded, and when the nation would be for ever established in their land.
Now we can grasp, perhaps, in part, why God chose Amos. Let us be of a like caliber-willing to preach the preaching that He bids us, fearing no man’s face.
V. ESTHER CHOSEN AS THE FRIEND OF HER RACE (Est 2:8-9)
It was to an orphan, brought up in the home of her uncle, that God turned to befriend His people, and to save them from the tyranny of their enemies.
One need not be surprised as they see all of the other maidens of Media-Persia rejected, while Esther, the beautiful Jewish maiden, was chosen as queen to Ahasuerus.
We often fail to see the stately steppings of God in the affairs of men, but after all, He moves to place the men of His choice in the places where they can best serve His Word and work.
Women have had no unimportant part in God’s choice of servants. We remember Rebekah, and Sarah, and Hannah, and Deborah, and Mary, mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene, and Phebe, and Priscilla, and Julia, and Lydia, and many others. Indeed we cry, “The women who publish the glad tidings are a great host.”
It was women who “received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection.”
God give us women whom God may choose to turn the tide of the enemies’ power and sway! Esther was such an one as this. How beautiful she appears to us as she stood at the door seeking audience with her sire! How wonderful as she appeals to him to spare her people! She knew that he might depose her; for she was running counter to Haman one of the king’s favorite sons. Yet she laid her life and her all on the throne of sacrifice, and God heard and answered prayer.
VI. JOHN CHOSEN TO LEAN ON JESUS’ BREAST (Mat 4:21-22)
As the Lord walked along the way, He first called Peter and Andrew, and then James and John. Perhaps, had we stood hard by, we would have marveled that One so great and mighty, should select men of such humble affairs. As a rule, all men were seeking their own, but Christ knew that these men would seek His own, His will and His way, and ultimately pass on to tragic deaths for Him.
John was known as Boanerges, the son of thunder. But how gentle and loving was John as a son of God.
Christ chose John, it seems to us, because of two great features that dominated John’s character.
1. Dark days were ahead of the Lord, and He knew it. He had come forth from the Father, and had come into the world steadily pressing His way toward the slaughter. He was the destined “Man of sorrows, and acquainted with griefs.” He was to be, “Despised and rejected of men.” What the Lord wanted was some one to love Him, and to lean on His breast. Nothing in the life of Christ is more soul-stirring than the Last Supper scene. Jesus was exceedingly troubled in spirit, and He said, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray Me!” The disciples turned, looking at one another. Hear now the words: “Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.” Oh, how wonderful it all seems!
Among many things-this was one reason that Jesus chose John.
2. The resurrection and the ascension had passed. Days of testings had come, when Satan sought to deceive the flock. Then John ministered to them. Hear now the man whom God chose! Read his words. They are to be found first of all in the Gospel that bears his name; then in the three Epistles that likewise bear his name, and then in Revelation, His Epistles reveal John’s inner soul. He writes again and again, “Little children.” He writes of Love and Life and Light. Love, love, love. Christ chose John to love Him, and to love the brethren.
May we be chosen to a similar task!
AN ILLUSTRATION
FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH
When the Emperor Licinius was persecuting the Christians in Armenia, the Thundering Legion was stationed at Sebaste. Forty men in that Legion declared themselves Christians, and were sentenced to be exposed naked all night on a frozen pool-for it was winter, and bitterly cold. In a house on the edge of the pool a large fire was kindled, and food and wine and a warm bath were prepared under the charge of Sempronius, a centurion, and a guard of soldiers; and it was announced to the forty, that if any of them left the pool and entered the house, they would be considered to have denied Christ. So night came on, and the keen wind from Mount Caucasus made the citizens close their windows and doors more tightly, and heap up the fuel on their hearths. And on the frozen pool were the forty warriors, some standing lost in prayer, some walking quickly to and fro, some already sleeping that sleep which only ends in death. And ever and again, as the hours went slowly by they prayed: “O Lord, forty wrestlers have come forth to fight for Thee; grant that forty wrestlers may receive the crown of victory.” And now. as the cold grew more intense, one of the forty could endure no longer, and he left the pool and came to the house where Sempronius and his men were keeping guard. But still the martyrs’ prayer went up to heaven: “O God, forty wrestlers have come forth to fight for Thee; grant that forty wrestlers may receive the crown of victory.” And the prayer was answered. Sempronius, the centurion, was touched by his comrades’ bravery. He declared himself a Christian, and took his place upon the frozen pool. And when the cold had done its work, and forty corpses lay upon the ice, forty glorious spirits, with Sempronius among them, entered into the presence of their King.
1Co 9:24. In the foot races that were common in those days, there could be but one successful contestant for the prize. There need be no limitation as to the number of winners in the Christian race. The point is that each man should run as if only one could win, and he was determined to be that one.
1Co 9:24. Know ye not that they which run in a raceGr. stadion or race-coursea space of little more than a hundred yards; and so called because the most noted race-course of the Greeks was of that length.
run all, but oneone onlyreceiveth the prize? So runthat is, run as if ye could win the prize only by outstripping all your competitors in the race.
that ye may obtain. The aptitude and point of this and the following illustrations will be seen in the fact, that not only were the Grecian games of universal interest and familiar to all his readers, but that the most popular of them allthe Isthmian gameswere celebrated in the immediate neighbourhood of Corinth.
Our apostle, according to his custom in sundry epistles, does in the end of this chapter fall upon the use of terms agonistical, borrowed from the olympic and other Grecian games, celebrated near Corinth, in which the contending parties did put forth all their strength, to out-do one another. These games were running, cuffing, and wrestling: all which the apostle here alludes unto, and first to running: They which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize. So run the Christian race, that ye may obtain the prize.
