Playing to Win
1 Corinthians
9:24-27
©Copyright
February 10, 2008 by Bruce Goettsche
SERIES: Solving Problems in the
The Apostle Paul
was concerned about people who have not heard the gospel. He told the Corinthians that he was so
concerned that he was determined to build bridges rather than walls, to give up
personal rights rather than be a stumbling block to another, and he would even
suffer personally if that is what was necessary to bring the message of hope to
people.
In our politically
correct age we still must declare the Biblical message that there is “one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.” (1 Timothy 2:5). We must
let people know that “There is “no other name under Heaven by which we must be
saved.” (Acts 4:12) And we must make
people aware that Jesus is the “way the truth, and the life and no one can come
to the Father except through Him.” (John 14:6).
The Bible teaches that people who do not turn to Christ for salvation
and new life will spend eternity apart from God’s love.
This is what the
Bible teaches. We have a responsibility to
share this good news of forgiveness and new life with as many people as
possible. We know this in our
heads. We say this with our mouths. However, the way we live our lives seems to
say we don’t really believe it at all.
Our commitment is sadly lacking.
At the end of 1
Corinthians 9 the Apostle Paul challenges the people in
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. 25 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. 26 Therefore I do not run like a man
running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27 No,
I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I
myself will not be disqualified for the prize. [1 Corinthians 9:24-27]
During the time
that Paul was writing, the Olympic Games were already very popular. The second most popular games were the
Isthmian games. These games were held in
To qualify for the
games you had to undergo a 10 month training regimen. The last month of this
training had to take place in
LIFE IS LIKE A
RACE
Paul observed that
though many people enter a race only one stands on the winners’ platform. Every Olympic athlete trains with the idea of
one day standing on the winners’ rostrum to receive a gold medal and to hear
his/her National Anthem played. These
athletes train diligently and constantly for years before they ever even
qualify for the games. Paul says the
Christian life is like this.
It is the
pursuit of a prize. As the athlete pursues a prize, so does the
believer. Paul says there are two
differences. First, (v. 25) the crown of
the athlete is perishable. It will fade
or wilt. The crown we seek is
imperishable. Second, Paul implies that
unlike the athletic games, there is not just one “winner”. We can all gain the prize if we are
faithful. We do not compete against each
other, we compete against the world.
What is this crown
we seek? In the Bible we are told that
there will rewards given to those who are faithful. I don’t know what these
rewards will be, but one of those rewards will surely be the reward of knowing
that you were used by God to bring someone else to faith in Christ. Imagine how wonderful it would be to walk
around Heaven and see those who are in Heaven because you were faithful in
sharing the truth with them. Personally,
I can’t imagine a greater reward.
A teacher certainly
feels great joy when they watch one of their students excel. A coach draws great joy and satisfaction when
his/her athlete grabs hold of an athletic scholarship. A physician or a surgeon
is encouraged from seeing people who are well today because they identified a
problem. A farmer draws satisfaction
from harvesting a good crop. Take these temporal joys and multiply them by many
powers of 10 and perhaps you will have some idea of what a rich and eternal
reward it would be to see someone in Heaven through your faithfulness.
Our ultimate
blessing and reward would be to hear the Lord say to us, “Well done!” A child
playing ball will often search the stands to see his/her parents. Why? They desire the approval of the people
who are most significant to them. When
someone we love says, “Good job!” or “I’m proud of you” it is a very
significant moment. How much more
significant it will be to stand before our precious Redeemer and Lord and hear
Him say, “You served me well”? That will
be a reward surpassing any trinket the world could afford.
It requires
training. The second way in
which life is like a race is that just as the true athlete goes into strict
training, the disciple must train as well. You don’t just wake up one day and
decide to win the gold medal in swimming.
You train for it. In like manner,
those who seek to serve the Lord in a way that brings honor to God must get
serious about the pursuit. The faithful
disciple must be diligent.
HOW TO TRAIN TO
WIN
Let’s assume (for
argument’s sake) that you want to be a winner as a disciple of Jesus
Christ. Let’s say that you do want the
imperishable crown and you do want to know that you have been responsible for
others spending eternity in Heaven. What
kind of training is needed?
Focus. Paul says the true athlete goes into strict
training. The athlete does not run
“aimlessly”. He is constantly working on
something. He is working on his start,
his finish, his stride, or his endurance.
He works purposefully. The
athlete keeps working toward the prize of being a champion. He never loses
sight of the goal.
As believers we
must keep before us the prize that we are seeking. It is easy to get distracted in this
world. There are titles, awards, and
milestones that can distract us. There
are sports, politics, and profit margin that can occupy our attention. There is pleasure, the achievement of our
children, and an abundance of stuff that can cause us to lose our focus. We must constantly, daily, perhaps even
hourly, remind ourselves of the goal: the reward of Heaven and the souls of
men.
Discipline. The second thing that’s needed is discipline. Paul says, “I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave.” Paul says he isn’t just playing games; he is serious. We are told that he “beats his body to make it his slave.” The phrase “beat my body” means to hit below the eye or to get a black eye. The word for athlete in the Greek is the word “agonizomenous” from which we get our word “agony”. The person who plays to win agonizes to grow in their walk with God.
