Outside of the evening news, I watch very little television.  However, for two weeks every four years I tend to spend a little more time in front of the tube.  I love watching the Olympics, mainly because I know what it takes to get there, and once having gotten there, what it takes to win.  One of the most popular types of competition involves running.  Running is in essence competing with oneself–one’s mind.  Fatigue is mostly mental.  Muscles are designed to work continuously.  Mental fatigue, however, is more debilitating than physical fatigue.  A famous football coach posted a sign in the dressing room that read: FATIGUE MAKES COWARDS OF US ALL.  How true.  As a youngster I would come in from the fields after a 10-12 hour day so tired I could hardly walk.  Within an hour, however, I was shooting baskets by the light shining from our porch.  It was my mind, not my muscles, that had me so exhausted at the end of the work day.

And it is the mind that causes people to forego the study of the Bible after a day on the job.  What I especially like about the Olympics is that the athletes have lives outside their training regimen.  Either before or after a full day’s work or study, they work their bodies with zeal, focus and dedication.  And for what?  Hopefully, a round piece of metal.  Their chances of winning one are minimal.

Over the four years that separate the world Olympics thousands of medal-hungry people strive to be placed on the roster of their nation’s Olympic team.  What they put themselves through is a lesson in dedication and determination.  In the final analysis, only the very best are selected.  And of those, only a minutely few–the best of the best–win the gold.  Most of the athletes from most of the competing nations win no medals at all.  In the Olympic competitions there are medals awarded for second and third place winners.  Much is made over winning a silver or bronze medal.  In the mind of mankind, that is also a special recognition.  However, only the gold medal winners become famous and profit from their efforts.

The Holy Bible draws on elite-level athletics to teach readers some profound lessons.  Let us examine some of them.  The student of God’s Word/Law/gospel/Truth/light knows that the Apostle Paul was very adept at using sports analogies when teaching about the Christian “walk.”  In his day sports competition was very important, especially among the people of Corinth which was located near where the Isthmian Games were conducted every four years.  According to historians, these games were extremely popular.  The Olympic Games were an off-shoot of the Isthmian Games.

Well aware of the popularity of the games to the people of Corinth, Paul told members of the Church of Corinth that the life of a true Christian is very much like the life of an athlete relative to the participant’s quest for victory.  In two of his most quoted statements Paul teaches valuable lessons concerning winning and losing: “Do you not know that those who take part in a race all run, but only one receives the prize (salvation).  Therefore, run so that you may obtain (earn) it ….” (1 Cor. 9:24).  He goes on to say that, unlike athletes, Christians “run” (obey God) so as to receive an eternal reward, not a crown of branches.  Paul compares his own striving for salvation by comparing it to the sport of boxing.  In verses 26 and 27 he tells us that he focused his efforts and energy on victory and kept his body under his control, “… so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not become a castaway.”

Paul, who received his gospel (Truth about the Kingdom of God) directly from Jesus Christ through revelation (Gal. 1:12) tells those who call themselves Christians that though all of us run the “race” in HOPE of winning the prize, only the ONE has his/her hope fulfilled.  He noted that in this life he had only the “HOPE of salvation.”  In Romans 8:24,25 he noted that “we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen (possessed) is not hope, for what a man sees, why does he hope for it?  But if we have hope for what we do not see (salvation), then we wait for it with patience.”  He tells us in Titus 1:2 that we live in hope of salvation.  In His Corinthian letter he told us what to do while waiting for salvation–working (obeying) with dedication and all-out effort.  Otherwise our hope will remain only that–hope.  Striving for eternal life is like picking cotton.  One can hope for a good payday.  But if one wants to make good money, one has to work hard, concentrate on the job at hand and go about it with zeal.

Let us study exactly what Paul tells us about himself and all others who seek salvation.  1) EVERYONE in the church “runs the race” (seeks) for salvation.  2) Throughout our lifetimes we only have the HOPE of salvation–the prize that awaits only the WINNER, which is awarded only at the END of the race, not at the beginning as we are told.  3) We must run the race (walk our walk) according to God’s rules, as did Jesus (1 Jn. 2:6).  We cannot choose the direction the race takes.  4) Paul knew that if he did not run the race according to God’s RULES (commandments), that he–the author of most of the New Testament–would be a CASTAWAY (reprobate) and would not receive eternal life.  Peter, writing to the church, noted that all in the church are being JUDGED (by God’s word), and that only the RIGHTEOUS (those who obey that Word) will receive eternal life (1 Pet. 4:17,18) at the return of Jesus Christ (Mat. 10:22).  God, through Paul, is teaching life and death lessons.  Let us learn them and apply them to our daily lives.  Let us be God’s Spiritual Olympians so as not to be castaways.  L.J.