Sunday Devotional: 1 Corinthians 9:27

But I keep my body under control and bring it into subjection, lest somehow having preached to others I myself may be disqualified.

In this section of his first letter to the church in Corinth, Paul is talking about his ministry and defending his apostleship. He points out that he would rather set aside whatever rights and privileges he has as an apostle if it would bring about the salvation of even a few. Indeed, he is willing to be “all things to all people” that he might be used to bring some into the Kingdom. He then draws an analogy with the athlete who trains and disciplines his body, exercising self-control (and self-denial) in order to win a victor’s wreath. That wreath will one day perish. Paul, on the other hand, exercises discipline (and denial) upon his body so that, having been a preacher of the gospel, he won’t find himself disqualified of the ultimate, imperishable “victor’s crown”: eternal life.

In his analogy, Paul points to the athlete whose eye is on the goal of winning a crown. In order to reach that goal, he must train hard, resist the urge to slack off, and maintain rigorous discipline so that his body is fit to compete and, indeed, win the prize. In a similar way, the Christian, with eternity in sight, must also discipline his body, and exercise self-control to resist temptation and live a life that adorns the gospel message he proclaims. However, notice Paul doesn’t say that the Christian does this to win the wreath, but rather so he may not “be disqualified.” In the ancient games, the sign of disqualification was removal of the victor’s wreath. The implication of Paul’s words is that the Christian has already won the wreath. In Christ, the prize is already ours. We don’t have to work, train, or discipline ourselves to earn it. We haven’t the time or the ability to do all we would need to do to be worthy of the victory crown. That’s why we need Christ: he has won the victory on our behalf. The wreath we wear is his wreath, gained for us at Calvary when he died and claimed victory over sin and death for his people.

Once we are saved, the Christian life is not a life of trying to earn what we don’t yet have. Rather, it’s living a life worthy of the prize we’ve won in Christ. We will falter and fall along the way, but we should never feel as if we’ve failed. With Christ as our champion, we’ve already won.