Today’s text picks up where we left off last week. Last week we were challenged in a pretty serious way to share the gospel with those who we know. We have to live it out and look for opportunities to share the good news with those we know, and not worry about our qualifications. Each person here today is qualified to share the gospel with those they know because all you need to know is that Jesus Christ, through his life, death and resurrection has made it possible for us to live in relationship with God. And out of our relationship with God and in the context of our relationships with other people, we will be able to share the gospel by our words and our actions as long as we make the decision to do so. We don’t accidentally share the gospel with other people, we share the gospel with others because we make a choice. Another area in our spiritual life where we have to make a choice comes in our personal walk with Christ, and that brings us to today’s text.
Paul is pretty heavy on the sports metaphors in this very brief section of the letter. Now, as you probably have picked up on by now, I love sports. Sports metaphors resonate with me, but I also realize that when it comes to sports, there are some people who temporarily black-out and miss everything. For those people today, just stick with me for the next 15 minutes or so, and you can have your temporary black-out this afternoon when the Daytona 500 is on, or alpine skiing, or whatever it is that ends up on your television this afternoon.
Paul begins the section with a question. There are a few places in his letters where Paul asks a question, but it is more of a rhetorical question with a very obvious answer that is asked so that everyone can start the discussion on the same page. That’s what he is doing here as well. He says, “Do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one receives the prize?” Well, yeah, everyone should know that, especially in Corinth.
Corinth was a city that was very familiar with athletic competitions. Most people know that the Olympics were started in ancient Greece, but what many, including myself before this week, don’t know is that the Olympics were not the only majors games in Greece. In the years just before and just after the Olympics, Corinth hosted what is known as the Isthmian games. These games were originally held in 582 B.C. and continued to be held for centuries afterwards. In fact, these games were so important that a truce was typically granted so that athletes could have safe passage to the games, and in 412 B.C., although Corinth and Athens were at war with one another, the Athenians were invited to participate in the games just as usual. These games were a huge part of the culture in the city of Corinth and everybody would have known about them. For Paul to say what he does in v. 24 would be the equivalent of me saying, “You know that only one team can win the Super Bowl, right?” Of course! Even a person who can’t distinguish between a running play and a passing play knows that only one team can win the Super Bowl. It is a huge part of our culture today. That is what these games were for Corinth.
What Paul is doing here is pointing to something in the culture of his audience and drawing out a spiritual principle that people and understand and to which they can relate. When it comes to sharing the gospel, we can do the same thing. We have a common language and a pool of examples from which to draw. We can use these examples as a means by which we share the gospel. Books, movies, music – they are all means of communication that have been adopted by our culture, and we can use them to connect with people and share the gospel. Now, I’m not suggesting that we should read, watch and listen to everything that’s out there. We have to have some sort of discernment when it comes to what we allow in, but we can look at the things that our culture produces from the lens of our faith. Discernment is necessary, but don’t be afraid of using what our culture has to offer and transforming it for the glory of God. And that discernment only comes when we discipline ourselves to hear the voice of God.
Paul says in v.25, “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things.” Now, unfortunately, given a couple of major sports stories that have come out in the last couple of weeks, we know that not all top athletes exhibit self-control in every aspect of their lives, but that does not diminish Paul’s point here. The point is that those who want to be successful in what they do must work hard in order to achieve that success. I don’t know a single couple who have a successful marriage without working on it. I don’t know of anybody that every woke up one morning and just so happened to be at the top of their profession. And I don’t know many athletes that don’t work hard at their sport either. Natural talent can only get you so far; hard work is what puts you over the top.
Our spiritual lives aren’t all that different. If we want to be successful in our spiritual lives, then we need to work at it. And before I go much further here, I want to clarify something. I’m not saying that we are saved by what we do. Our salvation comes through Jesus and Jesus alone; however, to continue to cultivate one’s relationship with God, we have to make an effort. We do have to do some work. In order to share the gospel with others, we have to make an investment in our personal spirituality as well as an investment in those relationships we have with non-Christians. In a world that tries to pull us away from God, growing in relationship and sharing the message with others doesn’t just happen naturally. There has to be some sort of effort put in.
