Run! 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

(Listen here)

Our life as Christians is described in a variety of ways:  a battle (Eph. 6:10-17), a walk (Col. 2:6), and here in 1 Corinthians we see it described as a race.  Paul likes this metaphor.  He uses it when writing to the Galatians (Gal. 2:2; 5:7), the Philippians (Php. 2:16), and to Timothy (2 Tim. 4:7).  The race emphasizes the performance aspect of Christian living.  When Christian living is called a battle we find our need to stand firm against our enemy emphasized.  When it is called a walk it focuses on our friendship and fellowship with God.  But when it’s a race it stresses our performance and our prize! 

Paul wants the prize for himself, and, he wants other believers to get the prize too.  That's a good pastor.  And so I want you – each of you – to get the prize also. 

This passage is sitting in a context.  Paul’s thoughts are often like a winding river and we are stepping into a thought that goes upstream a few chapters.  Just as we might ask where a river comes from we can ask where are Paul’s thoughts coming from?  Well, upstream, in chapter 8, Paul informs Christians that they are to voluntarily limit their freedoms in Christ for the benefit of others whose conscience is weak.  In other words, there are certain activities that Christians have freedom to engage in even though there are Christians who think that those activities are sinful.  Where the Scriptures do not prohibit, some Christians find their conscience does.  They are the weaker Christian Paul is talking about.  Paul instructed believers to refrain from activities they were free to engage in so as not to offend a weaker brother’s conscience and cause them to pass judgment.  You can read Romans 14 along with 1 Corinthians 8 to understand this teaching more fully.  But for now, Paul’s concern was that each believer would be conscientious of building others up in love.  Specifically, this meant voluntarily restricting one’s freedoms in Christ for the sake of others.  Remember, love is seen best in our willingness to sacrifice for the benefit of someone else.

Then in chapter 9 Paul continues this thought by describing his own willingness to limit freedoms he had for the benefits of others.  Paul practiced what he preached and would first make sure he was living up to the standards he would then call others to.  That’s why Paul could say, “Imitate me” like he does in 1 Corinthians 11:1.  He was careful not to let his own conduct undermine his commands to others. 

 

This is the thought that leads up to the famous passage where Paul says “I become all things to all people” in verses 19-23.  He was limiting his freedoms in order not to offend others so that they would listen to him preach the Gospel.  And that is the point:  evangelism and edification.  The application, for the mature, is that we take a little away from ourselves for the good of others.

Paul then moves into his metaphor:  the race.  He calls on Christians to run their Christian race.  And this race is to be run a certain way.  He tells them to run with intensity, with focus and with discipline.

#1:  Run with Intensity (v24)

            First of all, we are supposed to run with intensity.  Every athlete knows that if you’re going to succeed you are going to have to give it your all.  Paul tells us the same is true for us running the Christian race:  we have to run with intensity and give it our all.  Paul says in verse 24, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.”  Paul’s point here is not that we are in competition with each other to get “the prize”, but, that we are to run with the same kind of intensity the runners in a race have.  Listen to some great quotes from great names in sports:

Regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time, Pay Riley said:  “There are only two options regarding commitment.  You’re either IN or you’re OUT.  There is no such thing as life in-between.”

            Hockey legend Wayne Gretzky said, “The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.”

            George Halas, the iconic founder and owner of the Chicago Bears said, “No man who ever gave his best regretted it.”

Dan Gable, the legendary wrestler who lost only one match in his whole college career and won a gold medal without giving up one point said, “Gold medals aren’t really made of gold.  They’re made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find alloy called guts.” 

All of these athletes and coaches talk of intensity, determination and the energy they put into their own sport.  Paul talks the same way of the Christian life.  Run in such a way as to get the prize!  He wants Christians to notice how runners in a race go “all out” to win.  No one lollygags, or dilly-daddles, because you don’t win that way.  A race is run vigorously giving it all you got - exerting all your energy until you reach the finish line. 

 

Paul touched on this intensity in Philippians 3:12-14 (Turn there and read with me).  Notice the way he describes the intensity of our race:  “…I press on …” and “…straining towards what is ahead I press on…”  Paul puts his energy into his race.

Christians are not in competition with each other in this race.  Rather we are each running the race against ourselves.  Our arena is our own everyday life.  We have 3 opponents:  The Devil, the World, and our own Sin inside of us.  We are not in competition with each other, but our race is just that: our race. 

We are running our own race that the Lord has designed for each of us.  We each face our own hurdles and obstacles, some similar to what others endure.  We may face the same temptations as others (“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man”).  Yet there is much of what we go through that is unique to us.  In our race there are good deeds the Lord places before us to execute (Eph. 2:10), trials to endure (James 1:1-4), temptations to resist (1 Cor. 10:13; Heb. 12:1) and opportunities to seize.