Learn hence, That Christianity is a race which God hath set us, and it is our duty faithfully and perseveringly to run it. In a race, the foundation of it is a prize; in a race there is a considerable distance between one goal and another; in a race-plat for the racers to run in, there are certain laws to run by, and there is a certain judge to determine who wins the crown fairly.
Now this race of Christianity vastly differs from all other races thus: This is a spiritual race, it strains not legs and lungs, but faith and patience. Other races are performed by natural abilities, but this by a supernatural power and strength. Those races might be run without disturbance, but not this. Their reward but a garland of bays, ours a crown of immortality.
But what is it to run this race?
Ans. It supposes a motion, it imports a vehement and intense motion, it implies progress and proficiency; every step brings the racer nearer the goal: and it implies perseverance; the racer must hold it to the last, or he loses his labour and reward: every one that thus runs shall obtain the prize, whereas in other races but one receiveth the prize.
Controlling Self To Receive The Prize
All the talk about sacrifice reminded Paul of the sacrifice and self-control necessary to reach the heavenly goal. He used the illustration of runners who sacrifice many hard hours of training devoting themselves to the single purpose of winning. Likewise, Christians should devote their whole being to their purpose of reaching heaven ( Php 3:12-14 ; Rom 12:12 ; Heb 12:12 ). Athletes give up much, through self-control, to attain a perishable crown, but Christians strive to reach an imperishable crown ( 1Co 9:24-25 ; 1Pe 5:4 ).
Knowing the value of the prize, Paul said he ran without hesitation. He was not practicing but running the actual race. Like an Olympic boxer in the ring for competition, the apostle sent his punches straight to their mark. Paul fought the desires of his flesh to control them. McGarvey suggests that Paul had been like a herald telling the rules of the game. It would be tragic for the announcer not to meet the announced requirements ( 1Co 9:26-27 ).
1Co 9:24-25. Know ye not that In those famous games, which are kept in the isthmus, near your city; they who run in a race , in the stadium, (so the place was called where the athletes contended,) run indeed all And contend one with another; but one Only of them all; receiveth the prize Whereas in the Christian race, the success of one is no hinderance to that of others. How much greater encouragement then have you to run, since you may all receive the prize of your high calling. And every man that striveth for the mastery That there contendeth; is temperate in all things To an almost incredible degree; using the most rigorous self-denial in food, sleep, and every other sensual indulgence. It may not be improper to observe here, that those who taught the gymnastic art, prescribed to their disciples the kind of meat that was proper, the quantity they were to eat, and the hours at which they were to eat: they prescribed to them likewise the hours of their exercise and rest: they forbade them the use of wine and women. So Horace tells us, Article Poetry, line 412:
Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam, Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit, Abstinuit Venere et Baccho.
A youth who hopes the Olympic prize to gain, All arts must try, and every toil sustain; The extremes of heat and cold must often prove, And shun the weakening joys of wine and love. FRANCIS.
This whole course, which lasted for many years, was called , exercise. Hence the ancient monks, who imitated, and even outstripped, the athletics in their rules of temperance, and in the laboriousness of their exercises, were called , ascetics. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown The crowns for which the Greeks contended in their games, were, for the most part, of the leaves of trees, which, though evergreens, soon withered. In the Olympic games, sacred to Jupiter, the crowns were of the wild olive; in the Pythian, sacred to Apollo, they were of laurel; in the Isthmian, of pines; and in the Neman, of smallage, or parsley. The honours, likewise, of which these crowns were the pledges, by length of time lost their agreeableness, and at last perished, being all confined to the present life. But we are animated by the view of an incorruptible crown; termed a crown of righteousness, 2Ti 4:8; and a crown of life, Jas 1:12; and Rev 2:10. A crown this which never fades, as the word , here used, implies: that is, there never shall be any period put to the honours and advantages of it. As a reason for what the apostle here says, Dr. Macknight thinks that his enemies, (who, from his not taking a maintenance, inferred that he was no apostle,) affirmed, that whatever disinterestedness he might pretend, it was not credible that he would undergo such continued labour in preaching, and in complying with the humours of mankind, unless he had reaped some present advantage from his labours. But to show them the futility of their reasoning, he desired them to consider the long course of laborious discipline and exercise which the contenders in the Grecian games submitted to, for so small a prize as a crown of leaves; which, after their utmost pains, they were not sure of obtaining, and which, when obtained, would soon fade, with all its honours and advantages. Whereas, by the labours and sufferings which he underwent as an apostle, he was sure of obtaining an infinitely better crown, which would never fade.
Vv. 24. Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
In the application, the goal is no more identical with the prize, than in the actual case. The goal is perfect holiness; the prize is glory, the crown of holiness. Of course, in mentioning the fact that out of a number of runners only one reaches the goal first, and obtains the prize, the apostle does not mean, that of the multitude of Christians only one will be saved. What he desires to inculcate by the figure is, that to succeed in the Christian race, one must labour for his salvation with the same energy and the same resolution to reach the goal of holiness, as this one victor to reach the goal of the race. Like him, the Christian must learn to forget everything else, that he may see only the goal to be reached. They are not very many, Paul means, who, while calling themselves Christians, run after this manner! The word , so, may be regarded as a particle of inference: so then run, that ye may obtain. But it may also be made the antecedent of the conjunction : Run in such a way that… There is more vivacity in this second meaning of . This little word, rightly understood, seems intended to cheer and stimulate the runners. It is objected, that instead of the , that, a , so that, would have been needed. But the brings out better the aspiration of the runner after victory.
