What Matters Most is the Good News

Commentary on 1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Khen Lim



The lonely runner (Image source: runningandgod.wordpress.com)

Many a sporting legend would be able to relate to Paul’s last three verses in 1 Corinthians 9. Paul talks of discipline amidst a wordscape shaped by determination, purpose, reward and sacrifice. Those who train to run long distances will understand not just discipline but also perseverance and fitness. We may or may not be runners ourselves or we could be couch potatoes watching great athletic prowess on show but one thing we can agree with – we can interpret Paul’s sporting metaphors in terms of experiences and emotions for the faith.

While Paul is surely relating to something deeper than mere athletics, his use of the analogy draws us to understand what he wants to say to us. Back in his days, the Isthmian Games, unlike modern Olympics, had no medallists but instead only one victor, the one who crosses the line first. Therefore the quest for every athlete was to win it, an aim that we should adopt. But Paul doesn’t really focus too much on victory. Instead he talks more about a certain way to run the race. Our faith, it seems, isn’t to parallel the victory but to define the effort and commitment victory itself requires.

Verse 25 talks less of victory or prize but more of how we should practise self-control in all things. The wreath of the victor is but a finite and perishable prize, a poor imitation of the indestructible real prize that awaits us, leading Paul to emphasise the need for discipline as in training not aimlessly but with a sense of purpose. Rather than boxing shadows, lunging at an imaginary foe with flailing swings of the arm, he encourages us to train with a real and tangible goal in mind.

These verses come in a chapter that is preceded by a long and measured reflection of Paul’s ‘entitlement’ as a messenger of the Good News and how, for the sake of others, he elects to preach the Gospel ‘free of charge’ (v.18) and not with strings attached. This way, more could hear the Good News and be transformed by it. From this context, we may then be able to better understand the reason Paul chooses to be ‘all things to all people’ was so he could help the believers of Corinth to realise why he chooses the manner in which he leads his life.

When we relate all this to contemporary thinking, we may think that the analogy encourages us to envision someone rugged with exemplary individual self-control and self-betterment. But Paul isn’t doing this. He isn’t leading us to think of the lonely-at-the-top imagery of a marathon man hell bent on completing endless miles of torturous training or the obsession to be a physical hulk. Contrary to what some may think, Paul is disinterested in that glowing bask of victory on the medal stand where others might recall how you tore through the competition with your blinding speed and determination.

Instead, he exhorts us to consider the wider context of unity (1:10) and therefore, the analogy of the athlete isn’t about the individual, his self-control or his achievements. Paul clearly wants to us to understand the purpose and motivation behind such efforts. In other words, he neither runs nor box just to improve the self or enhance his physique but to proclaim the Good News to others (9:23) motivated by the unswerving call of God (9:17).

At the same time, none of these could be achieved by the athlete alone. He is nothing without the team that trails in his wake, those who provide all sorts of aid and support; from the family who sacrifices so that he could train for hours on end to a plethora of others who upkeep his health, manage his diet, toughen his mind, hone his techniques and aid him in his rigorous training regime. In exactly the same way, we Christians cannot go it alone for we too depend on our communities of faith strung up together by God. We develop a co-dependent labyrinthine of people who help the athlete in us to strive not for our own individual’s sake but for the purpose of God’s call to God’s people.

So for all the athleticism in each of us, Paul’s message, despite the unerring analogies, has little to do with the physical nature of the sport itself. Rather Paul is urging us along to press our church congregations to go forth and proclaim the Good News of Christ Jesus, to bring into focus our unbelieving friends so that we may then share a foretaste of the Kingdom of God in the here and now.

At the same time, let us also heed Paul’s reminder to our churches that the radical passage of faith has and will never be easy but instead, it will make demands of us to persist, endure and to somehow overcome our weariness as we find the last burst of energy to take us past the finishing tape. And while we’re at it, let us all not forget that the ultimate reward awaiting us isn’t a shiny round piece of metal that one day will be no more valuable than sand to an Arab. Our true reward is eternal, imperishable, intangible but clearly visible to those within the realm of our faith.