If you wanted to compete in the Olympics you wouldn't prepare, by studying the rule book or watching YouTube videos of your favorite sport, you would have to train rigorously. Today on Truth for Life, Alistair Begg explores a similar illustration from the Apostle Paul to find out why such self-discipline is required in living a life of faith. Father, thank you for the wonderful picture of Jesus the Shepherd leading his sheep into the pastures necessary for them. May that be our experience now, that the word of truth may be the very food that we need for the journey we're about to take. May the Spirit of God be our teacher. Save us from distractions, from indolence, from faint-heartedness.
For Jesus' sake we ask it. Amen. The focus of our study this morning is, as we read earlier, the final section of chapter 9 of 1 Corinthians, from verse 24 to 27. Sermons without illustrations are essentially akin to houses without windows. It often takes a good illustration to crystallize in our minds the instruction that we have heard.
A number of people throughout the week have said, That was a great story about that man in San Francisco with the fellow who sat down beside him. And it was obvious that the illustration registered the point that we were seeking to make in terms of a lesson in adaptability. Jesus constantly illustrated the truth that he was teaching, and the apostles apparently followed his example. When we read the Pauline epistles, we discover that he illustrates with frequency, and he has three pictures to which he returns more than to any others—namely, the picture of the farmer, the soldier, and the athlete. And it is this athletic simile which fills the mind of the apostle as he draws application to the principles he's been laying down in the earlier verses that we've been reading in chapters 8 and 9. He has, as you will recall, addressed the issue of Christian freedom and has been particularly addressing the question of how important it is to curtail our liberties in order to achieve a grand objective. The grand objective, as we saw last time, was in order that by all means possible some men and women may come to faith in Jesus Christ. There is a discipline involved in that, says Paul.
I am free to do certain things that I choose not to do, and it demands that I exercise discipline in order to live my life accordingly. And so he now uses this picture—a picture that is immediately familiar to his audience—in order to drive home the relevance of his instruction. We have three points this morning that we will endeavor to cover. Between verses 24 to 27, there is an illustration, there is an exhortation, and there is an application.
We'll actually reverse the order in part, but you'll be able to follow along, I trust. First of all, then, let's consider this sporting illustration. A sporting illustration. There can be little doubt that there would have been plenty work for Bob Costas in first-century Corinth. ABC, Wide World of Sports, who is another group, I think, would also have had plenty of challenge in settling their video cameras and television operations on multiple sites all over the city. Because it was a city, as we saw when we began our studies in Corinthians, when we began our studies we noted that the city of Corinth was not only a cosmopolitan city, not only a thriving cultural and commercial environment, not only the Vanity Fair of the then-known world, but it was also located in a strategic place for athletics.
On this narrow neck of land on the southern tip of Greece, this little isthmus gave ground to the Isthmian Games, which were second only to the Olympics. Consequently, for Paul to talk about running, training, and winning was to make immediate contact with those who were his listeners and his readers. And in this application we're going to notice running and training and winning.
If you want three subpoints under the heading A Sporting Illustration, those are the three points, which you will find right in the text before you, I hope. First of all, then, to talk about running was to make immediate contact. The rhetorical question with which verse 24 begins expects and demands a yes answer. Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one gets the prize? People would have said, Yes, we know.
And that's what he wants them to say. In Greece, at the age of seven, children were immediately introduced to the world of athletics and specifically gymnastics. They were put through their paces on a daily basis. Their exercises were graded in terms of difficulty and importance.
They were performed within the whole overall framework of an upright life, and they also took place, along with swimming, in cold river water. The purpose was to see if they couldn't produce within Greek culture a noble soul within a beautiful body. That was what they longed for. Moms and dads wanted that.
I want a lovely boy on the inside and an excellent-looking son on the outside. And the same for my girls. Indeed, in Sparta, where the gymnastic exercises were ordered, more with a view to preparing people for military service, the girls were also developed. And in the developmental process of the daughters of Sparta, there was running, spear-throwing, and wrestling. So when you were driving around, as it were, in your chariot, hastening from picking them up from school, and you met somebody at the corner, you said, Where are you going now? I'm going to wrestling. But don't you have your daughter in there?
Yes, of course I do. She's going to wrestle. And the objective was, and it was clearly stated, so that these girls would become healthy mothers of a race of soldiers. That was the purpose—to raise girls that would be good moms for soldiers.
Good stock, if you like. Now, these competitive exercises were expanding all the time. They gave rise to local competitions and eventually were flushed out and fleshed out in Olympia, in the Olympic Games, and, of course, in the Isthmian Games, which we're referring to here in Corinth.
The Isthmian Games were dedicated to the god of the sea, Poseidon—whom, of course, you will remember from the Poseidon adventure—and the site of the Games was a spruce grove dedicated to him. No one in Corinth would have been in any doubt when Paul said, Do you not know that in a race all the runners run and only one gets the prize? Nobody would have said, What in the world does he mean by that? Which is, of course, a test of a good illustration. The illustration's effectiveness is directly related to it making a point for the people. It's not a means whereby you get the chance to tell a funny story to break the boredom that is in the minds of individuals.
