I Corinthians 9:24-27
For the past couple weeks the world
has been watching the Olympic Games in London.
For all the emphasis on London and the UK, we are regularly reminded
that the games have their roots in Greece.
As a Jew, Paul would have had some objections to the culture associated
with athletics but he still saw how those games could be a picture of the
Christian life.
Paul’s use of running, boxing,
and other athletic feats (1 Cor. 9:24–27) as metaphors for spiritual discipline
was suited perfectly to the Corinthian culture. Corinth hosted numerous
athletic events, including the prestigious Isthmian Games, one of four major
athletic festivals of the Greeks.
The Isthmian Games were held
every other year and attracted athletes from all over Greece. The competitions
were between individuals, not teams, who vied more for glory than for tangible
prizes. At the Corinthian games, victors were crowned with pine-needle
garlands, the “perishable crown” to which Paul referred (1 Cor. 9:25).
However, when the heroes
returned home, their cities might erect statues in their honor, have a parade,
and write poems celebrating their feats. Sometimes a champion was even exempted
from paying taxes, given free meals, and placed in the seat of honor at public
events.[1]
Our Olympic champions might not be
exempt from taxes but they are still treated as heroes. Whether a diminutive gymnast or a massive
wrestler, if you bring home the gold, you stand head and shoulders above the
rest of the world.
No wonder Paul seized on the world
of the athlete to provide a way to understand how to be a Christian.
Of course, the Christian athletes
Paul had in mind would not win the culture’s praise but that wasn’t the reward
they sought.
Let’s look closer at our identity
as Christians.
What Being a Christian Athlete Doesn’t Mean
In describing us Christians as
athletes Paul and others are using an analogy.
An analogy is a figure of speech that focuses on the similarities or
like features two things in order to make a comparison. They capture our attention and help our
understanding.
Robert Burns might have said, “The
woman I love is really quite beautiful, strikingly so.” Instead, he said, “My love is like a red, red
rose that’s newly sprung in June.” That
gets the point across and is more memorable.
But what if you asked: “Bobbie,
lad, are you sayin’ your lass has aphids?” Roses sometimes have aphids and in
another poem Burns does remind us that women can sometimes be a little
“buggy.” Still, that’s probably not what
he has in mind here.
When we press the comparisons found
in an analogy too far, the analogy is said to break-down.
Even Biblical analogies can break
down. The picture of Christians as
athletes can be pressed too far. Let me
point out some ways.
1.
During the recent Olympics, some
athletes were disqualified because they had been doping, taking
performance-enhancing drugs.
As far as I know, there are no
drugs you can take to make you a better Christian than you really are. There are some things you can say and do to
give the impression you’re more pious than you are.
But that’s hypocrisy not real
spiritual athleticism. Being a hypocrite
suggests another analogy. A hypocrite is
an actor wearing a false face.
The Christian Athlete knows that
real spirituality calls for us to be—real.
2.
After years of making headlines by
winning, some athletes make headlines by retiring.
Michael Phelps, who’s won an
unprecedented 22 Olympic medals, will spend more time on dry land. British cyclist Victoria Pendleton will
probably ride her bike again but at a more leisurely pace. No doubt they will be rushing here and there
to make endorsements and public appearances.
Even that will eventually come to an end.
Of course, every baseball and
football season sees players who retire and never return to the game and who
are never asked to endorse anything.
Being a Christian athlete doesn’t
offer that option. Sure the form of your
service may change but you don’t just quit. The Christian athlete knows retirement isn’t
in the future.
3.
Due to the competitive nature of
athletics, most athletes are content to accept the fact that their winning
means someone else losing.
The Olympics involves thousands of
men and women from all over the world coming together, hoping to run faster,
leap higher, or perform more gracefully than someone else. When an American gymnast made a costly error,
another gymnast, her chief rival, couldn’t keep a slight smile from her face. And who could blame her? After
all, she didn’t cause the error, but her rival’s error meant she would go home the
winner.
You’ve heard the familiar
sayings. “Winning isn’t everything—it’s
the only thing.” “Second place is for
the first loser.” “If it doesn’t matter
whether you win or lose, why do they keep score?”
Despite what may sometimes seem to
be true, in our relationship with our fellow Christian athletes, there is no
room for “trash talk” or attempts to psych-out our fellow athletes.
When we look at the Biblical
picture, the goal is finish the race, not leave others in the dust. Listen to Paul deal with the matter as he
approaches the end of his life. He
mingles two athletic images, boxing and racing, to make his point.
Now the time has
come for me to die. My life is like a drink offering being poured out on the
altar. I have fought well. I
have finished the race, and I have been faithful.