When the apostle speaks of this one, does he allude to his own mode of acting? Possibly (1Co 9:26-27). In any case they ought to beware, those Corinthians fond of their ease and obstinately attached to their rights and libertieslest they be in the end like those slack runners who lose the prize. To win, it is not enough to run, it is needed to run well (Rckert). This idea is the transition to the following verse.
Know ye not that they that run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? [Phi 3:12-14] Even so run; that ye may attain. [In the Greek contests there was but one prize for each group of contestants, and that was awarded to the winner. But the Christian race is not competitive: each may win a prize, but he does so by contending with his own sinful nature. He must run faithfully, earnestly and continuously if he would win in the race against his lower self.]
THE OLYMPIC RACER AND THE ISTHMIAN GAMES
When I was at Athens I visited the Olympic racecourse, which was a universal sensation a solid thousand years, beginning twenty-five hundred years ago, and discontinued fifteen hundred years ago. When I was there three years ago they were busy rebuilding the amphitheater, and reopened those games and races the following April, after an interregnum of fifteen hundred years. The Isthmian games were at Corinth, so named from the isthmus connecting the Achaia, i. e., Southern Greece, with the mainland and separating the Aegean and Ionian Seas. These races and pugilistic games in their day became the absorbing interest, not only of Greece, but of all nations, who resorted to them from all parts of the earth that they might witness these grand quadrennial celebrations of Grecian heroism, genius, poetry, oratory, philosophy, and the fine arts. In the Pauline epistles we have frequent allusions to these races and games.
24. Know you not that in the stadium those running indeed all run, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain. While in those Grecian races only one could obtain the prize, and in our case there is a gracious possibility of every one receiving the boon, yet the sedulous warning of the apostle, so run that you may obtain, is demonstrative proof of our liability to fail. Such a failure does not here mean the forfeiture of Heaven, such a conclusion being out of harmony with the metaphor, from the simple fact that it was an especial privilege for Greeks only, and under the most rigid restrictions, to become runners in the stadium and contestants for the prizes in the amphitheater. Hebrews 12 :
Laying aside every weight and the sin that does so easily beset us, let us run with patience the race that is set before us, ever looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.
That race-course is not in the world, but in the kingdom of God, which is entered by regeneration. You see in this Scripture that after they have been received as bona fide contestants, having undergone years of preparatory discipline before the judges will receive them; then, laying aside every weight (which they had carried during their discipline to make them light when divested of it), and the besetting sin, i. e., inbred sin, thus getting sanctified wholly, they enter upon the race to run for the prize awaiting for them at the end. Hence none but regenerated people are candidates for the races, and they must be sanctified wholly in order to run the race. Now you see that these runners do not all receive the prize, there being but one for all the group in any one race. In our case, however, there is a gracious possibility of every one winning the prize, yet you see a fearful liability that we may all fail; hence the admonition, So run that you may obtain. What is the obtainment? Only Christ, the author of our faith in conversion, the finisher of our faith in sanctification, and now returning to the earth for His Bride, and the question is, Who shall have a place in the Bridehood? the climax of our achievement in Christ, and the voucher of our glorification, whether by translation or resurrection when He comes.
Php 3:11 :
In order that I may obtain unto the resurrection which is out from the dead,
i. e., an especial and extraordinary resurrection, peculiar to the Bridehood of Christ, as in the Philippian letter we see, as in Corinthians and Hebrews and other epistles, running with all his might for the prize set before him.
Verse 24
Such athletic games as are here referred to were very often celebrated in the Grecian cities.
1Co 9:24-27. Justifies 1Co 9:23 by the analogy of the athletic festivals so well known at Corinth. See note below.
Racecourse: the oldest and most popular kind of contest.
The prize: same word and thought in Php 3:14 : the crown (1Co 9:25) or garland of leaves given to the winner.
But one receives etc.: so that it can be obtained only by surpassing all rivals. This thought nerved the athlete to intense exertion. These words are no part of the comparison; (for they are not true of the Christian race;) but are added to depict the intense effort required to gain the prize.
In-this-way: like racers.
You are running; asserts that the racer is a pattern of tie Christian. These words remind the readers that, although this metaphor is introduced professedly to expound Paul’s own conduct, it is really an example for them.
That you may obtain: expounds in this way, and directs attention to the one essential point of comparison. Like a racer you are aiming at a prize to be obtained only by victory. 1Co 9:25 brings the comparison of 1Co 9:24 to bear on the matter of 1Co 9:23.
Contends-in-the-athletic-festivals: includes racing boxing, and all kinds of athletic contests. Same word in Luk 13:24; Joh 18:36; Col 1:29; Col 4:12; 1Ti 4:10; 1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 4:7.
In all things is self-controlled; refers not to the actual race, but to the ten months’ preparation. Indeed this preparation was in some sense a part of the contest: for upon it very much depended success or failure. During these ten months, the athlete, not only submitted to the prescribed limitations of food, drink, and the entire mode of life, but without asking whether it was specially enjoined, did whatever would strengthen him for the decisive day and thus increase his chance of victory, and avoided whatever would weaken him.
In all things: emphatic. Every detail of his life was controlled by his earnest purpose to gain the prize.
Crown: not a mark of royalty, (different word in Rev 12:3; Rev 13:1; Rev 19:12,) but a wreath of leaves (or sometimes a golden imitation of such, Rev 4:4; Rev 9:7; Rev 14:14) given as (2Ti 4:8) a reward, or worn (Php 4:1; 1Th 2:19) in token of joy. A garland of pine or olive leaves, fit symbol of transitory human glory, was the prize at the Isthmian festival. With this fading wreath Paul contrasts the imperishable reward awaiting the Christian; thus increasing the force of the example in 1Co 9:25 a.