At least it shouldn't be. One writer describes how consumed the culture was with sports, writing in this way. He said that the masses demanded only two things of the political establishment of their day—bread and games. I quote, By day they stood about idle, in the evening they watched sports.
Some things just don't change. Now, in this illustration, Paul talks not only about running the race but also the preparation that is necessary. So the running is understandable, and the training is also understandable.
Look at verse 25. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. The standard of these contests was such that only those who could give evidence of their training were allowed to participate. And the training was often conducted over a preparatory period of ten months. And there had to be indication of the fact that these individuals had been present for all those events during those months.
Only those who had practiced in the gymnasium were admitted. And to this rigorous training program was added a general outward, sober approach to life. And again, the readers in Corinth understood in much the same way that we understand today when we watch athletics on the television. We realize that those individuals who are masters in their field did not become that simply by sitting around watching television.
They did not become that simply by dreaming of it at night. But they became that as a result of rigorous training. Incidentally and in passing, this is something to say to the soft, anemic approach that is being taken in the average school today, which pooh-poohs the notion of training for our children. And if we spend a little more time doing math, science, and gymnastics, we would be better off in our contemporary world. But we have given up on science, we have given up on mathematics, and we have given up on exercise. It staggers me to learn how little exercise is done by our children, not least of all our boys, in the average school curriculum. It's actually a crime.
It's going to produce little fat guys and an effete generation, and it is a bad idea. So, schoolteachers, that's just a little word for you in passing. But anyway… Running, training, and winning. Running, training, and winning. The prize is important. There's no egalitarianism in this.
It's not, oh, well, we're all in it because we like to run. No, no, we are in it for a prize. There is a victory that is anticipated. In the smaller contests, more than one prize was given out.
In the larger contests, only one prize was presented. The prize to which he refers was a crown. Some of you may have seen the crowning of the Miss Universe or whoever you call her the other evening. Why in the world can they not get one of those things that fits the lady's head? That crown, I have watched those competitions now for all my life. I mean, I don't mean from beginning to end, but I see them, and never once have I seen one of those tiara things actually fit the head of the person.
And if you saw the other evening, it was unbelievable. It looked like a neck brace from the orthopedic department of the Cleveland Clinic, and it was going all over the place. The first thing I'd do if I won that competition, which of course I never could, was say, I refuse to wear your crown.
It's a piece of junk. Now, what they had was a crown that wasn't really of intrinsic worth. It was made of laurel, or it was made of pine, but it was a real prize for a rigorous competition, and it was something that they really, really wanted. And they were prepared to strain every muscle and sinew, transform their lifestyle, give themselves to the task in order that they may be able to go home garlanded in pine or in parsley or in laurel or in a combination of all three.
They were heading for a crown that was in itself, passing away from the day that they received it. Now, his application of this is immediately apparent. He says, I'm speaking to you of running, of training, and of winning. What he is about to say is this.
If these athletes practice such self-control merely to obtain a disintegrating, fading crown of wood, are we going to do any less, given the prospect of an imperishable crown laid up for us in heaven? That's his thesis. That's his illustration. Now, there is only one exhortation in all the verses to which we'll come as our third point. Let us make as our second point Paul's own personal application of this principle. Notice that he directs this to himself very clearly. He says in verse 26, Therefore I do not run like this. I do not fight like this.
I do this for this reason, and he gives it to us. Paul recognizes that there is a unique danger to someone in his position. And this danger is expressed in two ways. Number one, in the concern which he declares and in the control which he displays.
For those of you who are taking notes, those are the two subpoints. A personal application on Paul's part. Number one, the concern that he declares.
What is his concern? Stated very clearly at the end of verse 27. My concern is that I don't preach to others and end up myself with no prize. Now, this isn't just humility on Paul's part. This is a realistic understanding. Ultimately, he is not addressing the issue of the loss or securing of salvation, but rather what he is saying is that a man, while heading for heaven, as it were, can so exercise his service for Christ that it is out of his own resources, it is for his own glory, and at the end of the day he's got nothing to show. Because although he apparently did what he was supposed to do, he did it from the wrong kind of motivation, he did it from the wrong kind of power, and he did it for the wrong kind of purpose.
So his concern is a realistic concern. What a tragedy to be a recruiter but not a runner! What a sadness to be the person who reads out the rules of the contest but never competes in the contest! What a bad deal to be the one who blows the trumpet announcing that the race is to begin but never ever runs the race!
What a sadness to jump twenty centuries to be the individual who fires the starting pistol, even dressed in the kind of requisite track clothing, and yet never ever strips down to the bare essentials and gets down in the starting blocks to run! Richard Baxter, writing in an earlier century to the clergy of his day, chided them, he said, for offering the bread of life to others, a bread which they had never tasted themselves. Paul says, My concern in all of this is that after I have preached to others, I don't want myself to be cast away from the prize and the crown and the glory. Let me cross-reference this in 1 Corinthians 3, first of all.
Remind you of what we saw in verse 12. If any man builds on the foundation which is Jesus, he says, using gold and silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test note the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward.
