“Spiritual Strength Training for the Gospel”
(1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
Series: Chaos & Correction (1 Corinthians)
Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD
Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson
•Take your Bibles and join me in 1 Corinthians, chapter 9 (p. 772; YouVersion).
We are continuing our verse-by-verse study of 1 Corinthians and we are concluding chapter 9 this morning. You’ll remember from a couple weeks ago that Paul was teaching that Christians are to be spiritually flexible, willing to do whatever it takes to win others to Christ. In the wider context of Paul’s teaching in chapters 8-10, he is calling for the Christian’s willingness to relinquish his or her rights or freedoms he or she may have—we may be free to do this or that, but our chief concern is others.
We’re to live in such a way as to draw other people closer to Jesus. We should never live in a way that pushes people further from Jesus. Our chief concern regarding Christian behavior—including the so-called “gray areas” of life—is whether our behavior has the result of bringing people to Christ. What behavior is most likely to bring more people to Christ? Our goal is to bring as many people as possible to Jesus Christ.
Paul’s teaching encourages us to think about “being all things to all men that we might save some.” He says that very thing in verse 22 of chapter 9. And we left off at verse 23 where he writes, “Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be a partaker of it with you,” that I may share in the gospel with you—sharing in the gospel’s salvation and the benefits that accrue to one who shares that saving message with others.
Paul now concludes the chapter by likening the Christian’s willingness to do “whatever it takes” to win others to an athlete who is willing to do whatever it takes to win an athletic event. That’s the immediate context of these verses. Paul likens the Christian’s necessary willingness to do whatever it takes to win others to an athlete’s willing to do whatever it takes to win a competition, a race or a match.
•Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Word.
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
•Pray.
Introduction:
The Apostle Paul often thought of the Christian life as a race. More than once in the Scriptures he likens the Christian life to a runner racing to the tape to win the prize. You’ll remember he said in Philippians 3:12-14:
12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
And writing near the end of his life, he says in 2 Timothy 4:7-8:
7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
And the writer of Hebrews likes the race metaphor, too. He challenges Christians in Hebrews 12, “…Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith…(Hebrews 12:1-2).”
Paul had an appreciation for the rigorous training of athletes as they competed to win the prize. This metaphor surely connected with the congregation at Corinth, just as it connects with many of us in this congregation at Kentucky.
Several of our folks as recently as yesterday morning ran the Tri-Fest 5k, running that they may obtain the prize of race well run.
Nearly everyone knows the Greeks loved the Olympic Games. Not as many, however, may be as familiar with the Isthmian Games. The Isthmian Games were hosted by the city of Corinth, named after the isthmus of Corinth. The Isthmian Games were held biennially, occurring every other year—the year before and the year after the Olympics. Athletic events included running, boxing, and wrestling.
It is possible that when Paul founded the church in Corinth during his second missionary journey that he was there when the games were being played.
In any case, when Paul likened the Christian’s willingness to do whatever it takes to win others to an athlete’s willingness to do whatever it takes to win a competition, a race or a match—the people at Corinth nodded their heads in agreement. They understood. It was a good illustration then and it remains a good illustration today.
Winning others to Christ requires spiritual strength training. This passage helps us train. This passage gives us actions to take, actions every Christian must take if we’re going to be serious about living with an “others-focused” mindset. Write these down:
I. Be Determined to run with Purpose (24)
24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it.
Paraphrase: Be determined to run with purpose. Paul says, “Don’t you know this?” verse 24—Don’t you Corinthians know this, don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize?” And they would have been like, “Yes, we know that. We know that many people run, but only one breaks the tape at the end, only one is the first person to cross the finish line, only one receives the prize.”
So Paul says, “You run in such a way that you may obtain it.” Be determined! Run with Purpose!
Now of course Paul is not saying that, “all Christians run, and only one will receive the prize at the end of the Christian race,” as though all Christians were competing with one another and only one Christian among all Christians would win the prize of a heavenly reward! He’s not saying that.
The point of verse 24 addresses how to run, how the Christian is to live his or her life as one dedicated to leading others to Christ. Run with all your might. Run with dedication. Run with determination. Run like an athlete who knows there’s a prize at the end, and you can win it if you will run with determination, dedication, and purpose. In other words, “Be in it to win it.”