1Co 9:26. After calling (you, 1Co 9:24) his readers athletes, then placing himself (we, 1Co 9:25) among them, Paul now speaks of himself alone; thus bringing 1Co 9:24-25 to bear upon 1Co 9:23.
Then: since Christians are athletes striving for an unfading crown.
In this way, in this way: viz. as athletes run and box.
Am running: The Christian life is both a preparation for contest and an actual contest. For each day we make ourselves stronger or weaker for the conflict of tomorrow: and each day we are in actual contact with our adversary, and are or ought to be actually pressing towards the goal. Though the Christian has no rival, a race fitly symbolizes his life. For even the athletic racer forgets his rivals, and simply presses forward with all his powers.
As not without-a-definite-goal; expounds in this way. In his self-denial and efforts Paul, like a racer, has a definite aim in view.
I box: another common mode of contest. Like an athlete, I am not fighting a shadow, but have a real antagonist. And the visible goal and the real antagonist prompt the self-denial of 1Co 9:19-23.
1Co 9:27. Bruise: as boxers do. So far is Paul from fighting a mere shadow that his own body is his adversary whom he must conquer if he is to win the crown. For, through the body sin seeks to conquer him and rob him of the prize. See Rom 8:13. These words reveal the great influence of the body, in Paul’s view, upon the Christian life. But the figurative nature of the passage forbids us to infer that Paul inflicted upon his body pain or injury as a spiritual exercise.
Lead-as-a-slave: he not only conquers it and robs it of power, by refusing to indulge its desires and dislikes, but compels it to work out his own purposes. And he presents (Rom 12:1; Rom 6:19) the captive as a sacrifice to God. Paul’s refusal of maintenance, and the bodily toil resulting therefrom, and his refusal to eat meat which might injure a weak brother, were blows against the spiritual power of his own body, and tended to make the body more and more a servant of the spirit within. He inflicts these blows lest his body gain the upper hand, and thus ruin him.
Herald: see Rom 2:21. At the festival he summoned the athletes to the contest.
Rejected: as unworthy of the prize. i.e. lose his soul. For the prize is eternal life, Jas 1:12; 1Ti 6:12. Hence the solemn examples in 1 Corinthians 10. It is the opposite of become sharer of the Gospel, 1Co 9:23. By divine appointment Paul calls men to contend for an unfading crown. But, like all preachers of the Gospel, he is himself an athlete as well as a herald. And he is careful lest, after summoning others to contend, himself fall short of the prize.
In-any-way: for in many ways we may fall.
From 1Co 9:24-27 we learn that not to do our utmost to save, at any personal sacrifice, the souls of others, is to imperil our own salvation. For such effort and sacrifice strengthen the spiritual life. And so serious is our conflict and so tremendous are its issues that we dare not leave unused any means of spiritual strength. Therefore, in seeking to save others we are working out our own salvation.
SECTION 16 reasserts 1Co 9:12 b, and gives three reasons for it. To refuse maintenance in order not to hinder the Gospel, is an outgrowth of spiritual life, and is therefore to Paul a ground of present inward joy and confidence, 1Co 9:15-18. To save others, Jews or Gentiles, is itself a gain worthy of pursuit, 1Co 9:19-22. Moreover, Paul is an athlete, contending for an eternal prize: and therefore, even to save his own soul, he uses all possible means to save others, 1Co 9:23-27.
Of the GREEK ATHLETIC FESTIVALS, the most famous was that held every fourth year at Olympia in the west of the Peloponnese. Very famous and ancient also was the Isthmian festival held every two years at the Isthmus, about eight miles from, and in full sight of, the city of Corinth. Similar festivals were held at Nemea and Delphi. But in these the athletic element was less conspicuous. All these were instituted before the dawn of history. Other festivals in imitation of them, were held in Paul’s day in many cities of Asia e.g. at Tarsus, and notably at Antioch in Syria.
All athletes, i.e. competitors for prizes, had ten months’ training under the direction of appointed teachers and under various restrictions of diet. At the beginning of the festival they were required to prove to the judges that they were of pure Greek blood, had not forfeited by misconduct the right of citizenship, and had undergone the necessary training. Then began the various contests, in an appointed order. Of these, the oldest and most famous was the footrace. Others were wrestling, boxing, chariot and horse racing. The prize was a wreath (or crown) of olive at Olympia, and of pine leaves (at one time of olive) at the Isthmus. The giving of the prizes was followed by processions and sacrifices, and by a public banquet to the conquerors. The whole festival at Olympia lasted five days.
The importance of these athletic festivals in the eyes of the ancient Greeks is difficult to appreciate now. They were the great family gatherings of the nation, held under the auspices, and under the shadow of the temples, of their gods. The laws regulating them were held as binding by the various independent states of Greece. The month in which they were held was called the sacred month, and was solemnly announced. And all war between Greek states ceased, under pain of the displeasure of their gods, while the festival lasted. The festivals were attended by immense crowds from all the Greek states and from even the most distant colonies. The various states sent embassies, and vied with each other in the splendor of them and of the gifts they brought. The greatest cities thought themselves honored by the victory of a citizen. The victor was received home with a triumphal procession, entered the city by a new opening broken for him through the walls, was taken in a chariot to the temple of its guardian deity, and welcomed with songs. In some cases a reward in money was given, and release from taxation. In honor of the successful athlete poems were written; of which we have specimens in the poems of Pindar. A statue of the victor was permitted to be placed, and in many places was placed, by townsmen or friends, in the sacred grove of the presiding deity. An avenue of these statues, shadowed by an avenue of pine trees, leading up to the temple of Poseidon, which stood within 200 yards of the race-course at the Isthmus of Corinth, is mentioned by Pausanias, bk. ii. 1. 7. Close by this temple with its avenue of statues Paul probably passed on his way from Athens to Corinth.
