Blessed Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
500 Upper Bukit Timah Rd, Singapore 678106
The Apostle Paul speaks of a vigilance to spiritual discipline lest he disqualifies himself from the work through sin. And he is careful to warn his readers not to yield to temptation. He watches himself carefully so that he may be rejected by the Lord, not standing the test and be a castaway.
The athlete’s greatest fear is that he is injured because it disqualifies him from the competition. Even though he may have trained hard for a long time to prepare for the race, he will not win the prize because he cannot participate in the race.This is the same for the servant of God. Sin disqualifies him from his reward from God because of the “disciplinary disapproval of God” [William MacDonald]. The Apostle Paul sends a word of warning for all servants of God to live circumspectly, by the grace of God to exercise self-control, be led by the Spirit to live a victorious life of service. There is reward awaiting the faithful servant.
Poole observed well, “I give you no other counsel than I myself take; I endeavour so to live, so in all things to behave myself, as I may not be at uncertainties whether I please God by my actions, or shall get to heaven, yea or not. I am a fellow soldier with you, fighting against sin; I make it my great business, not so to fight, so to resist sin, as if I did beat the air; that is, get no more fruit, profit, or advantage by it, than if I threw stones against the wind, or with a staff did beat the air. It is not every running, or every fighting, that will bring a man to heaven; it must be a running with all our might, and continuing our motion till we come to the end of our race; a fighting with all our might, and that against all sin.”
The promise of eternal reward for the faithful Christian is his motivation to serve Christ. Just as the athlete who seeks to wins a competition does all he can to keep himself in his best physical state, so the Christian in his spiritual state, for a heavenly reward.
Athletes go through much self-discipline to condition themselves in the best physical condition for the competition. So does the spiritual athlete. To be temperate is to exercise self-control. “He who has no self control is like a dilapidated city” is a good paraphrase of this proverb (Timothy Tow, Pearls of Great Wisdom – A Study of the Book of Proverbs). Self-control is the spiritual quality or virtue that enables a Christian to have the power to keep himself/herself in check against the sin of the flesh and the spirit.
Barnes observed well, “In the remainder of this chapter, Paul illustrates the general sentiment on which he had been dwelling – the duty of practising self-denial for the salvation of others – by a reference to the well-known games which were celebrated near Corinth.
The Apostle Paul speaks of God’s enabling that allows him to adjust himself to the custom and culture of the people that he was reaching out to. His willingness to stake all for the gospel is worthy of our example. He was obedient to God’s call for his life. And he speaks of the reward of being a partaker of eternal life and heavenly blessings like all who have truly believed in Corinth.
William MacDonald observed well, “Verse 22 speaks of those who are weak or overscrupulous. They were excessively sensitive about matters that were really not of fundamental importance. To the weak, Paul became as weak, that he might win them. He would be a vegetarian if necessary rather than offend them by eating meat. In short, Paul became all things to all men, that he might by all means save some.”
When the Apostle Paul was reaching out to the gentiles in Asia Minor, he did not insist that the gentiles keep the ceremonial laws of the Jews especially the rite of circumcision, rather salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul has the heart to win souls for Christ. As such, to whomever, God will bring his way, He would try his utmost to reach out. For his own Jewish countrymen, he sought to reach out to them, In fact, in every new city he visits, he would begin ministering first to his own people. There in the synagogue, he was received for he was a famous rabbi before his conversion, having studied under the famous teacher Gamaliel.