Don’t just show up on race day like a guy who looks like he’d rather be somewhere else, just sort of aimlessly wandering and meandering about.
Like the husband whose wife drags him to the aerobic workout. She and all the others are working out with determination and purpose and he’s like just clapping his hands and moving this way and that, goofy grin on his face, pointing like a bad disco dancer from the 70s.
Paul is like, “Be in it to win it.” Be determined to run with purpose.
So what about you? What are you living for? Here’s a question: Your time last week—how much of your time was spent with eternity in view? Seriously. What do you have to show for last week? How do you spend your days?
How do you spend your free time? What are you thinking about? Are you consumed with a life to be lived on purpose for Jesus Christ?
In the context of winning others to Christ, “being all things to all men that you might win some,” being a “partaker of the gospel,” as you share the gospel with others, are you focused on living in such a way that your behavior points others to Christ? That’s the question here this morning.
Are you determined to run the Christian race with purpose or are you showing up on race day like a goofy guy who isn’t even dressed for the event, just aimlessly wandering through life with no greater purpose and goal.
Look, let me invite you to take serious inventory of how you spend your time each day. Ask yourself right now, “What am I wasting my time on?”—screens? Phones, computers, tablets, social media, Facebook, movies, videos, music—I’m not talking about content, I’m talking about time. I’m talking about your greater purpose in life.
God has you here, Christian, to make a difference in the lives of others. Live in such a way to point others to Christ. This is one of the reasons I feel convicted about leading this personal evangelism training I’ve been talking about. Monday evenings beginning next Monday at 5:30. It’s to help us re-direct our lives to our greater purpose of “being all things to all men that we might save some,” to do whatever it takes to win others to Christ. That’s our purpose.
Be determined to run with purpose. Secondly:
II. Be Driven to win the Prize (25)
25 And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown.
Be driven to win the prize. The prize for the Corinthian athlete competing in the Isthmian Games was a wreath worn on the head. The runner who won the race, for example, was crowned with a wreath of greenery, usually made of pine needles, sometimes the leaves of celery stalks. So while it was green at the moment of victory—in time it faded, turned brown, became brittle, and just dried up and disappeared. Paul describes that crown as a “perishable crown.” It doesn’t keep living. It perishes. It dies. It goes away. It is a temporary trophy.
Like some of you, I’ve got some old trophies stashed away here and there. Somewhere I’ve got these old baseball trophies from peanut league and little league, trophies I was once so proud of. When I first got those things they were all shiny and new. You move around a few times and those things go in and out of boxes and fall off shelves and the little bat the ball player is holding up just breaks right off those things. You put the little bat next to it and tell yourself you’ll glue it on one day—it’s just a little piece of plastic painted gold—perishable.
But even those trophies lasted longer than a wreath of leaves worn as a crown. Paul is saying, “Look, there’s a far greater prize worth winning.” He’s not saying Christians aren’t supposed to compete in sports and train as athletes. He’s using this imagery to teach us about a far greater event, a far greater race, a far greater prize.
He says, “We run for an imperishable crown.” The Christian life culminates with our receiving a crown that does not fade away. As Peter puts it in 1 Peter 5:4, “when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.”
It is a reference to the crown of righteousness that comes by the gift of the gospel. We Christians are saved by grace through faith in Christ. We are made righteous—made fit for heaven—by the righteousness of Christ. If that is true of us, then we are living for Christ. So we’re running the race.
Living for Christ means living for others, sharing the Gospel with others, restraining our rights for others. It requires temperance and self-control.
Paul says in verse 25, “And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things.” Temperance is self-control. Socrates regarded self-control as the fundamental virtue of virtues.
Athletes competing in the Olympic Games and the Isthmian Games went into strict training, exercising self-control in their diet, denying their bodies certain food and drink, and exercising self-control in the way they chose to spend their time. Paul says they did this in order to win a crown that fades away. We should practice self-control remembering that our crown is a crown that never fades away.
So live in such a way that you put others first. It requires self-control. There are times you may be free to exercise your Christian freedom to do this or that—but since you know that others are watching, and that your ultimate goal is to lead others to Christ—then you will exercise self-control, and that may include denying your body certain food or drink, denying yourself certain other freedoms because you know your ultimate goal is to win others to Christ, to live in such a way that people are drawn closer to Christ rather than being pushed further away from Christ.