 

Each man stands or falls on his own before the Lord.  In Hebrews 5:11-14 the writer grills his readers for not being further along in their spiritual maturity.  He wasn’t comparing them against other Christians; he was comparing them against themselves.  They should have been further along than they were.  They weren't putting the intensity into their own Christian improvement that was expected.  Former NFL Quarterback Steve Young said, “The Principle is competing against yourself.  It’s about self-improvement, about being better than you were the day before.”  Run with intensity!

#2:  Run with Focus (v25-26)

Roger Hornsby said, “People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball.  I’ll tell you what I do.  I stare out the window and wait for spring.”

            Secondly, Paul tells us to Run with Focus.  Notice verses 25 and 26, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.” 

            Run with focus by keeping your eyes on the prize.  The simple principle is this:  the quality of our Christian life on earth determines the quality of our eternal life in heaven.  That’s the idea behind the Bible’s teaching on rewards.  Paul says here there is a crown we can win. In the Greek there were 2 kinds of crowns:  a diadem and a stephanos.  A diadem was the crown of authority, like the kings crown.  The diadem was worn by those who had power and authority to rule.  That’s not the crown Paul mentions here.  He says we run for a stephanos, a victors crown, which is the crown awarded to those who win in the athletic games.  Where Olympic athletes today win medals of gold,  the victorious athletes of ancient Greek games won wreaths made of leaves and pine. 

 

While we also run our race for a crown, Paul says their crowns fade and decompose.  Our crowns however are eternal and will never fade, decompose, or wither.  The point is this:  If they work so hard for that which is temporary, how much more should we work to win that which is eternal?

Run with focus and don’t get distracted.  The idea here is twofold.  On the one hand Paul is saying he doesn’t waste anything.  No time, no opportunity, no energy, no nothing.  Everything that he has is aimed at succeeding in his race.  That’s the idea behind the words, “I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.”  The games included foot races, and Paul picking up on that says each stride in his own Christians race was counted and calculated to propel him forward.  Not one step was wasted.  Drawing on the boxing games he says that each punch was carefully aimed to strike the target - no flailing about like a guy caught in a spider web. 

 

If God gives him another day on the earth then Paul was not going to waste it.  He was going to outdo himself and do better today than yesterday.  He was going to build on what he learned and experienced to excel further.  Remember he said that he forgot what lay behind him and reached out – strained forward – towards the prize Jesus Christ had called him to (Php. 3:12-14).  He speaks of progress, of improvement, of excelling.  Pat Riley said, “Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better”.  Are we trying to be better today as Christians than yesterday?  Or are we backsliding – which means we are actually worse off today than yesterday.  Christ-likeness is the result of daily training, submitting to our trainer:  the word of God and the Holy Spirit.

Question:  Will we regret anything when we stand before Christ?  Will we think back on how we could have run our race better?  How many TV shows did I watch instead of studying the Bible?  What did I choose to do instead of joining a Bible study or do discipleship.  Could I have been disciple or sought to disciple someone else? How many hours on social media did I spend instead of in God’s Word or in prayer?  How many days were spent indulging sin rather than practicing holiness?  Here’s an ironic one for today’s sermon:  How many times did I skip church or church functions for sports?  How many hours with my family did I miss because of my greed at work or my selfish personal interests?  How many people didn’t hear me share the Gospel with them because I cared more about their opinion of me than whether they had the chance to be saved?  We will stand before Jesus Christ and we will give an account of our entire lives to Him and how we spent our lives – or didn’t spend our lives for Him (Rom. 14:10; 2 Cor. 5:10; Heb. 4:13).  I don’t want any of us to miss the prize available to all of us.  That’s why I urge you to run with focus. 

On the other hand, not only are we to keep our eyes on the prize before us, Paul is saying don’t get distracted with sin.  That’s where the context comes into play – the verses before and the verses after especially.  Chapter 10 is a review of Israel’s historic failures in the wilderness and Paul says that their failure in the past was written down specifically for contemporary Christians to be warned not to commit the same sins.  Why?  Because getting tangled in these sins can result in getting disqualified and losing the prize.  Notice chapter 10 verses 7-9 where 4 sins are specifically mentioned.  We Christians should be careful to avoid these (v6).  First there is idolatry.  Second there is sexual immorality.  Third there is putting the Lord to the test.  Fourth there is grumbling.  Throw these things aside and run your race.  Hebrews 12:1 says “Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and run the race marked out for us…”