“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.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
So I guess this is one of the more famous passages in the Bible about the Christian life. One that is quoted often, usually in relation to discipline and it’s certainly helpful in that way. But I’ve been thinking about it a bit with a different slant. My question has been ‘What is the race? What is the prize?’
I’ve concluded, for now, that it’s not a race to be the best Christian possible, it’s not a race to be the most ‘holy’, the most disciplined, to have the biggest ministry. Rather it’s a race to lay your life down for the sake of the Kingdom. It’s one of those upside-down Kingdom things. We’re not racing to be first but to be last (“But many who are the greatest now will be least important then, and those who seem least important now will be the greatest then“ Matt 19:30). We run and discipline ourselves for the benefit of others, for the glory of the King and for people who don’t know God, for those who need Him and need us to play our part.
I think perhaps most fundamentally of all it’s a race to develop deep relationship with our heavenly Father. Deep, in that it penetrates our whole lives and consequently gives birth to an abundance of Kingdom life. Deep, because it goes beyond the surface, beyond the immediate issues or situations we face, and grows into a deep, lasting, immovable peace and joy, fuelled by the love of the Father. The sort of relationship which sustains you in the face of grief, stress, uncertainty, hardship.
So, why are you running? What is the prize set before you? Run to win!
