Run for the Prize

)

1Corinthians 9:24

Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You'd better run.

"Run Like Hell" lyrics by Roger Waters recorded by Pink Floyd.

So, just what is the prize? It would surely seem easy enough to guess, it could be eternal life, the resurrected life of Jesus. But we're talking about the writing of Paul here, and fewer were more aloof than Paul in his writing.

My Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (volume 1, page 638 for those of you who want to look this up says that this is "the prize of conflict which a man can win only if he throws in his whole self and all his resources, namely, the resurrection to eternal life (this mention from Philippians 3:11). So yes, the answer is the resurrection to eternal life. To take another Pink Floyd title, have a cigar.

What is infinitely more interesting is the way the word used in scripture that we define as "prize" makes added reference to the way the runner in this passage has to train and has to race. The rest of this passage from 1Corinthians makes sure the point is made, to win you must train--you gotta work hard to win. But here, just in the description of the prize itself, to gain the prize you must, I say must, commit your whole self and all of your resources to the goal.

The faith, and the prize of the faith, is not something we can do for an hour a week and leave the remaining 167 hours for anything else. Life in the faith is more than just a way to kill an hour on Sunday before going to dinner with the family, or that thing you miss so you can see the game.

Faith is a 24/7 proposition. We have to live our life not just fully in the name of the Lord we have to commit to work harder to develop more to gain fruitfully to win the prize. Yes, we are saved by grace through faith, Paul says this too, but we are called to do more than just wait on the bus of salvation. We need to take a walk.

I guess the only true way we can avoid the devil is to run like hell.