this, too, as we have seen, is not attained without giving up much, or without suffering

and endurance.

The word rendered prize in Phil. 3: 14 is brabeion, and is derived from brabeus, the

judge who presided over the Grecian games and assigned the prizes. From this word is

also derived brabeuõ, which means, to preside, rule or act as umpire, and occurs in

Col. 3: 15, "Let the peace of God act as umpire (preside) in your hearts". In Col. 2: 18

we read, "Let no man beguile you of your reward"; the word being katabrabeuõ, to

defraud or deprive of the prize by so arranging affairs that judgment shall be pronounced

against one by the umpire. How this may be accomplished the context of Col. 2: 18

only too plainly shows, but that, for the time, is another question. So far we have just

considered the fact of the prize or reward, let us now consider the nature of it.

The apostle tells us that he presses toward the prize of the high calling of God in

Christ Jesus. We have already given our reasons in Volume VII pages 9, 10 for

retaining the A.V. rendering, "the high calling". This prize is connected with the high

calling which, as members of the One Body, we have received of the Lord. Both our

hope and prize are related to the calling (see Eph. 1: 18; 4: 4; Phil. 3: 14). As we

realize our calling we define our hope, and as we practically enter into the fact that the

calling is "high" (anõ), and set our minds n things "above" (anõ), not minding things "on

the earth", indeed, "mortifying our members which are on the earth", we shall be

prepared to run the race for the prize that God has linked with the high calling He has

given us in Christ Jesus.

As we have shown in the article dealing with the "out-resurrection", we believe this

prize to be an extraordinary privilege. We believe this to be the desire of the apostle

when he expressed his choice in the words, "to depart and be with Christ which is far

better", far better than living on here, or of falling asleep in Christ as all who believe

must do unless living when He comes again. The apostle reached out to the "gain", the

"prize" of departing and "being with Christ". There are many true doctrines that are

misapplied, and so have been put aside as untrue. This subject is a case in point; tradition

in its writings, its hymns, and its preaching has taken the peculiar privilege of the very

few, and handed it over to the Church as a whole. Those who studied the Word realized

that to teach that all believers who died went straight to glory, was error. The Scripture

fact that the dead are really dead, that they have fallen asleep, that they are unconscious

until resurrection, is untouched by the subsequent revelation of Philippians; in fact,

Philippians confirms the general truth by putting forward the exceptional case of

departing and being with Christ as a prize to be won, and in no wise to be considered as

the universal hope of the Church. The high calling is the high calling of God, just as the

hope of His calling in Eph. 1: 18 is the hope of God's calling, for the same One is He

who raised Christ from the dead. What an incentive it is to think that we have the

possibility of thus adorning the doctrine of God our Saviour. It should help us in our

endeavours by His grace to "walk worthy of the calling wherewith we have been called",

and without this worthy walk all talk about the prize is empty and valueless.