The Olympic festival, which survived the longest, was abolished in A.D. 394, four years after the public suppression of paganism in the Roman Empire.
The Greek Athletic Festivals must be carefully distinguished from the bloody Roman Gladiatorial Combats.
That these athletic festivals permeated and molded the thought both of classic writers and of the Apostle to the Gentiles, we have abundant proof. Eternal life is to be obtained only by contest and victory: 1Co 9:24 ff; Php 3:14; 1Ti 6:12; 2Ti 2:5; 2Ti 4:7 f: cp. Luk 13:24; Heb 12:1; Jas 1:12; 1Pe 5:4; Rev 2:10; Rev 3:11. The Christian life is both a preparation for conflict, 1Co 9:25; 2Ti 2:5; a race, 1Co 9:24; Php 3:12; Act 20:24; 2Ti 4:7; a boxing, 1Co 9:27, and a wrestling, Eph 6:12. Paul’s converts will be his crown in the great day: 1Th 2:19; Php 4:1. And, just as the athlete, victorious but not yet crowned, lay down to rest on the evening after conflict, waiting for the glories of the morrow, so Paul: 2Ti 4:7 f.
This metaphor presents an important view of the Christian life a needful complement of Paul’s doctrine of justification by grace and through faith. Though eternal life is altogether a free gift of God, it is given only to those who strive for it with all their powers. Therefore we must ever ask, not only whether an action open to us is lawful, but whether it will increase or lessen our spiritual strength. Just so, an athlete would forego many things otherwise harmless, and some not even forbidden by the laws for athletes, simply because he was striving for a prize.
Again, this metaphor receives in turn its needful complement in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Had we to contend for life in our own strength, we might be doubtful of the result, as was many a resolute athlete on the morning of the contest. But in us is the might of God crushing (Rom 16:20; 1Jn 4:4) our adversary under our feet, and carrying us (1Ki 18:46) forward to the goal. Therefore, day by day we go down into the arena to fight with foes infinitely stronger than we, knowing that we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
That the crowded Isthmian Festival was held each alternate year at the very gates of Corinth and almost under the shadow of its Acropolis, must have given to the metaphor of 1Co 9:24 ff special force in the minds of the Corinthians. And, possibly, Paul was himself present at a festival during (Act 18:11) his eighteen months’ sojourn at Corinth, using perhaps the opportunity to summon the assembled strangers to a nobler contest.
9:24 {11} Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
(11) He brings in another reason for this wrong, that is, that they were given to gluttony, for there were solemn banquets of sacrifices, and the loose living of the priests was always too much celebrated and kept. Therefore it was hard for those who were accustomed to loose living, especially when they pretended the liberty of the Gospel, to be restrained in these banquets. But on the other hand, the apostle calls them by a pleasant similitude, and also by his own example, to sobriety and mortification of the flesh, showing that they cannot be fit to run or wrestle (as then the games of Isthmies were) who pamper up their bodies. And therefore affirming that they can have no reward unless they take another course and manner of life.
Apostolic exhortation and example 9:24-27
This passage is transitional, concluding Paul’s defense of his apostolic authority (1Co 9:1-23) and returning to the argument against participating in cultic meals (ch. 8). Metaphors from the athletic games fill the pericope. Philosophers and other orators in Paul’s world frequently used athletic metaphors to describe their labors. [Note: Keener, pp. 81-82.]
The Corinthians were familiar with athletic contests. The Isthmian Games took place in a nearby town every two or three years. They were second only to the Olympic Games in importance in Greece. [Note: Morris, p. 139.] The Greek word translated "race" is stadion, the word used to describe the standard 600-foot Greek race. [Note: Bruce, 1 and 2 Corinthians, p. 89.]
Paul’s emphasis in this verse was on the last statement. We should run our race so we will receive a reward from the Judge. In the Christian race we do not compete with one another for the prize. We compete with ourselves. The emphasis is on self-discipline, not competition. In a foot race only one person is the winner, but in the Christian race all who keep the rules and run hard will receive a reward (cf. Mat 6:19-21; 2Ti 2:5).
Chapter 14
NOT ALL WHO RUN WIN
IN the preceding part of this chapter Paul has proved his right to claim remuneration from those to whom he preached the Gospel, and he has also given his reasons for declining to urge this claim. He was resolved that no one should have any ground for misapprehending his motive in preaching the Gospel. He was quite content to live a bare, poor life, not merely that he might keep himself above suspicion, but that those who heard the Gospel might see it simply as the Gospel and not be hindered from accepting it by any thought of the preachers motives. This was his main reason for supporting himself by his own labour. But he had another reason, namely, “that he might be himself a partaker of the benefits he preached” (1Co 9:23). Apostle though he was, he had his own salvation to work out. He was not himself saved by proclaiming salvation to others, any more than the baker is fed by making bread for others or the physician kept in health by prescribing for others. Paul had a life of his own to lead, a duty of his own to discharge, a soul of his own to save; and he recognised that what was laid before him as the path to salvation was to make himself entirely the servant of others. This he was resolved persistently to do, “lest that by any means, when he had preached to others, he himself should be a castaway.”