There will be a crown, there will be a prize. If, however, verse 15, what he has built is burned up, he will suffer loss—namely, the loss of his prize—he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. In other words, making it to heaven with singed trousers by the seat of your pants. In contrast, turn to 2 Peter 1 and verse 11. One way you can get to heaven, says Paul, is by the skin of your teeth, losing all your reward. And the other way is described by Peter in verse 10 and 11 of 2 Peter 1.
And it is obviously this latter way that Paul is concerned would be true of him in entering heaven. Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
That, says Paul, is my objective. I want to have a rich welcome. I want to have a prize. I want to have a crown. I don't want to be disqualified. I don't want to be known for my great conversion, for all the letters that I wrote, for all the exhortations that I gave, and find myself on the shores of heaven like a shipwrecked sailor. Let me say one thing to you.
If that was a realistic concern in the life of the apostle Paul, is it anything less than a realistic concern in every one of our lives this morning? How are we doing? How are we doing with the running? How are we doing with the training? What's the prospect of our winning? If our epitaph were written as of today, what do you fancy for a crown?
If it was over as of this morning, what's there waiting for us? That's the question. That's the issue. Now, that's the concern that he declares. My concern is that after I preach to other people, I myself would not be disqualified for the prize. So the concern, he declares, is then matched by the control that he displays. Because he is concerned that this would not happen, he then changes the things that he does in order to ensure that what he hopes will be true will actually be true.
Makes a lot of sense. I want to get there and get a prize. I know that if I do certain things, it limits the prospect of the prize.
Therefore, I'm going to have to deal with these things. What does he say? Well, the control he displays is found, number one, in the fact that he says no to aimless running. He says no to aimless running. Verse 26, therefore, he says, I do not run like a man running aimlessly.
I don't run around, he says, like somebody who has no fixed or certain goal. This is in keeping with what he says when he writes the Philippians. Philippians 3.14, he says, forgetting those things which are behind, I press on to win the prize for which God has called me heaven. Word in Christ Jesus.
He's unashamed about it. Paul, what are you doing? I'm heading for the tape. What do you expect of the tape? I expect a prize.
What are you prepared to do in order to ensure that that's the case? I'm prepared to make sure that I'm not just running around aimlessly. I'm not going to content myself with the fact that I'm stripped down wearing the suit, and I'm kind of wandering around in the track meet, and everybody knows that I must somehow be involved in it, because after all, I'm wearing the gear, and so presumably he has a number on his back, and therefore he's involved in something. But no one has any notion of whether I'm actually enlisted in the race, whether I'm under starters' orders.
They would never know by watching me. Paul says, I won't do that. I refuse, he says, to run aimlessly. He also says no to shadowboxing. I say no to aimless running. I say no to shadowboxing. The literal statement where he says, I beat my body—it may say, I buffet my body in your version—when he says, I beat my body, he says this, I give my body a black eye.
That's what it literally says in the Greek. I punch myself underneath the eye. Does this sound like self-help? Does this sound like self-esteem? No, this sounds like something different.
That's because it is something different. He says, I recognize I've got a problem. I'm the biggest problem I've got. The biggest thing that prevents me ever from getting the prize is me, not somebody else. Therefore, I'm gonna have to take me under control.
I'm gonna have to beat me up. Doesn't sound right, does it? That's because we've spent thirty years being told it isn't right.
It's not just right, it's vital. I don't shadowbox, he says. Why would you go into a ring and shadowbox with somebody? That wasn't Muhammad Ali's way. I fly like a butterfly, I sting like a bee. Eh? Bam!
You're gone, mister. What a man. What a great boxer. That's an aside. Unbelievable.
Dancing, fluttering, jumping, fading, faking. I live to see the best. He was in no doubt. You're out of here.
Now this is his point. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. We'll hear more about running to win tomorrow. Every commitment we make in life requires serious effort and self-discipline if we're going to see it through to the finish line. That includes our marriages. It's one of the reasons we want to invite you to download a free audiobook from Alistair titled, Lasting Love, How to Avoid Marital Failure. Far too many marriages in our culture today end in divorce. It's a bleak picture. Unfortunately, Christian marriages often suffer at the same rate.
What's wrong? How can we prevent our own relationships from becoming a statistic? In his book, Lasting Love, Alistair Begg shows us that enjoying a long and loving life together is truly possible when we commit to living out our marriages with an understanding of the roles God intends for us and teaches to us in the Bible. Lasting Love provides a biblical framework for marriage and practical advice from a pastor who has been himself happily married for decades. Alistair's clear direction and wise counsel applies to couples considering marriage, as well as those who have been married for many years. As you listen to this audiobook, which is read by Alistair himself, you'll explore crucial topics like what should someone look for in a spouse, the biblical role of a husband and a wife, and how to protect your marriage and avoid the common pitfalls that can cause you to drift apart. Download your free audiobook today at truthforlife.org slash lasting love. Thanks for listening. Tomorrow we'll dive back into 1 Corinthians to learn how to avoid running aimlessly and how to finish our race of faith victoriously. I hope you can join us. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life where the Learning is for Living.
