First Corinthians 9:22-27 Running the Christian Race

So today, we're gonna finish up chapter nine of 1 Corinthians. And last week we kind of wound down to verse 22, the last verse we covered was, to the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, so that I might by any means or all means save some.

So we're talking about unbelievers here. We're not talking about believers. And it's interesting how accommodating Paul could be to the scruples of people in order to win them to salvation. And the weaker those you could say who are extremely sensitive or have extremely sensitive consciences in the area of unprincipled practice such as a Jew would have, someone with a more feeble, impotent idea without any strength at all. So intellectual strength or spiritual strength. Paul, really interesting, that he wouldn't wound somebody's scruples, no matter how weak they were, in order to win them to the gospel.

To all I have become all things that I by any means or all means might save some. Notice the self-sacrifice that's involved in his mindset. He wants to bring every single soul that he comes in contact with into the love of Christ, and he'd do anything to do that. So his program undoubtedly led some people to conclude, though, that he probably was inconsistent because he was operating in different realms. His superficial inconsistency really manifested a more fundamental consistency, which was he did everything with a view to bringing as many to the Savior as he could.

So verse 23 now. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it. Fellow partaker really means share in the blessing of it. So the work of the gospel was really the axle around which everything in Paul's life revolved around. He made it that way so that he might share in the blessings. This verse shows that Paul had a single priority in life and everything else was made to serve that single priority.

What do you think it means to share? To share in the blessings? There's a joy, I think, that if you're involved with the conversion of someone, that when someone comes to Christ, there's a great joy about that. And I think that's what he means. that he had the capacity to choose his methods and his choices were the highest priority, but he wants to amplify the fact that there is a great joy to share in the blessings of someone's salvation, just to be there.

So, a fellow partaker of it. Now, I copied a whole paragraph from William Kelly that has to do with this verse 23, and I'm gonna read it because I don't speak 1850 King's English. But it's pretty simple. The object of service. that I may become a fellow partaker of it. It's like, quote, put away sin by the sacrifice of himself only goes farther.

First as to sins, the Lord bore them and he put them away. And then I find there is a tree of evil. I love that expression. You know what a tree of evil is? It's that sin nature we all have. He calls it the tree of evil. in me." And then he says, what is that?

It is all condemned upon the cross where Christ died. And you and we are consequently to reckon ourselves dead. I have done with it. Sin in the flesh. That is, faith has done with it. I know it's more difficult for us to lay hold of that than to lay hold of the forgiveness of sins because it contradicts our experience. If a man comes and tells me my debts are all paid, I believe that. But if he says, you're dead to sin, I say, how do you mean that? For I was in a passion or desire this morning.

And this is the way experience contradicts it. but you did die in Christ's death. It is all dead and gone because I am in Christ and Christ is my life. And when the flesh comes and shows its face to me, I say, you've had your day and you've been ended. I have a right to say this, knowing that Christ has died and God condemns sin in the flesh there. I have a perfect title to do so, and I also have Christ as my power. Being a partaker, in verse 23, is the joy of seeing souls saved and being saved himself. That's what Kelly has to say about that verse. I love that. Thought I'd share it with you. So, verse 24, do you not know that those who run a race all run, but only one receives the prize? run in such a way that you may win.

So what he's talking about here is what were known as the Ishmanian Games, and they were held in a town near Corinth about every two or three years. And thousands of people would show up for these games. Many who lived in Corinth had participated and attended these events. It'd be like having a Super Bowl in Denver. The Corinthians were familiar with all of these athletic contests. They were second only to the Olympic Games in importance to Greek people.

So when you look at the word race, the Greek word translated race is stadion. And the word used to describe a 600 foot race or 200 meters. But the word also refers to the place where the race took place. That's where we get our word stadion. So Paul's emphasis in this verse was on the last statement. We should run our race so we will receive the reward from the judge. Run in such a way that you may win. What's interesting is is that we as believers, we don't compete against one another for prizes. In the worldly foot race, there's only one person who's the winner. But in the Christian race or walk, all believers are qualified to run and receive a prize because we have the life.

Second Corinthians 3.6 says, has enabled us to be ministers of His new covenant. This is a covenant only written, not of written laws, but of the Spirit. The old written covenant ends in death. but under the new covenant, the spirit gives life. All believers have life from above, which qualifies them to be in the race. That's how you get in.

In 2 Peter 2.5, Paul says, also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. Find out what the rules are. The crown the victor received was a wreath for his head and it was woven of ivy and laurel and roses and oak leaves, et cetera, but the victor's crown does not receive it unless he has striven lawfully. In other words, he obeyed the rules of the race.

