Keeping Your Eye on the Prize

It’s now over a year since I snapped my patella in two, had surgery, wore a leg brace for 12 weeks and had to learn to bend my knee again. And even though I can now walk fine, I’m still learning to run again. To be able to run properly I’m having to stick to a training plan of strengthening, walking, and stretching. And because of my other chronic health issues, running again will take lots of extra effort on my part. But its also gotten me thinking about when Paul talks about training for a race in his first letter to the Corinthian church. I studied Ancient History when I was at university and I love making connections for people between the Bible and secular history.

So, did you know the ancient city of Corinth also hosted its own Olympic style games? Called the Isthmian Games, they were held at the Temple of Poseidon, about 8km outside the city. Originally beginning in 582 BC, these Games were celebrated biennially when they were restored in 44BC, after Julius Caesar re-found Corinth as a Roman colony. They even outlasted the Christian Emperor Theodosius I's ban in AD 393. Just like the original Olympics, the Isthmian Games had four different running races: the stadion– an 192m sprint, the diaulos– a 384m mid-distance race, the hoplitodromos– the same 384m track in full armour, and the dolichos– a 4 - 5km long distance run. By the time Paul was travelling the Mediterranean, the Games had been adopted by the Romans, and athletes just like today were considered professionals. In fact, the original Greek word for athlete literally meant “one who contests for a prize.” Athletes didn’t just compete in one game every couple of years, they travelled on a circuit of hundreds of contests each year.

Writing in approximately AD 53-55, Paul wrote his letter to a group of people very familiar with the Games and the events held. So when Paul wrote,

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. (1 Corinthians 9:24)

They knew exactly what he was talking about, they had likely sat in the grandstands, or cheered at the sidelines. Paul even had multiple words to choose from for ‘race’. But I discovered just recently, Paul didn’t choose the longest race, he chose the shortest– the stadion, he chose the sprint, and he continues,

And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. (1 Corinthians 9:25)

The current world record for the 200m, almost the same length as the stadion, is 19.19 seconds, set by Usain Bolt in 2009. But to run that distance in less than 20 seconds, Bolt followed a strict training regimen: he was in the gym and on the track six days a week with a coach, and had a personal chef preparing all his meals to exact macro ratios. In other words, to gain the win he was temperate in all things. That’s the concept Paul was teaching when he wrote this passage, a concept his audience was extremely familiar with. Athletes live every day in preparation for one race day, but only one person actually wins the prize. There are even records of ancient athletes at the Olympic Games swearing an oath to Zeus, binding them to training for ten consecutive months prior to the games, usually under the direction of a coach who beat them if they broke their diet or missed training.

Temperate means to be self-controlled and is also one of the fruit of Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). It's about being able to control your own body and desires. And, while on the one hand it is actually a pretty unpopular idea in today’s culture, at the same time we applaud the outcome when we see it, whether it is in athletes, business, or service. We admire the G.O.A.T.s, the servicemen and women, the first responders and the geniuses, who are disciplined enough to achieve amazing things or help others.

We likewise need to be live everyday with the bigger goal in mind, not to win a pine-needle crown that will literally rot away, like the one awarded at the games at Corinth, but to gain one that is incorruptible. Paul says he runs with purpose, fights with purpose, disciplines his body and trains like an athlete (9:27). But consider the context for his discipline:

[19] For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

[20] And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;

[21] To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ,) that I might gain them that are without law.

[22] To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

[23] And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you.

(1 Corinthians 9:19-23)

Paul’s real aim was the salvation of others, and to do that he understood the need to adapt to the people he was trying to reach; a Jew to the Jew, and a Gentile to the Gentiles. Most missionaries understand this concept and we adapted to the Niuginian culture when we lived there. We adapted so much to their way of life, three months prior to our first visit home we realised we needed to train our boys in Western table manners. We also had to explain that raising your eyebrows at a girl in Australia means something very different than it does in Niugini! But why had we adapted to their culture in the first place? It was in order to save some, to preach more effectively, and to be a better witness for Christ. It wasn’t for our own sake, it was for theirs.

THIS SHIRT DOES NOT REPLACE PREACHING

Paul is teaching that we also need to adapt to the culture around us. Not sinfully, Paul makes that distinction (v21), but we adapt in order to save some. This adaptation to culture is why we have to have mastery over our own bodies. God has sent us into a sinful world that needs His message of love and salvation. Preaching the gospel is like the sprint. But to compete in the race we need to train every day. We need to have enough self-control to master ourselves, to have the discipline needed to be in the places that need the gospel the most without falling into sin. Like an athlete, we must live every day in preparation for the race, with discipline and self-control. And, as Paul also points out, he didn’t want to find himself disqualified from ministry after preaching to others (v27). This is what is meant by the word 'castaway' in verse 27, Paul didn't want to become 'not fit for use' or disqualified to minister.

When we understand the real purpose, when we know the goal, we can train and be disciplined, keeping our eye on the prize. If an athlete can live everyday in preparation for a race that only results in a corruptible crown, how much more should an eternal crown compel us to live temperate lives, to be disciplined, to be ready to preach the gospel and always focused of the coming prize.

Made for His Glory,