If we are to live our lives in such a way that God is glorified, then we have to be intentional and watch what we do. We have to show self-control in every aspect of our lives. Nothing will ruin your witness more than a momentary lapse of judgement that is seen by those around you. Do you know what one of the biggest criticism’s against Christians is? That they are hypocrites. There are a lot of people that won’t go near a church because they feel like churches are full of hypocrites. Now, of course, my natural response would be, “Come join us, you’ll fit right in!” There is certainly some truth to it. When Christians don’t act like Christians, what is the world to think? If we are intentional about how we live in the light of our relationship with God, and exhibit self-control in all areas of our lives, we give those who have such criticisms nothing to hold onto. Remember the passage from 1 Peter last week. Here’s my paraphrase, “Do everything with gentleness and respect and don’t give those who would speak against you anything to speak about.”
We don’t give them any excuses. There is something different about those whose lives have been touched by God, and we have to let others know about it. And we have to be intentional about cultivating that relationship so that everything we do is by His strength and reflects His love; otherwise, we will fall short from time to time. There is forgiveness when we do fall short, but there is also some fallout. Think of some of the big name Christian leaders who have been caught up in scandals. I’m sure they have come to a point where they are rebuilding their relationship with God and with others, but there will always be some sort of negativity associated with their name.
Paul talks about the athlete’s prize being something that is perishable but that we receive something that is imperishable, something that will not fade or lose significance over time. In the Isthmian games, the winners received a wreath that was made out of pine needles. Over time, pine needles dry out and that wreath would fall apart. Athletic glory fades in the same way. Now, remember, I’m a huge baseball fan. I can probably name every World Series champion back to 1982, but in another 30 years, even I will forget that. For example, who won the 1940 World Series? The Cincinnati Reds. Now, in all fairness, that was nearly 70 years ago. So, how about the 1970 World Series? That is a little closer to the present? It was the Baltimore Orioles. Some of you may have gotten that, but do you see what I mean? In another 40-70 years, we won’t remember that the Phillies won the Series in 2008. But we will remember those who have made an impact on our faith. We’ll never forget those people because they impacted our lives in an eternal way. Their impact will never fade away; it is imperishable.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that those people who made an impact on your spiritual life didn’t just fall into it. It was not an accident. They probably also spent time training. They read their Bibles; they had conversations about spiritual things; they read books about Christianity. They connected with people in practical ways, ways that were relevant to the culture at the time, and shared the gospel with them as well. They put in the personal time in order to cultivate their spiritual lives. They spent time with God on a regular basis, and they poured themselves into others.
Paul writes, “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.” The personal time investment in your spiritual life is crucial. There will certainly be bad days along the way; days that you don’t feel like reading your Bible or praying. Do you know what you do when that happens? You push through. And when you don’t push through, you get up the next morning knowing that it is a new day.
I want to take just a minute to remind you of the challenge I put out at the beginning of the year. I want to see if everyone can spend 15 minutes each day reading their Bibles. Some of you may have forgotten about that challenge and haven’t touched your Bible in a couple of weeks. Some of you may be spotty on it, and some of you may be going at it full force right now and haven’t missed a day yet. Wherever you are right now, I want to encourage you to do what Paul talks about in Philippians 3. Keep running. Press on towards the goal. Commit to starting up again this week. Just take it a day at a time and see where God leads you.
The thing to remember is that we have to be in training. We have to develop our own spiritual life while we are investing ourselves into other people. Imagine that you have two cups – one is full of water and the other is empty. You can pour water from one cup to another, but eventually, it will run out of water unless you refill it from the source. That is what our spiritual lives need to look like. We need to be pouring ourselves into others, but we also need to take time to refill ourselves. So this week, don’t forget about your training. Try spending at least 15 minutes each day reading the Bible. Set aside some time to connect with God in prayer. And don’t forget to pour yourselves out into other people as well.
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