You know, only men, only women, 200 meters, you can't cross, you gotta go the whole track. You can't start until we say go. You have to cross the finish line. Those are the rules. You have to be qualified. So the Greek athlete was required to spend as much as 10 months getting ready for one of these contests.

Hamilton Smith says, in speaking this way, it must not be inferred that the apostle accommodated himself to the world in order to escape reproach and spare the flesh, to use an example of athletics. The goal here is the finish line. Nope, I got ahead of myself.

The goal is the finish line, and there's a two-page overhead that Hal Malloy put together in 1999, I think. that where he used these verses out of chapter nine and compared them with some other verses and he talked about this race. And I thought at first I was gonna show you the whole two slides, but I thought, no, I'll just take some information out of there that makes sense because Hal's idea was to show that there is a race and there is a contest, but we need to understand as believers, well, where do we get the power to do all this? This racing and running and competing and that kind of thing, where does it come from? The glory, so the finish line, this is from Howe, the finish line for the believers is the gospel of the glory of Christ.

Or put another way, the finish line is Christlikeness. The same verse also speaks of the prize, which was a crown made of leaves. Obviously, its value doesn't have any intrinsic value, but what was the value? The value was the honor of winning. It just said, I'm the winner. I'm the only guy wearing around this crown.

So Paul used the same word in Philippians 4.13 when he says, I press towards the goal for the prize. of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The mark, the prize is Christlikeness. The goal for the believer. Contrast, I found a quote from Omar Khayyam, one of your favorite poets. That's what he said. The stars are setting and the caravan starts for the dawn of nothing. So there's no end, there's no goal, they're just starting out.

So everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one. So the word competes is an interesting word. It just sounds like, well, I'm going to run faster than you or we're going to, but really it's a word that means we get the word agonize in English from it. It's agonizami. The athletic contest was called an agon. This points to the enormous effort that was put forth to win.

Lots of you have competed in athletic events and you know what agony's all about. that I've run a lot of 10K races in my life, and I remember when I was building my stamina up to six miles, boy, you hit about the three and a half mile mark, and you think, oh, I'm only halfway there, and I don't feel like running any farther, but then you eventually, you run into what they call the second wind. So if this effort is put forth to win an earthly crown, How much more should we agonize for a heavenly crown?

An athlete in training denies himself or herself many lawful pleasures to gain an extra edge of superiority on his fellow contestants. Likewise, Paul and us would limit our liberty for a higher goal as spiritual athletes. Bringing Hal into the equation again from his charts, he says the difficulty is physical runners run, they compete, it's strenuous, it's exertion with perseverance, it's striving, it's struggling, it's agonizing physically. Spiritual runners, same thing. You run strenuous exertion, perseverance, striving, struggling, agonizing physically and spiritually. There's a spiritual agonizing that we all go through in spiritual growth in the race that we're called to run that only believers understand what that really is.

The Greek athlete spent all this time getting ready for the contest, and during this time, he had to engage in the prescribed exercises, there was a training program, and he lived a strictly separate life in regard to ordinary and lawful pursuits of life, and he was placed on a rigid diet. Sounds like the Olympic Center in Colorado Springs. Should he break the training rules, he would, in the words of the authorized virgin, be disqualified. Disqualified or barred from engaging in an athletic contest.

In Matthew 6.19, I think it's the Lord talking. Yeah, it is the Lord talking here.

Don't store up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy. and where thieves break in and steal, but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves don't break in or steal. For where your treasure is, your heart will also be." That is such a profound statement in verse 21 of Matthew 6. Where the treasure is, your heart will also be there. And so sometimes you have to think, We all go through this and this is part of the race that we run as Christians.

Where is my heart and what is my treasure? Is my treasure to be a really good Christian? Is my treasure to be noticed in my church? Is my treasure somewhere in the world? Or is my treasure just simply the Lord Jesus Christ himself? He's the one that's of value. Have I learned that? That he's the one that is most precious to me and that's where my treasure is and that's where my heart will be.

There is indeed a reward for service far better than the prize obtained by the world games. There they run for a corruptible prize. But Hamilton Smith says, but the Christian runs for an incorruptible prize. What's that incorruptible prize? It's Christ himself.

So where does, and back to some of Malloy's charts, where does the power come from to compete or to run for the believer? To exercise self-control for the earthly race. It has to have either its source in self, or exercising self-control for the Christian walk, it has to have its source somewhere else, out of self.

