Day 129: Running to be a winner – 1 Corinthians 9 vs 24 to 10 vs 5

Chapter 9 vs 24-27. “Don’t you realise that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”

Chapter 10 vs 1-5. “I don’t want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them, and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground. In the cloud and in the sea, all of them were baptised as followers of Moses. All of them ate the same spiritual food, and all of them drank the same spiritual water. For they drank from the spiritual rock that travelled with them, and that rock was Christ. Yet God was not pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.” (New Living Translation) English Standard Version Link.

Paul wrote to the Church at Corinth to help heal the divisions there were among them, and to challenge the self-centred way some of them were living. Now, in verses 24-27, he gives an example from the sporting arenas they would've been familiar with for the sort of commitment and dedication that following Jesus requires, and urges them to run so as to win in the spiritual race. Do you think these verses mean we can lose our salvation?

That's a question Christians have different opinions on. My own thoughts on the subject is that we can't always tell what the real state of a person's heart is. It's possible for people to deceive themselves. They may think they are a Christian because they go through the motions, but Paul says they may just be 'shadowboxing'. There may be no reality to their belief and convictions. Paul obviously didn't want any of the Christians at Corinth to be taking the matter of salvation lightly. It's a vital issue that we dare not be casual about.

To press his point further he reminds them at the start of Chapter 10 of the sad history of when Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt to take them to the land God promised to give them. What happened on the way to many of them?

Was it obvious from the start which of them truly belonged to God and which ones were going to fall by the wayside?

It certainly wasn't obvious because Paul says “all of them were baptised” and “all of them ate the same spiritual food”. So they all looked the same on the outside. And yet, says Paul, “God wasn’t pleased with most of them, and their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.”

What surely is clear from the things Paul was saying here is that we won't get to heaven by being a spectator. Spectators at sporting events may often appear knowledgeable and noisy. It may seem as if they know more about the game than the players themselves when you hear the comments and 'advice' they shout out. No, when it comes to following Christ we have to take an active part in the struggle. Theologians call this the 'perseverance of the saints'. It‘s our earnest response to what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross for our sins.

When Paul sadly says of the Israelites who fell by the wayside that “God wasn’t pleased with them”, how do you think this affected the way he personally wanted to respond to the gospel?

I think the answer's in Chapter 5 vs 6-10 of the next letter he wrote to them when he said: “We are always confident (even though we know that while we live in these bodies we aren't yet at home with the Lord) for we live by faith and not by sight. We'd rather be away from these earthly bodies - for then we will be at home with the Lord. So, whether we are here in this body or away from this body, our goal is to please Him. For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.” That's the way to run to win the prize.