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"Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the PRIZE? So
run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in
all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible CROWN: but we an incorruptible"
(I Cor. 9: 24, 25).
Note the following features:
(1)
The words "receiveth" in the clause "but one receiveth the prize", and "obtain", in
the clause "to obtain a corruptible crown", are both translations of the one Greek
word "lambano". They "receive" a prize; they "receive" a crown.
(2)
The word "race' is the Greek word stadion, a word meaning originally "a furlong"
but used in the Apostle's day, and even to the present day, for the place where
athletic sports are held. Owing to the influence of the Latin the modern spelling of
the word is stadium. It is utterly unscriptural, nay, it is anti-scriptural, to import
into the epistles of Paul the conception that any believer "runs", as in a race, for
either salvation, life, forgiveness, membership of the body, acceptance, or any of
the wonderful blessings that constitute the high calling of the church of the
mystery. If Paul uses "Prize" in Phil. 3: or "Crown" in II Tim. 4:, and if he
uses figures that are drawn from athletic sports, which he does, then in these
epistles he is not dealing with the high calling itself, but with the prize, crown or
reward that is associated with that high calling, and which is held out to encourage
the believer to endure to the end.
(3)
The word "run" is trecho. This is the word that is used in Heb. 12: 1, where the
apostle exhorts the believer "to run with patience the race that is set before us".
(4)
"To strive for mastery" is the translation of the Greek agonizomai. This is the
word used by Paul in II Tim. 4: 7, when he says, "I have fought a good fight",
where the crown is in view, and the word agon gives us the word "fight" in
II Tim. 4: 7 and the word "race" in the passage already cited from Heb. 12: 1.
(5)
One further link with II Timothy is found in I Cor. 9: The reader will have in
mind that, following the section now before us (II Tim. 2: 1-13), we have the two
central sections and that their key words are "Approved" or "Disapproved",
Dokimos and Adokimos. This theme is also the sequence of I Cor. 9: 27. Our
version translates the word "A castaway" and lends colour to the erroneous idea
that a saved child of God can be lost. The word is "Disapproved", or, in its
modern dress, "Disqualified" and has to do with the matter in hand, namely the
running for the prize.
We have quoted from the epistle to the Hebrews, and the reader should remember that
this epistle does not present the initial way of salvation, but addresses those who are
already "holy brethren" and "partakers of the heavenly calling". It is they who are to
consider the history of Israel in the wilderness so that they should not "seem to come
short".
The reader who realizes the importance of thus rightly dividing the Word of truth, as it
deals with gift and reward, should make himself familiar with the evidence that is
available for the proof that Hebrews and Philippians are expositions of the same line of
truth.
What Romans is to the dispensation obtaining during the Acts, Ephesians is to the
dispensation of the mystery. Both are basic. What Hebrews is to Romans, namely, an
exhortation to endure with a reward in view, Philippians is to Ephesians. The evidence