Colossians 1.29 tells us, for this purpose also I labor, striving according to his power, which mightily works in me. Whose power is it? It's his.

Philippians 4.13 says, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. And finally, in 2 Corinthians 4-7, Paul says, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not of ourselves. A really important point to ponder, which is, yeah, I'm in the race, I'm qualified, I have the life. Where's the power come from to actually compete in this race? It comes from the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Christ. However, the victorious Christian reward is imperishable.

If you look at 2 Corinthians 4.8, Paul's gonna say, I have fought the good fight and I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing." That's the crown we're all running for, every single one of us.

Nora got hers a couple weeks ago. Kind of cool. So how much more important is it to willing to forego our rights for spiritual advancement of others? It is to train for a physical foot race. It's so important for us, I think, as we grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus, to be aware of the fact that, I'm gonna go back a slide, to be aware of the fact that we are doing everything we're doing for the sake of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if that means self-sacrifice, so be it.

In 2 Corinthians 4.17, Paul talks about there's a momentary light affliction, but it's producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. In Romans class this morning, we ended Romans, finally, I've already had somebody come up to me and said, I've studied Romans countless times in my life. That was the best Romans class I've ever been involved in. And it's all due to Courtney. I'm saying that so he won't critique me at the end. He did the last verse. In the last verse, we talked about what is unique?

What's the secret? that has been hidden from all men from the Old Testament all the way up until even Christ began to talk about it in John 17. You know what the secret is? That we get to share in the glory of Christ. We get to share in the glory of God. That's a secret that nobody knew about. Paul, or Jesus prayed about it in John 17, but it took Paul to come on the scene and explain to us that yeah, the Jews were chosen people and they're blessed, but you, as members of Christ's body, are gonna share in God's glory. That's an incredible thing when you ponder that and take time. Talk about a crown, it's just amazing.

Well, in 2 Corinthians 4.17, the glory far beyond all comparison. Spiritually, the prize is not for one, but it's for all, if all run well. But even in the games, the candidates must be temperate in all things, Though theirs were to be a fading crown, ours is an everlasting crown. Every single believer will be rewarded this incorruptible crown.

It's important for us to know that. Paul says, therefore I run in such a way as not without aim. I box in such a way as not beating the air. He has in view here, the comparative value of the rewards, but Paul ran the Christian race purposely, not aimlessly and not half-heartedly. He wanted to gain the prize, and the prize was Christ's likeness. That was what he was after. To us, To use a different figure of speech or to make the same point with another metaphor, he did not shadow box, but he sought to make every punch hit the target.

I've been my whole life a boxing fan. I actually watched on TV Joe Louis and Ezra Charles when I was this high. The first televised boxing match ever. And I thought Ezra Charles would beat Joe Louis because I'd never heard of Joe Louis. And he did, he beat him. But what they do today, if you watch boxing, and I don't very much, but they have a punch count. This guy threw 125 punches, and he connected on X amount. And usually the guy, not necessarily the one that threw the most punches, but the one that was most accurate wins the fight.

And I thought, well, this metaphor really fits here, because Paul talks about, he's very careful, he's not gonna just throw a punch in the air, he's got a target in mind, and he wants to hit it. So you could say, well, your Christian activity or service is not just any kind of activity, it's purposeful. It's focused on a target, namely the building up of the body of Christ. It's the work of the gospel. Paul ran with no uncertainty as to the glorious end of the path.

The conflict for him was no mere insignificant prize. Like beating the air, he was careful not to indulge his body, but rather to keep it in subjection that it might not be a hindrance to him in his service. Metaphor is in boxing terms, not beating the air, he's pointing to the efficiency of his service. Paul does not throw wild punches at all.

He does, that he does is meant to accomplish those worthy end. Lots of people I know and a lot of you exercise. And I've thought for a long time, you know, that when I first started running years ago, I can't run anymore, because my niece said, you can't do that anymore, sorry. But you get what is known as a runner's high after a while, and you really enjoy going out and running four or five or six miles. It's just really fun.

But then one day I'm out at the reservoir running and this thought hit me, why are you doing this? Are you doing it so that you don't get fat? Are you doing this because you want to stay in shape? What's your purpose? And I thought about that, and that's the other great thing about running is you can think. And I thought, you know, If I had to sit down and think about it, I really don't know what the motive is other than the fact that just being in shape is a good thing. I can do stuff and I'm stronger and I can have endurance, I can work harder, work longer.

But then the thought hit me, if you're gonna serve the Lord, you have to keep your body in shape so you can do it. You can't be, because you don't take care of yourself, because then you can't serve him. Then I got to thinking, boy, those apostles had it made.

They had to walk everywhere. Well, they were in shape. They never ran out of, gee, I'm just too tired to do this. It's because they were walking everywhere. Just the fact that the society they lived in, they didn't get to ride much, maybe in a boat, but that's about it. My thought there is pretty simple.

We stay in physical shape so we can serve the Lord. That's really why we do it as believers. Now Paul says in verse 27, but I discipline my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. So, This disqualified, or I'm sorry, this discipline, Strong's Concordance talks about to subdue and to keep it under. Paul wanted to dispel any preconception Paul shows in the closing verses that the passive service is one of self-denial. That's what it is.

Nevertheless, If to win an earthly crown requires a temperate life, how much more necessary is it to be temperate, a life under control of the Holy Spirit and all things, to obtain the incorruptible crown? In another sense, Paul viewed his flesh kind of as an adversary.

He recognized the need to exercise strict self-discipline. And this is where the chart from Hal Malloy really helped because how does a believer exercise strict self-discipline? Just because they are a disciplined kind of person? Or if you've been in the military, you went to training, you went to boot camp, you were taught discipline, you had to conform, you had to do everything they told you to do because there was a purpose in mind. Can I as a believer just decide in my own strength to discipline myself physically?

I don't think I can because as we talked about, I love that when Kelly said, I find there is a tree of evil in me, yeah. I find that tree of evil wants me to be lazy, doesn't want me to be physically disciplined, or spiritually disciplined, or emotionally disciplined, or morally disciplined.

Paul says that's really, really important that your talk and your walk must be the same. If you're gonna talk the gospel, you have to live the gospel. Well, you can't live the gospel in your own strength. It's impossible to do. Why do you think the Lord gave us the Holy Spirit? Why do you think the Lord crucified us with Christ and buried and resurrected us in Christ so that our walk would line up with our talk? What we talk about in the gospel, we lived.

And that's what Paul did. He lived. As a matter of fact, he lived above and beyond. what the gospel would require him to do, but he would be all things for all people that he might win some. He did not want to be disqualified. Now, if you take a good hard look at the word disqualified, it can indicate that what some commentators have said, It means that he can be lost at the end, that if he doesn't discipline his body and make it a slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself might lose my salvation. Well, there's just too much evidence that that isn't what he means. Nevertheless, if we're to win an earthly crown, it requires a temperate life. Well, but also he had in mind a moral discipline, a discipline in actually amoral areas of his life, including voluntary curtailment of personal rights and liberties.

So in 1 Timothy 4.8, Paul talks about bodily discipline as only of little profit. But godliness is profitable for all things since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come. So the context in which it's found in Timothy passage refers to the bodily exercise to an absurd or profane amount.

One of the commentators used the word theophysphy. I had no idea what that meant so I looked it up. maintaining that a knowledge of God may be achieved through spiritual ecstasy, direct intuition, or special individual relations of which discipline of the body was the chief and only practical expression. William Kelly, that's what he said.

Well, there are people that live like that. Some of you have been in Mexico. Have you ever seen those women walking on their knees down the street with roses to take into the Virgin? Have you ever seen a man wearing what is known as a hair shirt? I think maybe that's a Catholic thing.

But they're trying to discipline their body to be spiritually profitable. And Paul says that for bodily discipline is only of a little profit. He is referring to ascetic practices, which took the form of physical exercise. These practices were for the purpose of physical health and not the means of advancing holiness and life. He says that bodily discipline, which took the form of physical exercise, profited very little. The literal Greek word is profitable for a little, meaning that its use of physical exercise extends to only a few things.

On the other hand, godliness is profitable for all things. The word godliness, reverence, respect, faithfulness towards God. Vincent says that godliness involves a promise for this life and for the next. What is godliness? It's conformity to the image of Christ. But for this life, as it reflects the heavenly life, is shaped and controlled by it and bears its impression. Godliness has promise for the present life because it has promise of the life which is to come.

Only the life which is in Christ Jesus is life indeed. When we were studying back in chapter three, verse 21, Paul said, so then let no one boast in men, for all things belong to you, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or things present or things to come, all things belong to you and you belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God. So he said, but I discipline my body. And now we're gonna talk about and close up with the idea of being disqualified. Lots of people think that that may be the fear of damnation.

But Paul didn't have that kind of fear. You read all of his writings. He never thought that he might lose his salvation for anything. As a matter of fact, he was the one that was more certain about his salvation than anybody. So he could, though, in the context, maybe lose a reward. Remember last week we talked about the fact that if he taught the gospel willingly, he got a reward. But even if he didn't do it willingly, he still had to do it because he had a stewardship, but he wouldn't get the reward. Paul had no fear about losing his salvation, but I think it's a mistake to suppose that the language of Paul supposes any fear of hell in his own part. It's possible for a man to preach to others and be lost himself. And that, I have a couple of men's names in my mind, but I'm not gonna mention them. And what you find with those men is they don't buffet their body like Paul did. They don't keep it under control. They don't bring it into subjection.

There's an inseparable connection between a holy walk along the way and eternal life at the end. Who can doubt it and why should any man make this passage so difficult. It's really not that hard. You can't just discard it. Hamilton Smith says, for preaching to others is not everything. First we must be a Christian and then a preacher if called of the Lord. What I have found with a lot of the Brethren writers When they run into a situation like this where they have to explain what Paul's saying about being disqualified or about losing your salvation like a lot of them do in Hebrews 6, their answer is to say, well, the guy was never a Christian in the first place.

And I don't agree with that. I think that what really is going on is that there's the birth phase of Christianity. born again of incorruptible seed, and the joy and all that goes with that. But then there's the next part, and that's the growth part. And that's the part when God and Paul starts in Romans 5.12 and he starts to explain that there's a difference between your sins being paid for and the source of those sins, the sin nature. Because I think it's reasonable to ask God, yeah, you took care of my sins, and I live under grace. But can I ask the question, should I sin that grace may abound?

He said, no way. And he lays out the growth part of Christianity, which is a co-crucifixion, co-burial, and co-resurrection with Christ. That's where I think people hit the brakes. Because you can't read Romans 6 and the first 10 verses without asking yourself the question, did I really die? Did I really die with Christ?

It says so. Can I go with that? Can I trust God about that? Or do I have to go with my experience? I think there's a danger for us as believers not to believe that doctrine. Because what it means is that I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna live my whole Christian life based on the fact that my sins are forgiven. And there's nothing wrong with that. But I'm never gonna get over the hump to Christ-likeness or living the Christian life in the power of the Spirit. That's not ever gonna happen because I stopped believing in the path, in the race, in the information that was given me as I went along.

There can be men that are greatly gifted, but not converted. There's a very, very high profile man who died a couple months ago, a great apologist, and people love this guy, and I know people that supported him, and he was an international figure. He's been dead, I think, maybe six months, and now it comes out that he had a secret life, which was so sinful and so ungodly that everything this man ever said has to be discredited because of the way he lived. And it's a tragedy because I know people that really supported this man. And from an apologist standpoint, he was really good, He was a greatly gifted man.

But one has to wonder if he was converted. What was he doing? So, here's one last thing about this verse. It shows the relationship between our will and our bodies. Volition is to be in charge. Paul says in Philippians 2.13, For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. This whole chapter is an explanation of the last verse of chapter 13. which says, therefore, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will, there's the will, never eat meat again so that I may not cause my brother to stumble. Generally, it clarifies the importance of limiting my legitimate liberty, which I have, as a believer for a higher goal, namely the glory of God and the welfare of other people. Chester McCauley closes up by saying, the cause of Christ is everything. The honor and glory of the Lord is to be supreme in all that we do.

So, for people that teach the word, we should beware not to be prepared. We should be preaching and teaching with the reality of our lives demonstrating what we're talking about. It's easy for us to forget that doing the truth is the common responsibility of every believer. And that speaking it to others ever so earnestly is no substitute for their own abiding by it as in the sight of God. A spiritual walk is a different thing from sincerity. But high dialogue without an exercise conscience exposes shipwreck before long.

So the last thing I have to say is that the real secret to the Christian life and to discipline and to the gospel and teaching is the study of the Word of God. But along with that study, There's a purpose for spending time in the Word of God. And that purpose is to come to know a person.

And the person is the Lord Jesus Christ. And every incident that we can see in the epistles of any man who comes face to face, Paul and Stephen, with the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is so taken up with him, they can't do anything else. And each one of us has the liberty and the privilege of beholding the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in His Word.

And so when you know Him like that, you know that He loves you, you love Him back. And you find out that, boy, there's just nothing I would ever want to do that would cause any harm to that intimacy and what He's done, not only for me, but to me. So let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you. Again, we thank you for what you've done. We thank you for how you have taken us and placed us in your very own glory. And we look forward to that so eagerly. And we look forward to being face-to-face with our dear Savior, the Lord Jesus. Amen.