Post by Brother Ben on Jan 21, 2007 8:13:20 GMT -5
1Co 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
1Co 9:25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
1Co 9:26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
A few general observations on the Grecian games may serve to recapitulate the subject in the four last verses.
1. The Isthmian games were celebrated among the Corinthians; and therefore the apostle addresses them, 1Co_9:24 : Know ye not, etc.
2. Of the five games there used, the apostle speaks only of three.
Running; 1Co_9:24 : They which run in a race; and 1Co_9:26 : I therefore so run, not as uncertainly.
Wrestling, 1Co_9:25 : Every man that striveth, he who wrestleth.
Boxing, 1Co_9:26, 1Co_9:27 : So fight I, not as one that beateth the air; so fist I, so I hit; but I keep my body under; I hit in the eye, I make the face black and blue.
3. He who won the race by running was to observe the laws of racing - keeping within the white line which marked out the path or compass in which they ran; and he was also to outrun the rest, and to come first to the goal; otherwise he ran uncertainly, 1Co_9:24, 1Co_9:26, and was, one to whom the prize could not be judged by the judges of the games.
4. The athletic combatants, or wrestlers, observed a set diet. See the quotation from Epictetus, under 1Co_9:25. And this was a regimen both for quantity and quality; and they carefully abstained from all things that might render them less able for the combat; whence the apostle says they were temperate in all things, 1Co_9:25.
5. No person who was not of respectable family and connections was permitted to be a competitor at the Olympic games. St. Chrysostom, in whose time these games were still celebrated, assures us that no man was suffered to enter the lists who was either a servant or a slave, and if any such was found who had got himself inserted on the military list, his name was erased, and he was expelled and punished. To prevent any person of bad character from entering the list at the Olympic games, the kerux, or herald, was accustomed to proclaim aloud in the theater when the combatant was brought forth: Who can accuse this man? For which he gives this reason: “that being free from all suspicion of being in a state of slavery, (and elsewhere he says of being a thief, or of corrupt morals), he might enter the lists with credit.” Chrysost. Homil. in Inscript. Altaris, etc., vol. iii. page 59, Edit. Benedict.
6. The boxers used to prepare themselves by a sort of, or going through all their postures of defense and attack when no adversary was before them. This was termed beating the air, 1Co_9:26; but when such came to the combat, they endeavored to blind their adversaries by hitting them in the eye, which is the meaning of , as we have seen under 1Co_9:27.
7. The rewards of all these exercises were only a crown made of the leaves of some plant, or the bough of some tree; the olive, bay, laurel, parsley, etc., called here by the apostle, a corruptible, withering, and fading crown; while he and his fellow Christians expected a crown incorruptible and immortal, and that could not fade away.
8. On the subject of the possibility of St. Paul becoming a castaway, much has been said in contradiction to his own words. He most absolutely states the possibility of the case: and who has a right to call this in question? The ancient Greek commentators, as Whitby has remarked, have made a good use of the apostle’s saying, “If Paul, so great a man, one who had preached and labored so much, dreaded this, what cause have we to fear lest this should befall us?”
9. On the necessity of being workers together with God, in order to avoid apostasy, Clemens Alexandrinus has some useful observations in his Stromata, lib. vii., page 448, Edit. Oberthur: “As a physician gives health to those who cooperate with him in their cure; so God also gives eternal salvation to them who are workers together with him in knowledge and a godly life.”
“Therefore,” says he, “it is well said among the Greeks, that when a certain wrestler, who had long inured his body to manly exercises, was going to the Olympic games, as he was passing by the statue of Jupiter he offered up this prayer: ‘O Jupiter, if I have performed every thing as I ought in reference to this contest, grant me the victory!’”
May we not feel something of this spirit in seeking the kingdom of God? And can any thing of this kind be supposed to derogate from the glory of Christ? St. Paul himself says, if a man contend for the mastery, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. Shall we pretend to be wiser than the apostle; and say, that we may gain the crown, though we neither fight the good fight nor finish the course?
(From the Clarke Commentary on I Cor. 9:27)
I thought this was exceptionally interesting and challenging. Since the Apostle Paul chose to use these Olympic illustrations to bring out the true affection of an athelete, should we give to the Lord any less?
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
How should I live this Christian life?
How can I deal with the emotions I am experiencing in regards to the Pilgrim Pathway that is so different to that of our modern day Christianity?
By setting my affections of the prize, on a higher calling. When I see those around me in the "Christian Community" doing things I don't like, I must remember, they may feel o.k. with this, but I do what I do for a higher calling. I do not hate them, or wish ill on them, I do not think I am better than them, nor do I think that God does not love them, BUT, God has called me to do different...so I fight on. I must.
You can! If God be for us, who can be against us? Set your affections on things above, not on thing beneath, and you shall receive a crown incorruptible!