So a crown will be given to me for pleasing the Lord. (2nd Timothy 4:6-8)
So a crown will be given to me for pleasing the Lord. (2nd Timothy 4:6-8)
Paul’s focus is not on outrunning
anyone; it’s on his finishing the race.
Paul told the Philippians they
should be “striving together for the faith of the good news.” The word translated “striving together”
literally means “to engage in an athletic contest.” One writer points out that most athletes
strive against each other but Paul was asking the Philippians to work together
as a team. It’s the same verb Paul uses
to describe how the quarrelling women Euodia and Syntyche were once part of his
ministry team in better days.
The writer of Hebrews also seems to
suggest that the race is, to some extent, a community matter. He says, “Therefore, surrounded as we are by
such a vast cloud of witnesses, let us fling aside every encumbrance and the
sin that so readily entangles our feet. And let us run with patient endurance
the race that lies before us, simply fixing our gaze upon Jesus,
our Prince Leader in the faith, who will also award us the prize.” (Hebrews
12:1-2)
So, as Christian athletes we know
we run the race not to be the winner but to be one of the millions of
winners who have run it before us and will run it after us.
What Being a Christian Athlete Means
Now, we’ve seen how the athlete
analogy doesn’t fit but what are the legitimate comparisons?
1. Being a Christian athlete
demands disciplined effort.
Some in the Corinthian church sat
rather easy on their identity as Christians.
They freely adopted attitudes and behaviors that had no place in the
Christian lifestyle. Using himself as an
example, Paul challenged them to give a more disciplined example.
Every athlete exercises self-control
in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an
imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one
beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I
myself should be disqualified. (I Corinthians 9:25-27)
The language is challenging. When Paul says that he keeps his body under
control he is literally saying, “I make it my slave.” Those athletes we watched in London did not
get there by having extra helpings of pie following every meal or smoking two
packs of unfiltered cigarettes every day.
They avoided some things.
The Greeks loved athletic
competition. They gave the Olympics to
the world. And they took it seriously
any individual who planned to compete in the games had to swear by Zeus to
follow 10 months of intense discipline.
For the young men and women we watched in London, that discipline lasted
for years.
Paul used boxing do describe the
need for this discipline. Craig Keener
describes the sport as it would have been known to the Corinthians.
Boxing was one of the major competitions at Greek games;
boxers wore leather gloves covering most of the forearm except the fingers, and
boxing was a violent sport. Shadowboxing or “beating the air” was insufficient
preparation for a boxing competition; a boxer had to discipline his body better
than that to win. In the same way, Paul had to discipline his life to sacrifice
what he needed to sacrifice for the sake of the gospel, lest he himself be
disqualified from the race and fall short of the wreath of eternal life (9:25).[2]
Paul’s concern about being
“disqualified” probably doesn’t mean he is concerned about losing is
salvation. More likely, he means he is
thinking about failing in his calling, failing in his ministry.
In the face of the many temptations
we face in the world we must be disciplined.
In a culture that mocks chastity and considers self-denial a fool’s
game, we need discipline. In body,
yes. But also in our minds. We must refuse to submit to the cynicism and
indifference of the critics. We must
stay strong to avoid capitulating to the mindset that says one worldview isn’t
to be preferred over any other.
The discipline the athletes in
London have shown include following a strict diet, getting out of bed when they
would prefer to sleep in, and practicing when they’d rather do anything
else. The disciplines the Christian athlete
displays might include self-denial, prayer, Bible reading, corrective fellowship, and
introspective confession.
This kind of discipline leads to
endurance, the endurance Paul speaks of when he wrote the Philippians: “I keep
on running and struggling to take hold of the prize.” He knew commitment to Christ isn’t a
hundred-yard dash; it’s a marathon.
2.
Being a Christian athlete means we
are striving for a prize.
The Greek athlete set out to win a
prize—a crown of various leafy stems. Depending on the location of the games, the
crown might be made of laurel, wild olive, parsley, or pine. The crown had no intrinsic value but
symbolized a great accomplishment. That
crown would eventually wither and decay.
The Christian athlete strives for an eternal prize. Paul mentions it in this text and in his
letter to Timothy in the passage I mentioned earlier.
I have fought the good
fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)
Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)
Other New Testament writers mention Christians receiving crowns but
it’s not always clear if the writer is referring to an athlete’s crown.
àAnd when the chief Shepherd
appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. (I Peter 5:4)
àJesus promises the church at
Smyrna: Be faithful unto death, and I
will give you the crown of life. (Revelation 2:10)
Occasionally, the Christian athlete
receives the crown in this lifetime.