We live in a lazy
society. We want to lose weight by
taking a pill rather than developing self-control. We want the government to give us handouts
rather than to work for things. We want
people to tell us what to think rather than think for ourselves. We want people
to read our minds rather than have to work at communication. In the same way we
want our discipleship to be something that comes without any effort or
sacrifice.
Even as a novice
writer I have people ask me, “What does it take to get a book published?” I always answer the same thing: “First you
have to write and re-write and re-write the manuscript!” A famous author once said, “Most people don’t
want to write, they want to ‘be published’”.
They want the satisfaction of having published a book but don’t really
want to put in the difficult labor of writing one.
Paul had learned
that discipline is necessary to grow in our faith, just as discipline is
necessary in every other area of life.
We must discipline ourselves to study, to pray, to serve, and to look
for opportunities to share our faith. We
must discipline our bodies, our minds, our attitudes, and our desires.
Discipline and
sacrifice are necessary ingredients to true discipleship. You cannot excel in business without putting
in the hours. You cannot be successful
in marriage without working hard. You
cannot master any skill or truly learn any material without disciplined
effort. The same is true in our discipleship. We will not be able to serve the Lord in a
victorious manner without putting in the time and discipline.
THREE RESPONSES
As we hear these
words from Paul I suspect you may find yourself, as I do, with three different
responses.
Conviction. As we read these words of Paul it is hard to believe that anyone doesn’t
feel a sense of conviction. Is anyone
able to say they are serving the Lord as they should? As we compare ourselves to the apostles, the
leaders of the early church, the saints who gave their life for Christ, the
monks who lived in poverty so they could study and translate the Scriptures day
and night, and the believers who were/are imprisoned for their faith . . . we
realize that our commitment is very shallow, at best.
Think about it,
These words should
convict us. Like a Doctor who looks a patient in the eye and says, “Stop smoking
or die”, we should hear these words from God and be motivated to change.
Apprehension. The whole idea of being “disqualified for the prize” is more than a
little discomforting. Is Paul meaning to
say we might lose our salvation? No, I
think if we compare this passage with others in the Bible we see that is not
what he is saying. When we have put our
trust in Christ we are given His Spirit as a deposit which guarantees our inheritance.
We are saved because of what Christ has done not because of what we have
done.
The prize that we
will be disqualified from is the joy of having a vibrant relationship with the
Lord. We will miss out on that “Well
Done!” We will miss the reward that is given to all who have followed
faithfully.
Becoming a follower
of Christ is similar to marriage. You
may be “married” following a ceremony but to have a full, meaningful, enjoyable
and satisfying marriage requires a love that includes commitment, hard work,
and seemingly daily adjustments.
In like manner,
being a follower of Christ is not simply saying a prayer at a meeting. The person who is a true follower of Christ
turns to Christ for forgiveness and new life AND also submits to Him as
Lord. This is true “saving faith” and it
requires a commitment that will constantly bring change in the way we
live.
Though Paul is not
saying we can lose our salvation, I think His words should make us examine the
validity of our belief that we are saved. We should take a hard look at the
nature of our relationship with Christ.
Is it superficial or is it genuine? Have we merely gone through the
motions or have we truly entrusted our lives to Him? Are we a fan of Christ or are we one of His followers?
Despair. This leaves us feeling a sense of despair. If you are like me,
you already feel a little overwhelmed by life. Everything seems to need
attention and needs it now. We feel inadequate in so many areas of our live
that the idea of one more area that needs to be addressed is too much to
bear. There are so many things to do, so
much information to master, so many demands.
We listen to Paul’s words and feel ill-equipped to follow the Lord as he
commands.
Let’s stay with Paul’s
illustration of self-discipline. Suppose
you had a friend who called you up tomorrow and said, “Hey, let’s run a 26 mile
marathon on Saturday.” I would laugh. I am pretty sure by the time I reached the
end of one block I would be ready to quit. If you are going to run a marathon
you start by running a little each day.
Over the course of time you increase your distance. After many months of diligent preparation you
might be ready to run a short race.
I don’t know how
much Jerry Lewis raised in his first MDA telethon but I’m sure it wasn’t 65
million dollars. He started small and
made it a goal to get one dollar more every year. That’s the way it is in everything. It takes time to become a craftsman. It takes time to be a math whiz. It takes time to learn how to play a musical
instrument. It takes time to learn to be a good parent or a good spouse. Rather than become overwhelmed, we must give
ourselves time.
This is what Paul
wants us to do. He wants us to BEGIN the
process of disciplined growth. So the
thing we need to do is simple: We need
to START the process. How do we do
so? We start small and build from there.
Let me give you some simple ideas of where you might start. Pick just one or two of these things and
start training for discipleship. After
you have worked on a couple of these for awhile, add something else. Start small and keep building. Don’t worry about winning championships right
now . . . just look for progress. Here are
some suggestions to choose from.
Paul challenged the Corinthians to take their discipleship seriously. There
are many demands on our lives. There are
a bunch of “important” and even “urgent” things to do. However, our discipleship is the one area of
life that will continue to be important even after we die. It will not only impact OUR eternal destiny
and heavenly rewards, It is also the one area of our lives that will most
impact our family and our friends. That
impact will not just be for a few years, but could impact their lives FOREVER. So, it’s time to stop making excuses and
start training.
©Copyright February 10, 2008 by Bruce Goettsche SERIES: Solving Problems in the