1 Corinthians 9:24-27 - Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Run to Win
Earn It
Disqualify - refers to athletes who are unable to make the cut even before the competition begins because they are simply not up to the standards of the other top athlete … The antonym of this word, “qualified” (dokimos [1384, 1511]), refers to items that are tested and found genuine. (Baker)
“Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.” (Satchel Paige)
Philippians 3:13–14 - Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Refers literally to being struck “under the eye” (Baker)
Athlete - The English word “agonize” comes from this Greek word. (Baker)
What You
What You
Philippians 2:16 - holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain.
Training for ten months was required under the direction of trained judges. Abstinence from wine was required and a rigid diet and regimen of habits. (Robertson)
A κηρυξ [kērux] at the games announced the rules of the game and called out the competitors. (Robertson)
Play Till the
2 Timothy 4:7 - I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” (President Theodore Roosevelt)