1Cor 9:24-27 - The Nature of Competition

24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.


I must confess to having a very uncompetitive mindset. Whether this is because of a fear of failure I cannot completely tell. But it is on account of this personality trait - this mindset - that I am uncomfortable with this sort of imagery. And I think there is good reason to be uncomfortable if the competitive allegory here is understood in the way that the world sees competition.

Christians, for example, do not compete against each other. They do not vie for God’s favouritism at the expense of other believers. We do not outdo each other in the worldly sense, even though we are to spur each other on to good works. We race not against each other, but against ourselves. We do not fight each other, but we do fight against our own indwelling sinful tendencies. We pummel not each other, but our own carnality. And this is just the sort of fervour that an athlete summons as he aims for the prize. He trains. He practices. He subdues the natural dissipation of his body and his natural tendencies to take it easy and to coast.

I suppose that, if golf were a known sport during Paul’s lifetime, he would have found that game to be best suited to his point. In golf you play against the course. Others play the course, too, but it is how well you do against the standard of par that is the true goal. The more under par the better. It’s not a perfect analogy, but it serves as well as any.


Our "playing the course" - it must always be remembered - is not so that God will save us in the end, though the implication is always there that a refusal to play may result in our disqualification. Our "playing the course" is what we do in the response of faith to what we believe God has already accomplished for us as His children - and, yes, as His elect children! The finished work of Christ must always be the ground upon which we stand and move through the exercise of faith in those facts.

So we run, but not in order to become accepted; we run because we have been accepted. And to run we must practice and train daily so that we not only maintain our edge, but so that we actually improve it. This practice and training of putting to death the deeds of the body, of dying to carnal lusts and passions, of shunning worldliness - this itself is the very means by which God works in us as we work out our salvation. It is fruit. Good works are the fruit of the Spirit of Holiness. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self-control are fruit of the Spirit of Holiness, and lead to acts of lovingkindness.

It is important not to take this passage to imply that a person can lose his salvation by not training enough, by not practicing and exercising enough. What is enough? Enough for what? It cannot be "enough to earn or to secure our salvation." But it does mean "enough to demonstrate to us and to others that we are truly saved." And this is an enormous distinction. To believe incorrectly about such matters imperils the soul - for if there is any sense in us of clinging to something that we do as a precursor to our justification, or as a condition of ultimate salvation we shall perish. We must trust in Christ alone from start to finish. True children of God are equipped, furnished, endowed with all that is necessary for the course to be finished. They have received the right to become children of God through believing in and receiving Jesus Christ.

But once having received that birthright, true believers must press into the kingdom and take it by force to one degree or another. Accepting the idea of salvation but being happy never to show its fruits is always a good indication that real salvation - a true profession of faith - is absent.


What then is the prize for which we must run? What is the prize for which we discipline our carnal tendencies? It is to attain to that which we were elected unto from eternity. We struggle to lay hold of that for which we were laid hold of. This apparent paradox of God’s sovereignty and our responsibility creates a knife-edge dividing keenly the separation between utter darkness and infinite light. It is the axis, the fulcrum upon which our eternal destiny turns. When we first start out we may not see it. But which side of the divide we lay our foot upon determines which side of the mountain we end up at. And God, I believe, has deliberately ordained this tension between what He has done and what we must do in response - and the importance of getting the order correct - so that we keep moving into the infinity of His sovereignty in all things.

There can be only one ultimate will in the universe. There can be only one God. Surely this has much to do with why God ordained evil, the fall, the redemption and glorification of His church. This has much to do with why He sent the eternal Son to reconcile all things to Himself. There came a great divide - a separation - between God and man and this divide is bridged by Christ for all who believe. Obviously God’s creatures can only be right with Him and content of themselves when their will is to perfectly and willingly do His will forever. This they could never have done unless they had been regenerated by God. Because of Christ the eternal state of every member of mankind will be forever fixed as either bliss or torment.

Christ is solely responsible for those who enter into bliss, but those who are left in the state of their own willing rebellion to willingly continue opposing, denying and disobeying the will of God have no one but themselves to blame. So, again, though I press into the kingdom by force, yet my pressing in finds its source in the saving, sanctifying, completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ - and not in me of myself.