1 Corinthians 9:24-27

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Have you not known that all the ones who run in an oval stadium do run, but only one receives the prize for winning?  Run in this way in order that you should acquire it.  And all the ones who compete exercise self-control in all things.  Therefore – in one case – in order that such a person should receive a perishable crown.  But in our case we should receive an imperishable one.  Therefore I run in this way as not without purpose.  I box in this way not as while striking air.  But I discipline my body through control and I make it ready for service – lest while preaching to others I myself should become disqualified.

Thoughts for Today

First Thought

Paul opens this section of verses that speak to a track meet.  He’s talking about people running around an oval track.  He says that when people do such a thing, they do it to win.  Nobody ever says, “Man, I hope I get the Successfully Completed the Event award.”  No, people run races trying to win them.  They may understand their odds are small, but they still try to win them.  Paul tells us that should be our attitude.  Paul tells us that when it comes to our calling from God, we should always try to win.  We put our best effort forward.  Even when the odds are stacked against us, we put our best effort forward.  And yes, putting our best effort forward implies living a life of self-control.

Why should we want to put our best effort forward?  Whose work are we doing?  Why is self-control so closely linked with being able to do our best effort?

Second Thought:

Then Paul makes a fairly blunt analogy in the middle.  People put in all this time training for perishable rewards.  Let’s use a fair example.  Can anyone remember who won the 100 meter dash at the Olympics before Usain Bolt came on the scene?  It was only 2004, a mere decade ago.  It was Justin Gatlin.  I don’t mean to minimize the amount of work that is put in by Olympic gold-medalists.  But here’s the truth.  Olympic medalists are often all-but-forgotten by the world less than a decade after they are in their prime.  And people put in an insane amount of energy to accomplish such feats!  Paul reminds us that we are going to receive an imperishable reward by God.  How much more energy should we be willing to commit to a reward that will never fade because it will be sustained by God Himself!

Where does most of your effort go: the perishable world or the imperishable world-to-come?  Why do you think your answer is what it is?

Third Thought:

The last verse of this passage is a difficult passage for me to read.  Paul is talking about self-control here.  He is talking about living a life that is prepared to reach out to anyone with the Gospel.  He is talking about living a rhythm of life that is always ready to take advantage of the door that God is opening.  This is such a difficult concept to consider, much less master.  My body desires what it desires, and those things are not always along the same lines as the will of God.  Sometimes I want to sleep in, sometimes I want to be lazy, sometimes I want to eat foods that don’t make me feel ready to work, sometimes I want to seclude myself when I shouldn’t, sometimes I want to be angry, sometimes I want to be jealous.  I can keep going.  But do you see what I mean?  Each of those things – when done at an inopportune time – can lead to missing opportunities from God.  Paul talks about living so that we are in control of our body and we are always in prime opportunity to reach out with the Gospel through the doors that God has opened.

What gets in your way of being prepared to reach out with the Gospel?  How can you work to minimize those times?

Passage for Tomorrow: 1 Corinthians 10:1-5