Paul had evidently felt this danger to be a serious one. He had found himself tempted from time to time to rest in the name and calling of an apostle, to take for granted that his salvation was a thing past doubt and on which no more thought or effort need be expended. And he saw that in a slightly altered form this temptation was common to all Christians. All have the name, not all the reality. And the very possession of the name is a temptation to forget the reality. It might almost seem to be in the proportion of runners to winners in a race: “All run, but one receiveth the prize.”
In endeavouring to warn Christians against resting in a mere profession of faith in Christ, he cites two great classes of instances which prove that there is often ultimate failure even where there has been considerable promise of success. First, he cites their own world-renowned Isthmian games, in which contests, as they all well knew, not everyone who entered for the prizes was successful: “All run, but one receiveth the prize.” Paul does not mean that salvation goes by competition; but he means that as in a race not all who run run so as to obtain the prize for which they run, so in the Christian life not all who enter it put out sufficient energy to bring them to a happy issue. The mere fact of recognising that the prize is worth winning and even of entering for it is not enough. And then he cites another class of instances with which the Jews in the Corinthian Church were familiar. “All our fathers,” he says, “were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” All of them without exception enjoyed the outward privileges of Gods people, and seemed to be in a fair way of entering the promised land; and yet the majority of them fell under Gods displeasure, and were overthrown in the wilderness. Therefore “let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
The Isthmian games, then, one of the most ancient glories of Corinth, furnished Paul with the readiest illustration of his theme. These games, celebrated every second year, had in ancient times been one of the chief means of fostering the feeling of brotherhood in the Hellenic race. None but Greeks of pure blood who had done nothing to forfeit their citizenship were allowed to contend in them. They were the greatest of national gatherings; and even when one State was at war with another, hostilities were suspended during the celebration of the games. And scarcely any greater distinction could be earned by a Greek citizen than victory in these games. When Paul says that the contending athletes endured their severe training and underwent all the privations necessary “to obtain a corruptible crown,” we must remember that while it is quite true that the wreath of pine given to the victor might fade before the year was out, he was welcomed home with all the honours of a victorious general, the wall of his town being thrown down that he might pass in as a conqueror, and his statue being set up by his fellow citizens. In point of fact, the names and deeds of many of the victors may yet be read in the verses of one of the greatest of Greek poets, who devoted himself, as laureate of the games, to the celebration of the annual victories.
But however highly we raise the value of the Greek crown the force of Pauls comparison remains. The wreath of the victor in the games was at the best corruptible, liable to decay. No permanent, eternal satisfaction could result from being victorious in a contest of physical strength, activity, or skill. But for every man it is possible to win an incorruptible crown, that which shall always and forever be to him a joy as thrilling and a distinction as honourable as at the moment he received it. There is that which is worthy of the determined and sustained effort of a lifetime. Put into the one scale all perishable distinctions, and honours, and prizes, all that has stimulated men to the most strenuous endeavours, all that a grateful nation bestows on its heroes and benefactors, all for which men “scorn delights and live laborious days”; and all these kick the beam when you put in the other scale the incorruptible crown. The two are not necessarily opposed or incompatible; but to choose the less in preference to the greater is to repudiate our birthright. As victory in the games was the actual incentive which stimulated the youth of Greece to attain the perfection of physical strength, beauty, and development, so there is laid before us an incentive which, when clearly apprehended, is sufficient to carry us forward to perfect moral attainment. The brightest jewel in the incorruptible crown is the joy of having become all God made us to become, of perfectly fulfilling the end of our creation, of being able to find happiness in goodness, in closest fellowship with God, in promoting what Christ lived and died to promote. Must we say that there are men who have no ambition to experience perfect rectitude and purity? Are we to conclude that there are men of so grovelling, besotted, and blind a spirit that when opportunity is given them to win true glory, perfect expansion and growth of spirit, and perfect joy they turn away to salaries and profits, to meat and drink, to frivolity and the worlds routine? The incorruptible crown is held over their head; but so intent are they on the muck rake, they do not even see it.
To those who would win it Paul gives these directions:-
1. Be temperate. “Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things.” Contentedly and without a murmur he submits himself to the rules and restrictions of his ten months training, without which he may as well not compete. The little indulgences which other men allow themselves he must forego. Not once will he break the trainers rules, for he knows that some competitors will refrain even from that once and gain strength while he is losing it. He is proud of his little hardships, and fatigues, and privations, and counts it a point of honour scrupulously to abstain from anything which might in the slightest degree diminish his chance of success. He sees other men giving way to appetite, resting while he is panting with exertion, luxuriating in the bath, enjoying life at pleasure; but he has scarce a passing thought of envy, because his heart is set on the prize, and severe training is indispensable. He knows that his chances are gone if in any point or on any occasion he relaxes the rigour of the discipline.
The contest in which Christians are engaged is not less, but more, severe. The temperance maintained by the athlete must be outdone by the Christian if he is to be successful. There are many things in which men who have no thought of the incorruptible prize may engage, but from which the Christian must refrain. All that lowers the tone and slackens the energies must be abandoned. If the Christian indulges in the pleasures of life as freely as other men, if he is unconscious of any severity of self-restraint, if he denies himself nothing which others enjoy, he proves that he has no higher aim than they and can of course win no higher prize. The temperance here enjoined, and which the Christian practises, not because it is enjoined, but because a higher aim truly cherished compels him to practise it, is a habitual sober mindedness and detachment from what is worldly in the world. It is that temper of spirit and that sustained attitude towards life which enable a man to rule his own desires, to endure hardness and find pleasure in so doing. No spasmodic, occasional efforts and partial abstinences will ever bring a man victorious to the goal. Many a man denies himself in one direction and indulges himself in another, rile macerates the flesh, but pampers the spirit by vanity, ambition, or self-righteousness. Or he denies himself some of the pleasures of life, but is more besotted by its gains than other men.