I therefore so run!
1Co 9:25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
1Co 9:26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 9:27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
A few general observations on the Grecian games may serve to recapitulate the subject in the four last verses.
1. The Isthmian games were celebrated among the Corinthians; and therefore the apostle addresses them, 1Co_9:24 : Know ye not, etc.
2. Of the five games there used, the apostle speaks only of three.
Running; 1Co_9:24 : They which run in a race; and 1Co_9:26 : I therefore so run, not as uncertainly.
Wrestling, 1Co_9:25 : Every man that striveth, he who wrestleth.
Boxing, 1Co_9:26, 1Co_9:27 : So fight I, not as one that beateth the air; so fist I, so I hit; but I keep my body under; I hit in the eye, I make the face black and blue.
3. He who won the race by running was to observe the laws of racing - keeping within the white line which marked out the path or compass in which they ran; and he was also to outrun the rest, and to come first to the goal; otherwise he ran uncertainly, 1Co_9:24, 1Co_9:26, and was, one to whom the prize could not be judged by the judges of the games.
4. The athletic combatants, or wrestlers, observed a set diet. See the quotation from Epictetus, under 1Co_9:25. And this was a regimen both for quantity and quality; and they carefully abstained from all things that might render them less able for the combat; whence the apostle says they were temperate in all things, 1Co_9:25.
5. No person who was not of respectable family and connections was permitted to be a competitor at the Olympic games. St. Chrysostom, in whose time these games were still celebrated, assures us that no man was suffered to enter the lists who was either a servant or a slave, and if any such was found who had got himself inserted on the military list, his name was erased, and he was expelled and punished. To prevent any person of bad character from entering the list at the Olympic games, the kerux, or herald, was accustomed to proclaim aloud in the theater when the combatant was brought forth: Who can accuse this man? For which he gives this reason: “that being free from all suspicion of being in a state of slavery, (and elsewhere he says of being a thief, or of corrupt morals), he might enter the lists with credit.” Chrysost. Homil. in Inscript. Altaris, etc., vol. iii. page 59, Edit. Benedict.
6. The boxers used to prepare themselves by a sort of, or going through all their postures of defense and attack when no adversary was before them. This was termed beating the air, 1Co_9:26; but when such came to the combat, they endeavored to blind their adversaries by hitting them in the eye, which is the meaning of , as we have seen under 1Co_9:27.
7. The rewards of all these exercises were only a crown made of the leaves of some plant, or the bough of some tree; the olive, bay, laurel, parsley, etc., called here by the apostle, a corruptible, withering, and fading crown; while he and his fellow Christians expected a crown incorruptible and immortal, and that could not fade away.
8. On the subject of the possibility of St. Paul becoming a castaway, much has been said in contradiction to his own words. He most absolutely states the possibility of the case: and who has a right to call this in question? The ancient Greek commentators, as Whitby has remarked, have made a good use of the apostle’s saying, “If Paul, so great a man, one who had preached and labored so much, dreaded this, what cause have we to fear lest this should befall us?”
9. On the necessity of being workers together with God, in order to avoid apostasy, Clemens Alexandrinus has some useful observations in his Stromata, lib. vii., page 448, Edit. Oberthur: “As a physician gives health to those who cooperate with him in their cure; so God also gives eternal salvation to them who are workers together with him in knowledge and a godly life.”
“Therefore,” says he, “it is well said among the Greeks, that when a certain wrestler, who had long inured his body to manly exercises, was going to the Olympic games, as he was passing by the statue of Jupiter he offered up this prayer: ‘O Jupiter, if I have performed every thing as I ought in reference to this contest, grant me the victory!’”
May we not feel something of this spirit in seeking the kingdom of God? And can any thing of this kind be supposed to derogate from the glory of Christ? St. Paul himself says, if a man contend for the mastery, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully. Shall we pretend to be wiser than the apostle; and say, that we may gain the crown, though we neither fight the good fight nor finish the course?
(From the Clarke Commentary on I Cor. 9:27)
I thought this was exceptionally interesting and challenging. Since the Apostle Paul chose to use these Olympic illustrations to bring out the true affection of an athelete, should we give to the Lord any less?
Gal 5:24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
How should I live this Christian life?
How can I deal with the emotions I am experiencing in regards to the Pilgrim Pathway that is so different to that of our modern day Christianity?
By setting my affections of the prize, on a higher calling. When I see those around me in the "Christian Community" doing things I don't like, I must remember, they may feel o.k. with this, but I do what I do for a higher calling. I do not hate them, or wish ill on them, I do not think I am better than them, nor do I think that God does not love them, BUT, God has called me to do different...so I fight on. I must.
You can! If God be for us, who can be against us? Set your affections on things above, not on thing beneath, and you shall receive a crown incorruptible!
I therefore so run!