Paul refers to his converts in Philippi as his “crown.” (He calls them,
“my brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown.”)[3] Sometimes, it is a matter of sensing God’s
commendation (I Cor. 4:5). Remember,
Eric Liddell’s story in Chariots of Fire.
Liddell would later die as a missionary in China during the Japanese
occupation. A hero of the 1924 Olympics,
he once said, “When I run, I feel God’s pleasure.”
Perhaps Paul would have said, “As I
preach in foreign lands and to society’s outcasts, I feel God’s pleasure.” For him, that would have been a crown.
But usually the crown the Christian
athlete receives is given in the future.
The exact nature of these crowns or rewards isn’t spelled out. So, we shouldn’t say more about them than the
Bible allows us to say. What can we say?
Crowns (or rewards) shouldn’t be
confused with salvation. Salvation is
the free gift of God’s grace. Rewards
are recognition of our service.
Not everyone will receive a
crown. There are not trophies or crowns
for merely participating. Some Christians
never seem to grow beyond the stage that asks “What’s in it for me?” when it
comes to following Christ. They are
believers but they never outgrow the self-centered infantile stage. Even those Christians who seem to be working
for the Kingdom can be inspired by the wrong motive or build out of the wrong
material. Although he used the picture of a builder rather than an athlete,
Paul makes this point when writing to the Corinthians.
10 According to
the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master-builder I laid a
foundation, but someone else builds on it. And each one must be careful how he
builds. 11 For no one can lay any
foundation other than what is being laid, which is Jesus Christ.; 12 If anyone builds on the
foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, or straw, 13 each builder’s work will be
plainly seen, for the Day will make it clear, because it will be revealed by
fire. And the fire will test what kind of work each has done. 14 If
what someone has built survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If someone’s work is burned up,
he will suffer loss. He himself will be saved, but only as through fire.
Paul even suggests there are those
who fail to gain a crown because they were guilty of cheating. He wrote Timothy, “No one wins an athletic contest
without obeying the rules” (2 Timothy 2:5).
I can’t help but think of those outwardly successful ministers who build
their ministries on flattery, false promises, coercion, and mind games.
Then, our crowns ought to bring
glory to God. Picture this, the athletes
in London won their medals as representatives of their homelands. As much as we may dislike politics being
involved in the Olympics, we know that the success of our athletes reflects on
our nation. In an even greater way, any
crowns worn by those who minister faithfully brings honor to God. This is why Paul is especially on guard
against pride. He knew whatever success
he had enjoyed as an apostle was due to God’s grace working through him.
Some Christians find it difficult
to talk about rewards for our labor. I
admit I’m among them. I’ve known
teachers to carefully define and describe all the varied crowns Paul mentions
and explain who will receive them. I find
it a little embarrassing.
Still, the New Testament
underscores the idea of rewards or crowns for those who labor on Christ’s
behalf. So, I have no intention of
trying to deny the right of a gracious God to act graciously in ways I might
not understand.
I think the best perspective on
these “crowns” is found in a picturesque passage in the Book of Revelation. I’m going to introduce the passage with a
couple observations.
First, the passage mentions “Twenty-four
elders.” These almost certainly
represent all the believers in heaven, Old Testament believers and New
Testament believers. They stand for the
believers of all ages.
Second, this passage is the last
time there is any reference to believers wearing crowns.
Now, here’s that passage. It’s found in Revelation 4:9-11.
The
living creatures kept praising, honoring, and thanking the one who sits on the
throne and who lives forever and ever. At the same time the twenty-four elders knelt
down before the one sitting on the throne. And as they worshiped the one who
lives forever, they placed their crowns in front of the throne and said,
“Our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory, honor, and power....”
“Our Lord and God, you are worthy to receive glory, honor, and power....”
God’s people placing their crowns
before the throne represented their devotion, humility, and recognition that
all they might be and might have done was the product of God’s work in their
lives.
For countless Christian athletes through
the centuries this is the definitive statement on crowns in the Bible.
Conclusion
Years ago I had a young professor
who led our class in a discussion of the believers’ crowns. He laid out the arguments for the crowns
being literal and the arguments for the crowns being figurative. He seemed to favor the second interpretation.
He ended the discussion by reading
the passage from the Revelation and then saying, “Whether they are real or
figurative, I’m not planning on wearing mine very long.”
[1]
Thomas Nelson Publishers. (2001). What
does the Bible say about... The ultimate A to Z resource fully illustrated.
Nelson's A to Z series (380). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson.
[2]
Keener, C. S. (1993). The IVP Bible
background commentary: New Testament (1 Co 9:26–27). Downers Grove, IL:
InterVarsity Press.
[3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version.
1989 (Php 4:1). Nashville: Thomas Nelson
Publishers.
