In what ways is the Christian life like the Olympics?

"Know ye not that they who run in a race-course run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And everyone that contends is temperate in all things; they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, as not uncertainly — so combat, as not beating air. But I buffet my body, and lead [it] captive, lest by any means, having preached to others, I myself should be reprobate." (Vers. 24-27.) The figure from these games would be most striking to the Corinthians accustomed to those of the Isthmus. Indeed the use is plain to anyone. Spiritually, the prize is not for one, but for all, if all run well. But even in the games the candidates must be temperate in all things, though theirs were but a fading crown, ours an everlasting.

The race, then, is the race of Christian life, and the contest that of well-pleasing to the Lord. With Christ as its starting-point, and Christ also as its goal, that race has to be run with patience by a faith which looks off from5 all other objects, to fix its gaze solely upon Him. But just as men did not, at the Grecian games, contend with halters round their necks, so neither is the Christian called to save himself by any effort or endeavour from the wrath to come; for as a sinner he has already fled for refuge to the hope set before him. He has run into the tower of his safety, and is safe.6 It is in his Saviour's name that he appears as a competitor within the lists, and by His Saviour's strength alone that he can hope to win. But there is a prize for those who overcome. And here we should note the contrast between the illustration and the living truth. At the trial of natural ability, all the competitors but one were sure to lose. In Christ, all are already more than conquerors, but such as draw back unto perdition by failing to continue in the grace of God. Yet, though in this sense every real Christian overcomes, there is another sense in which merit will be found and honoured, according to its measure, by the righteous Arbiter of all that has been wrought here in His name; a merit not original or inherent, but of grace. And it is in this latter sense, chiefly, that the apostle speaks of winning in this place.7

What animates the wrestler is the consciousness that he is aiming at a prize which human strength may win. But he puts himself voluntarily under the severest training, because he knows that his own unaided powers are inadequate to his ambition. So also in the fight of faith. We wrestle against adversaries which mock all our natural strength. The arms of God are needed, if we fight the fight of God. The victory is surely within reach, but the crown is for them only who strive lawfully. To faith must be added virtue, and to virtue knowledge,8 etc., if faith is itself to stand unshaken in an evil day. A supine inertness in the passing time of opportunity will bring loss instead of gain, in the day when crowns are given by the Lord to them that love Him. Faith without works is dead, being alone;9 but a faith which lives loves also, and will seek, in the way of diligent obedience, the approbation of the Master whom it serves.1

One of the Grecian contests used by the apostle to illustrate the Christian race. All ran, but only one received the prize; let each, casting aside every weight and sin, so run as to obtain; not for a fading crown (of laurel, pine, or parsley), but an incorruptible one. 1 Cor. 9:24-25; Heb. 12:1. This is not a contest in which the unconverted have to strive, with the aim of obtaining salvation; but it is a race the Christian has to run as a matter of experience. Paul said, "I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" — of being with Him in the glory. Phil. 3:14.

The course run by a Christian is compared to races in which 'one receiveth the prize': with the exhortation, "So run that ye may obtain." 1 Cor. 9:24-27. The prize that Paul was stretching forward to win was that of being with and like the Lord in the glory. Phil. 3:14.

(c) The third stage is that the boundary "passed over to the border of the Archite, to Ataroth?" Archite is from arach, "to advance, make progress," and the Archite is therefore a man of progress. What is before him is very clearly told in the point where the line touches his border, Ataroth, which means "crowns;" and so the apostle says: "Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible." (1 Cor. 9:25.) The lucidity of the text here makes it need little the interpreter.

Here the qualities that Timothy ought to possess in order to carry on the work are given by the apostle. As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, warring a spiritual warfare, he must suffer hardships and many privations. He must beware not to be entangled with the affairs of this life. The soldier's calling is to please him who has called him, and all else, comforts and self-indulgence must be sacrificed. The soldier does this to obtain a corruptible crown, how much more then should the soldier of Jesus Christ do this to gain an incorruptible crown!

The Christian also wears the athlete character, he is like those who "strive for masteries." In this connection obedience is stressed. Except he strive lawfully, except he run according to the rules of the contest, he is not crowned even though he comes in first. Do we sufficiently bear this in mind when we serve the Lord? Except we serve according to His instructions and in obedience to His word we cannot expect a full reward.

“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every one that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible” (1 Cor. 9:24-25).

Here the Apostle uses the illustration afforded by the athletic games of the Corinthian Isthmus. We all know of the strenuous training the athlete will subject himself to. How he will abstain from foods and drinks that would impair his fitness. In other words he is self-restrained, for that is the meaning of the word “temperate” in our text.

When we come to verse 24 we can see how the Apostle's thoughts began to expand and take in the whole spirit and character which should mark the servant of the Lord. We are viewed as athletes contending in the games, whether running or fighting. Hence we should be marked by zeal, directness of purpose, and a temperate, self-denying life in all things. The athlete, whether in the Grecian games of two thousand years ago, or in the contests today, is careful not to let his body get the mastery of him. The very opposite. He masters his body, brings it into subjection to a very strict regime, even buffets it with continual exercises. And all this to the winning of a crown that quickly fades. Let us aim at the same things, only of a spiritual sort, that we may be invested in due season with a fadeless crown; for, alternatively, it is possible to ignore these things, and though a very eloquent preacher to others, to be rejected oneself.

Paul could say, "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection; lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be disapproved of." And he said this, too, in immediate connection with "striving for the mastery." "Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one obtains the prize? So run that ye may obtain. And every one that strives for the mastery is temperate [self-controlled] in all things: now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beats the air," &c. 1 Cor. 9:24-27.

Here, it is not a question of life or salvation, but simply one of "running in a race," and "so running that we obtain," not life, but "an incorruptible crown." The fact of being called to run assumes the possession of life, for no one would call upon dead men to run in a race. I have got life, evidently, before I begin to run at all, and, hence, though I should fail in the race, I do not lose my life, but only the crown, for this and not that was the object proposed to be run for. We are not called to run for life, inasmuch as we get that, not by running, but "by faith of Jesus Christ," who by His death has purchased life for us, and implants it in us, by the mighty energy of the Holy Ghost. Now, this life, being the life of a risen Christ, is eternal, for He is the eternal Son; as He says Himself, in His address to the Father, in John 17, "Thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him." This life is not conditional. He does not give us life, as sinners, and then set us to run for it as saints, with the gloomy foreboding, that we may lose the precious boon by failing in the race. This would be to "run uncertainly," as many alas! are trying to do, who profess to have entered upon the course, and yet know not whether they have life or not. Such persons are running for life, and not for a crown; but God does not set up life at the goal, as the reward of victory, but gives it at the starting post, as the power by which we run. The power to run, and the object of running, are two very different things; yet they are constantly confounded by persons who are ignorant of the glorious gospel of the grace of God, in which Christ is set forth as the life and righteousness of all who believe on His name; and all this, moreover, as the free gift of God, and not as the reward of our running.