Homiletic Monthly 1 Corinthians 9:24 Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain. I. THE NECESSITY OF SELF-DENIAL. 1. Difficulty of winning the crown. If he who makes every exertion is the only winner, what becomes of the sluggish, selfish soul? All roads downward are easy; all roads upward difficult. 2. Greatness of the loss of the crown. Some will be saved — so as by fire (chap. 1 Corinthians 3.). Scarcely saved, but the reward lost. II. ITS NATURE. 1. All sin must be laid aside. Progress is impossible so long as one sin is deliberately indulged or one duty wilfully neglected. 2. All weights must be laid aside (Hebrews 12:1-3). What is lawful in itself may weigh us down. The true runner will sacrifice everything to progress. III. ITS INDUCEMENT. Throughout the moral universe there runs a law of compensation. Self-denial is but a postponement of pleasure to the future. 1. Sacrifice is reward by self-mastery. To keep the body under implies the reason and conscience enthroned and regnant, and the Spirit of God ruling over all. That is the ideal estate of man. 2. Progress and coronation. To make advance is reward enough to a true disciple; but to get to the goal and get the prize too — that is heaven.Conclusion: 1. We must run lawfully, i.e., according to the Scripture rules of the race. 2. We must be temperate in all things. 3. We must run perseveringly; pursuing even when faint. 4. We must run hopefully. 5. We must run purposefully — not as a boxer who beats the air, not as one who runs uncertainly — a definite goal and the eye always on it. (Homiletic Monthly.) Parallel Verses KJV: Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. |
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