#DailyDevotion How Seriously Are You Running The Race Of Faith?
1 Corinthians 9:24―27
24Don’t you know that all who are in a race run but only one wins the prize? Like them, run to win! 25Anyone who enters a contest goes into strict training. Now, they do it to win a wreath that withers, but we do it to win one that never withers. 26So I run with a clear goal ahead of me. I fight and don’t just shadow box. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that, when I’ve called others to run the race, I myself will not somehow be disqualified.
What I think Paul is saying here is don’t treat the grace you received from God in Christ Jesus cheaply. While you are saved totally by the work of Jesus Christ in his flesh don’t live your life just riding on his coat tails. Don’t be lazy. Don’t become like those lazy servants whom the master put in charge and see the master long in coming so they get drunk and abuse their fellow servants only for the master to appear at a time you do not expect.
God has saved you to be his children. He intends for you to live as his children. He was you to be busy doing good, loving your neighbor and loving your enemy. He wants you to be about sacrificing yourself for your fellow Christians.
Now Paul brings up the analogy of a race. Since there is only one prize run the race to win that prize. He is not saying here there is only one prize and only one person is going to win it. There is one prize, eternal life, but it is for all who remain faithful until the end. See how much work the racers put into their lives to win the prize they are racing for. They regulate their diet, their lives, the train regularly so they can be the one person who wins the prize. The prize they train for withers away. We are in a race though for a prize that never withers or fades away. The crown of glory we receive at the end do not wither. It is eternal life, the kingdom of God, the glory of God, the New Heavens and New Earth.
We are not in a race though. We’re not in a boxing match. We’re in a war with with our flesh, the world and the devil. Sin rules our flesh St. Paul says in Romans chapter 7. The Spirit rules our minds. We are though to subject our flesh to the Spirit who dwells within us. When sin stirs up our flesh we are to use the self-control the Spirit gives us to reign it in. We are to walk by the Spirit. (Romans 8) To make our flesh our slave and to rule over it we need the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to remind ourselves that we are sons of God through baptism. We remember we have been saved by the all availing sacrifice Jesus made on the cross. Remind yourself your flesh has been crucified with Christ in baptism, died and was buried. You have now risen from the death of your sins and walk in newness of life. Make use of the means of grace, the Word (preached at church in particular), baptism, the Lord’s Supper, absolution and Christian fellowship. We beat and pummel our bodies not so much with the Law with its commandments but with the Gospel which has overcome sin, death and the flesh.
Heavenly Father, help us run the race of our salvation by keep the Gospel of your Son Jesus Christ in the forefront of our minds so we may subject the flesh to your will and not the will of sin and the devil. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.