Temperance to be effectual must be complete. The athlete who drinks more than is good for him may save himself the trouble of observing the trainers rules as to what he eats. It is lost labour to develop some of his muscles if he do not develop all of them. If he offends in one point, he breaks the whole law.
Temperance must be continuous as well as complete. One days debauch was enough to undo the result of weeks during which the athlete had carefully attended to the rules prescribed. And we find that one lapse into worldliness undoes what years of self-restraint have won. Always the work of growth is very slow, the work of destruction very quick. One indiscretion on the part of the convalescent will undo what the care Of months has slowly achieved. One fraud spoils the character for honesty which years of upright living have earned. And this also is one of the great dangers of the spiritual life: that a little carelessness, a brief infidelity to our high calling, or a passing indulgence suddenly demolishes what long and patient toil has been building up. It is like the taking out of a pin or a ratchet that lets all we have gained run down to its old condition.
Beware then of giving place to the world or the flesh at any point. Be reasonable and true. Recognise that if you are to succeed in winning eternal life, all the spiritual energy you can command will be required. So set your heart on the attainment of things eternal that you will not grudge missing much that other men enjoy and possess. Measure the invitations of life by their fitness or unfitness to develop within you true spiritual energy.
2. Be decided. “I run,” says Paul, “not as uncertainly,” not as a man who does not know where he is going or has not made up his mind to go there. To be among those who win as well as among those who run, we must know where we are going, and be quite sure we mean to be there. We have all some kind of idea about what God offers and calls us to. But this idea must be clear if we are to make for it straight. No man can run straight to a mere will-o-the-wisp, and no man can run straight who first means to go to one house or station and then changes his mind and thinks he should go to another. We must count the cost and see clearly what we are to gain and what we must lose by making for the incorruptible prize. We must be resolved to win and have no thought of defeat, of failure, of doing something better. It is the absence of deliberate choice and reasonable decision which causes such “uncertain” running on the part of many who profess to he in the race. Their faces are as often turned from the goal as towards it. They are evidently not clear in their own minds that all strength spent in any other direction than towards the goal is wasted. They do not distinctly know what they mean to be at, what they wish to make of life. Paul did know. He had made up his mind not to pursue comfort, learning, money, respect, position, but to seek first the kingdom of God. He judged that to spread the knowledge of Christ was the best use to which he could put his life. He knew where he was going and to what all his efforts tended. Every life is unsatisfactory until its owner has made up his mind what he means to do with it, until it is governed by a clearly conceived and firmly held aim. Then it flies like the arrow to its mark.
What, then, do the traces of our past life show? Do we see the straight track of a well-steered ship, which has deviated not a yard from its course nor wasted an ounce of power? Has every footfall been in direct advance of the last, and has all expenditure of energy brought us nearer the ultimate goal? Or are the traces we look back on like ground trodden by dancers, a confused medley all in one spot, or like the footsteps of saunterers in a garden backwards and forwards, according as this or that has attracted them? Has not the course of many of us been like that of persons lost, uncertain which direction to pursue, eagerly starting off, but after a little slackening their pace, stopping, looking round, and then going off in another direction? For some weeks a great deal of ardour has been apparent, the whole man girt up, every nerve strained, the whole attention directed towards spiritual victory, arrangements made to facilitate communion with God, new methods devised for subordinating all our work to the one great aim, everything gone about as if now at last we had found the secret of living; and then in a surprisingly short time all this eagerness cools down, doubt takes the place of decision, discouragement and failure breed distrust of our methods, and we lapse into contentment with easier attainments and more worldly aims. And at length, after many false starts, we are ashamed to begin any arduous spiritual task for fear of ceasing it next week. We think that the surest way to make fools of ourselves is to adopt a thorough-going Christian practice, so much do we count upon ourselves flagging, wearying, altering our course. How many times have we been rekindled to some true zeal, how often have we gathered up our scattered energies and concentrated our efforts on the Christian life, and yet as often have we gone back to a dreamy, listless sauntering, as if we had nothing to secure, no end to reach, no work to accomplish.
Are we likely ever to reach the goal thus? Will the goal come to us, or bow are we ever to reach it? Are we nearer to it today than ever before? Are not our minds yet made up that it is worth reaching, and that whatever does not help us towards it must be abandoned? Let us be clear in our own minds as to the matters which tempt us aside from the straight path to the goal and are incompatible with progress; and let us determine whether these things are to prevail with us or not.
3. Be in earnest. “So fight I, not as one that beateth the air,” not as one amusing himself with idle flourishes, but as one who has a real enemy to encounter. What a blush does this raise on the cheek of every Christian who knows himself! How much of this mere parade and sham fighting is there in the Christian army! We learn the art of war and the use of our weapons as if we were forthwith to use them in the field; we act over and learn many varieties of offensive and defensive movements, and know the rules by which spiritual foes may be subdued; we read books which direct us about personal religion, and delight in those which most skilfully lay open our weaknesses and show us how we may overcome them. But all this is mere fencing school work; it kills no enemy. It is but a species of accomplishment like that of those who learn the use of the sword, not because they mean to use it in battle, but that they may have a more elegant carriage. A great part of our spiritual strength is spent in mere parade. It is not meant to have any serious effect. It is not directed against anything in particular. We seem to be doing everything that a good soldier of Jesus Christ need do save the one thing: we slay no enemy. We leave no foe stone dead on the field. We are well trained: no one can deny it; we could instruct others how to conquer sin; we spend much time, and thought, and feeling on exercises which are calculated to make an impression on sin; and yet is it not almost entirely a beating the air? Where are our slain foes? This apparent eagerness to be holy, this professed devotedness to the cause of Christ-are they not mere flourish? We do not mean to strike our enemies; we for the most part only wish to make ourselves believe we are striking them and are zealous and faithful soldiers of Christ.
