Running For Reward

Teaching profound truths to ignorant people is a demanding craft. On the one hand, some can take the simplest concept and make it into something that a professor will not be able to understand. But on the other, you can take lofty truths about God and His kingdom, and make them so simple that a child is able to relate to them. Jesus, being the greatest teacher, communicated profound truths using simple parables and illustrations. Paul, following in the steps of Jesus, used many different metaphors to describe the life of a Christian. He compared it to a walk (Ephesians 4:1), to military (2 Timothy 2:3-4), to farming (1 Corinthians 3), etc. But perhaps the most often repeated metaphor for the Christian life is a metaphor of an athlete.

In 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Paul borrows imagery from Isthmian games, which were familiar to everyone who lived in Corinth since they were held about 10 miles outside the city, and teaches us practical lessons of Christian life. Christian life is a race in which every believer ought to strive to win a prize.

As Paul compares these two races, there are few similarities: every athlete is in the race to run, (not walk, not jog), and so every Christian has been place on the track by God and assigned a course to run. Every athlete exercises self-control by denying himself of all that hinders him from winning the prize and by subjecting himself to rigorous training to be in shape. Self- control is a mark of every mature believer produced by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:23), which manifests itself in a godly living and ability to give up personal rights and liberties for the sake of saving the lost.

There are also few contrasts between these races. There is only one winner in the Isthmian games, but every believer has a chance to win in the spiritual race. We are not competing with one another; we are not trying to outdo one another. Each believer has his own course assigned to him by God and each will be judge based on how well he ran his course. Second contrast is reflected in the prize-they run for perishable wreath, but we an imperishable (1 Corinthians 9:25). This short life on earth has eternal consequences. Some believers will not receive a reward because they did not run in such a way that they might win (1 Corinthians 3:15; 9:24).

So if we’re not competing against one another, whom are we competing against? Answer: ourselves. You are the only one who can stop yourself from winning the prize. People who have not learned the virtue of self-control will not succeed in any sphere of their life and especially in their spiritual life.

So let us run in such a way that we may win…