Be driven. And be driven to win the prize. Live with that eternal perspective.
I’m telling you all—don’t just hear this message and forget it this week. Practice it today. Frequently ask yourself, “Why am I doing what I’m doing right now?” Does this matter? Am I maximizing my time so that I am bringing as many people to Christ as possible?” Live with an eternal perspective.
Be determined to run with purpose. Be driven to win the prize. Thirdly:
III. Be Disciplined to avoid the Penalty (26-27)
26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air.
27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.
There’s the penalty: disqualified. Disqualification. Paul is like, “Man, I am with you in this spiritual strength training. I’m running with you. I’m competing with you. I am practicing what I preach because I do not want to be disqualified.”
I don’t know exactly what Paul means here by being disqualified. Some think Paul is referring to salvation itself. And we shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss that possibility. After all, Paul writes in his second letter, 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.” Same word.
It is possible to be close to spiritual things and not be a Christian. A person can be running along with others, but not be saved. Don’t be disqualified. Trust Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. He is the only way to be saved. All those outside of Christ are disqualified on Judgment Day.
Others believe Paul is writing here about reward or loss of reward in heaven. Or he may be simply saying, “I don’t want to lose my authority or my witness as an apostle,” the way we may lose our authority or our witness as a Christian and so be disqualified from the race (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:12-15).
The point is, “Take very seriously living-out the gospel.” Be disciplined to avoid the penalty of disqualification. Let’s not run our race in vain. Let’s not live our lives for only ourselves. Let’s not live with merely a self-centered focus on money, pleasures, and worldly success. To live this way is to run “out of bounds,” to be disqualified.
Be disciplined by “running with certainty” in verse 26, be disciplined by fighting “not as one who beats the air.” And Paul changes metaphors here to a boxing match.
He’s like, “When we live out the Christian life—a life focused on pointing others to Jesus Christ—we are like a boxer who doesn’t just flail about, beating at the air, merely shadow boxing. But we fight with purpose. We fight to win. We’re in it to win it.
So he says in verse 27, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.” The NIV has, “I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave.”
Picture Rocky Balboa here, okay? Surely everyone has seen Rocky. It doesn’t matter which one—Rocky 1, 2, 8, 100—however many Rocky movies there are. In every movie there are those cool scenes where Rocky is training and the theme song’s playing, “dah dah dahhhhh, dah dah dahhhh!” And Rocky’s running, and he’s sweating, and he’s swallowing those raw eggs—gross—and he’s punching the rhythm bag, and he’s doing sit ups—and every time Rocky rises up in a sit up, his trainer is hitting him in the gut. That’s the image.
Paul says, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.”
There are no short cuts physically to getting in shape, right? You see those things on TV. Buy this thing. Wear it for 5 minutes a day and your stomach will be as flat as an ironing board. Does it work? No!! It ends up in the attic, with all those other things you bought hoping to have found a shortcut to strength and beauty. No pain, no gain.
Again Paul says, “I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.”
It’s like he’s saying, “I don’t want anything to get in the way of my living for Christ. And when I feel the tug of the world, and when I am tempted to squander my time, and my flesh cries out for selfish pursuits, I discipline my body and bring it into subjection.”
The idea is that we are to live for the Gospel no matter the cost to ourselves.
Let me say that again, “Live for the Gospel no matter the cost to ourselves.”
No pain, no gain.
Sometimes living for Christ involves pain. Paul writes elsewhere about physical and emotional hardship he faced living out the Christian life.
And sometimes we get hurt or we fall. At those times, just like an athlete, we’ve got to “play hurt.” We’ve got to keep running.
If you’ve failed in some way or other. If you have fallen in some way—you made a bad decision and you’re suffering the consequences—listen: don’t stay down. Get up and keep running.
It’s not as important how you started the race. What matters is that you finish. You may have made a big mistake and you have fallen. So, get up and run the race.
Six years ago during the “Big 10 Indoor Track Championships,” runner Heather Dorniden was competing in the Women’s 600 meter run, and took a terrible fall during her second lap around the track. She fell. Watch how she responded to that fall:
Check out this video clip.
Run in such a way that you may obtain the prize.
•Stand for prayer.
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