Even where there is some reality in the contest we may still be beating the air. We may be able to say that we have apprehended the reality of the moral welfare to which every man is called in this life. We may be able honestly to say that if our sins are not slain, it is neither because we have not recognised them, nor because we have aimed no blows at them. We have made serious and honest efforts to destroy sin, and yet our blows seem to fall short; and sin stands before us vigorous and lively, and as ready as ever to give us a fall. Many persons who level their blows at their sins do not after all strike them; spiritual energy is put forth; but it is not brought fully, fairly, and firmly into contact with the sin to be destroyed. In most Christian people there is a great expenditure of thought and of feeling about sin; their spirit is probably more exercised about their sins than about anything else: and a great deal of spiritual life is expended in the shape of shame, compunction, penitence, resolve, self-restraint, watchfulness, prayer. All this, were it brought directly to bear on some definite object, would produce great effect; but in many cases no good whatever seems to result.
Pauls language suggests that possibly the reason may be that there remains in the heart some reluctance quite to kill and put an end to sin, to beat all the life out of it. It is like a father fighting with his son: he wishes to defend himself and disarm his son, but not to kill him. We may be willing or even intensely anxious to escape the blows sin aims at us; we may be desirous to wound, hamper, and limit our sin, and keep it under control; we may wish to tame the wild animal and domesticate it, so as to make it yield some pleasure and profit, and yet be reluctant to slay it outright. The soul and life of every sin is some lust of our own; and while quite anxious to put an end to some of the evils this lust produces in our life, we may not be prepared to extinguish the lust itself. We pray God, for example, to preserve us from the evils of praise or of success; and yet we continue to court praise and success. We are unable to sacrifice the pleasure for the sake of the safety. Therefore our warfare against sin becomes unreal. Our blows are not delivered home, but beat the air. Unconsciously we cherish the evil desire within us which is the soul of the sin, and seek to destroy only some of its manifestations.
The result of such unreal contest is detrimental. Sin is like something floating in the air or the water: the very effort we make to grasp and crush it displaces it, and it floats mockingly before us, untouched. Or it is like an agile antagonist who springs back from our blow, so that the force we have expended merely racks and strains our own sinews and does him no injury. So when we spend much effort in conquering sin and find it as lively as ever, the spirit is strained and hurt by putting out force on nothing. It is less able than before to resist sin, less believing, less hopeful, inwardly ill at ease and distracted. It becomes confused and disheartened, disbelieves in itself, and scoffs at fresh resolves and endeavours.
Finally, Paul tells us what that enemy was against which he directed his well-aimed, firmly planted blows. It was his own body. Every mans body is his enemy when, instead of being his servant, it becomes his master. The proper function of the body is to serve the will, to bring the inner man into contact with the outer world and enable him to influence it. When the body mutinies and refuses to obey the will, when it usurps authority and compels the man to do its bidding, it becomes his most dangerous enemy. When Pauls body presumed to dictate to his spirit, and demanded comforts and indulgences, and shrank from hardship, he beat it down. The word he uses is an exceptionally strong one: “I keep under”; it is a technical term of the games, and means to strike full in the face. It was the word used of the most damaging blow one boxer could give another. This unmerciful, overpowering blow Paul dealt to his body, resisting its assaults and making it helpless to tempt him. He thus brought it into subjection, made it his slave, as the winner in some of the games had a right to carry the vanquished into slavery.
It was probably by sheer strength of will and by the grace of Christ that Paul subdued his body. Many in all ages have striven to subdue it by fasting, by scourging, by wakefulness; and of these practices we have no right to speak scornfully until we can say that by other means we have reduced the body to its proper position as the servant of the spirit. Can we say that our body is brought into subjection; that it dare not curtail our devotions on the plea of weariness; that it dare not demand a dispensation. from duty on the score of some slight bodily disturbance; that it never persuades us to neglect any duty on the score of its unpleasantness to the flesh; that it never prompts us to undue anxiety either about what we shall eat or drink or wherewithal we shall be clothed; that it never quite treads the spirit under foot and defiles it with wicked imaginings? There is a fair and reasonable degree in which a man may and ought to cherish his own flesh, but there is also needful a disregard to many of its claims and a hardhearted obduracy to its complaints. In an age when Spartan simplicity of life is almost unknown, it is very easy to sow to the flesh almost without knowing it until we find ourselves reaping corruption.
Probably nothing more effectually slackens our efforts in the spiritual life. than the sense of unreality which haunts us as we deal with God and the unseen. With the boxer in the games it was grim earnest. He did not need anyone to tell him that his life depended on his ability to defend himself against his trained antagonist. Every faculty must be on the alert. No dreamer has here a chance. What we need is something of the same sense of reality, that it is a life-and-death contest we are engaged in, and that he that treats sin as a weak or pretended antagonist will shortly be dragged a mangled disgrace out of the arena.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
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Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
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Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Fuente: Gary Hampton Commentary on Selected Books
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Godet Commentary (Luke, John, Romans and 1 Corinthians)
Fuente: McGarvey and Pendleton Commentaries (New Testament)
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament
Fuente: Beet’s Commentary on Selected Books of the New Testament
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary