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FEBRUARY 8, 2009
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self–control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (ESV).
1 Corinthians 9:24–27
Many years ago, a man wrote to Dear Abby. He said, “Dear Abby: I am in love and I am having an affair with two different women. I can't marry them both. Please tell me what to do, but don't give me any of that morality stuff.” Abby's answer was brief: “Dear Sir: The only difference between humans and animals is morality. Please write to a veterinarian.”
Abby’s counsel would have also been appropriate to the church in Corinth. You see, Corinth was a seaport town known for its sexual promiscuity. But the Corinthians knew all the right answers insofar as the chief doctrines of the Christian faith were concerned. They would have affirmed that Jesus is the only way to heaven. They surely would have made the good confession of faith, saying, “We are saved, not by our works, but by grace alone through faith alone in the work and merits of Christ alone.” They also knew Christ to be the very Son of God in human flesh. Yes, the Corinthians understood the teachings of the faith. But all was not well. Moral laxity and lewd living had infected the membership.
To combat this Paul, in our text, compares the Christian life to an athletic contest. He pictures the Christian life as a race. Every athlete, he says, disciplines his body and exercises self–control. His goal is to win the race so as to receive the prize. Paul makes two points:
Paul tells the Corinthians that they are competing in the greatest race of life, namely, a spiritual race for their very souls. In this race, the winner receives a crown that will last forever, eternal life.
The point of comparison in the athletic race and the Christian race is the necessity of self control and discipline while focusing on the prize. If a Christian does not finish the race, he obviously doesn’t reach his goal. He, thereby, disqualifies himself. Thus, Paul tells the Corinthians that they can’t be lazy Christians. As to himself, he fights against his sinful nature with great diligence, saying, “I buffet my body and make it my slave.”4 To Paul, the believer’s race to finish line is the preeminent race of his life.
In contrast to the Corinthian Games in which only one wins the race, Paul wants the Christians in Corinth to strive to make it to the finish line. Indeed, they should exert all of their efforts to win. But finally, all who reach the finish line win. And to Paul, making it to the finish line is not an easy thing. Each Christian must train his body and soul to stay on the race track. He must not be distracted by the temptations that life always throws his way.
The main distraction in Corinth was their proclivity to engage in and to persist in sexual sins without repentance. To them Paul says that they must at once cease and desist lest they fall from the faith and disqualify themselves from the race. Of course, the same is true of any sin insofar as the sinner continues in it, does not fight against it, but lives at ease with it.5
Before I comment on reaching the end of the race and receiving the prize, I need to make it clear that the prize of eternal life has already been won for us by Jesus. Paul has already made this clear to the Corinthians.6 The point Paul is making in our text is this: While we cannot win our own salvation, we can lose it by living a life of continual, unrepented–of sin. For example you had no say about your coming into this world. You came into this life by some decisions and actions your parents made. But you certainly have the power to take your own life. In a similar way, you came to faith by nothing you did. You came to faith either through baptism as an infant or by simple trust in the Gospel. But you certainly have the power to reject Christ now or at any other time by spiritual malnutrition, by driving the Holy Spirit out of your soul by persistent, impenitent sinning, or by hearkening to the voice of a false prophet.
But Paul does not want the Corinthians or us to disqualify ourselves in any of these ways. So Paul wants us to stay engaged in running the race and making it to the finish line. Through baptism and the Word, the Holy Spirit has created saving faith in our hearts. But now that we are running toward the goal, our primary aim is to stay the course and not get so distracted by this temptation or that that we walk off the race track before we reach the finish line and die without faith in Christ.
And, oh how easy it is to get distracted!
Consider an old story about how temptations can distract us from reaching the goal. Many years ago a king had a beautiful daughter. She had many offers of marriage, but she couldn't make up her mind. A romantic girl, she wanted a man who would love her more than he loved anything else.
Finally, she devised a way to test the love of her suitors. An announcement was made and sent throughout the kingdom that on a certain day, there would be a race. The winner of the race would receive the princess’s hand in marriage. The race was open to every man. All that was required was that he had to profess his love for the princess.
On the chosen day, men—rich and poor—;gathered for the race. Each wanted to marry the princess. They gathered at the starting line, prepared to run the course of many miles that had been marked for the race. Each man was told that the princess waited at the finish line. Whoever reached her first could take her as his bride.
Just before the race began, an announcement was made. The king, they were reminded, was a wealthy man with treasures gathered from all over the world. The king had liberally scattered some of his finest treasures along the course. Each runner was welcome to take as much as he liked of whatever he liked.
The race began. Almost immediately, the runners began to come across great gems and bags of gold. There were necklaces, pendants, and jewels. One by one, the runners, princes and paupers alike, turned aside to fill their pockets and carry off what treasures they could. Blinded by the immediate promise of wealth, they forgot the princess and the prize that awaited them.
My friends, I think the lesson of this story is clear. As we run the spiritual race toward life’s end, we can also become blinded by earthy allurements, preoccupations, worries, and delights. We can easily become occupied with life’s treasures and pleasures.
Like the Corinthians, we live in a sexually promiscuous age. If we turn on the television, we see Victoria’s Secret commercials. We see ads for male enhancement and products for ED. We see prime–time programming in which casual sex and cohabitation is the rule. On our computers and on the TV screen we can watch pornography on demand. And for many people, Christians included, such smut is on the menu daily. And Christians who indulge in such stuff without repentance have been disqualified from the race for the prize of eternal life. Only genuine repentance will put them back on the racetrack.
Whether it’s sexual gratification or jealousy, or impatience, or pursuing the almighty dollar, or the things money can buy, it’s easy to make such pleasures and treasures our god. Our sinful flesh is a monster. Consider how it tempts us.
And so it goes. But where is the self–control and discipline so important to resist temptation and finish the race? It has departed for greener pastures.
Oh, but we can’t live like this, can we? When we fall into such in such sins, we need to turn away from them and turn to our gracious God for absolution. We may not sin publicly like ousted Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, but the LORD sees what we do in the darkness. He knows our misdeeds, for he says, “Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him?”7
And when we turn from our sins, where shall we go? Where shall we go to get cleaned up? Let me suggest an answer. A man in my former congregation had kidney disease. Mike had to go to the hospital for dialysis three times a week to get his blood cleaned up. Each session took three hours. But never once did he miss a session or complain about the boredom, for he knew that without the dialysis he would die.
The same thing is true with us. To get cleaned up, i.e., to be forgiven, we come to the sinner’s hospital, the church. I freely admit that the church doesn’t seem flashy or entertaining. But, then, it was never meant to be. It was meant to deliver God’s forgiveness to your souls and mine. We know that we need the dialysis of Word and Sacrament to clean up the toxins of sin within. Indeed, like Mike, we wouldn’t dare miss a session because we wouldn’t want to take any chances.
After all, we are God’s saints on earth. And we want to see our Lord and our loved ones again in heaven
—where our eyes shall meet again,
—where our hearts shall laugh again, and
—where we shall all rejoice together in the Lord ... and not just for a time but for all eternity!
What a wonder, this prize of eternal life!
So, then, beloved, let us be repentantly hungry for our spiritual dialysis so that we may run the race to the finish line. Awaiting us is Jesus and the crown of eternal life. May God grant each of us the discipline and self control so that we may run the race and reach the finish line in faith. May God grant this to us all, for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!
Endnotes
1 See Gordon D. Fee, The First Epistle to the Corinthians, The New International Commentary Series on the New Testament, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1987), p. 445n.
2 The Games held in Corinth were called the Isthmian Games. See http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/sports/A0825657.html.
3 The wreath or crown (Gk. stephanos) was made of twigs and branches with leaves on them. Hence, the competitors were racing for a perishable crown. Paul wants to contrast the perishable stephanos with the imperishable one awaiting Christians who finish the race in faith, viz., eternal life.
4 See 1 Corinthians 9:27 (NASB).
5 This is the same truth taught by St. John in 1 John 3. In 3:6, John writes, “No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him” (NIV). In 3:9, he says, “No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.” (NIV). These passage and our text argue against the Calvinistic doctrine of “one saved, always saved.”
6 See 1 Corinthians 1:1-10.
7 See Jeremiah 23:24.
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