“I therefore so run, not as
uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
But I
keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when
1 have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”‑ 1 Cor. 9: 26, 27.
It is scarcely needful to
remark that this passage is one of the deepest solemnity. The Apostle Paul opens his inmost heart in
these words, and permits us to see that the experience they describe was one
that deeply and continually exercised his spirit. We can easily trace here the mainspring and
impulse of much of his life - a motive as powerful, perhaps, as any that burned
in his soul. In his service to the Lord
he was, on the one hand, constrained by the love of Christ, and, on the other, restrained by a reverential fear of his
Master’s disapproval. None knew
more truly how to trust his Lord; none knew more keenly how to distrust himself.
In this Epistle he seeks to stir up the Corinthian saints to a like
diligence by every possible means, not hesitating even, as has been said, to
reveal his deepest feelings, and to show
how powerfully he was influenced by the very motives and principles he was
urging upon them.
The interpretation of the
text, however, presents a certain measure of difficulty; but this, as in all
similar cases, should only make us the more anxious to avoid mistaken views,
and grasp the full significance of its teaching. We
must be equally careful to note what the Apostle did not mean, as to discern
what he did mean, or the lesson which so deeply thrilled his own heart will
fail to touch ours. That the passage
has been much misunderstood is clear from this alone, that the important word “castaway,” around which the instruction circles, is
very imperfectly, not to say incorrectly, translated in the Authorised Version;
nor is the case much improved in the Revised Version, which has adopted the
rendering “rejected.” For what is the thought usually suggested by
the word “castaway?”***
We employ it when we wish to describe some total and irremediable ruin as, for
example, when we speak of a ship which has been wrecked or the like. A standard dictionary gives as the meaning of
the word, “one rejected or forsaken by God and man,”
and to illustrate this use of it quotes a passage from a prominent theological
writer, who says, “Neither is there given any leave to
search in particular who are the heirs
of the kingdom of heaven, and who are castaways.” So it is clear that the idea most commonly
connected with the religious use of this word is the final loss of the soul* [*See
1 Pet. 1: 9-11]; and this view has been
adopted even by the writer just mentioned, whose precision and caution were so
great that he has been termed “the judicious Hooker.” But did the Apostle mean that what he dreaded
was, lest after he had preached to others, he might make shipwreck of his own soul - that he might, in the end,
be cast away for ever from the
[* It may be well to point out, for the sake of
readers not acquainted with the original, that the word translated “be cast away” (zemiothesis)
in Luke 9: 25, is quite different to that in
the text, and has a different
meaning, viz., “to suffer loss,” as in 1 Cor. 3: 15, etc.
[**
It would appear to point to the loss of the birthright – the double
inheritance rights of the firstborn son - mentioned in the final warning of Hebrews 12: 14-17.
– Ed.]
It will be clear from what I
have said that it is only by fixing accurately the meaning and usage of the
word translated “castaway,” that the real force
of the passage can be perceived, for upon the meaning of that one word the
whole argument turns. In endeavouring to
do this two things are necessary: first, to ascertain the meaning of the term,
not only from the lexicon, but by a
comparison of its occurrences in other parts of Scripture; and
secondly, to determine the meaning which
the Apostle connects with it here from the context in which it stands. If this is done with care, we shall, I doubt
not, be able to discern that what he feared was not the loss of his soul, but
the loss of the Lord’s approval of
the service of his life.
The word translated “castaway,” adokimos in the Greek, occurs eight times in the New Testament. In six
places it is translated by “reprobate” in one “rejected”;
and the last instance is the text. Its
opposite, dokimos, the word
containing the corresponding idea in the positive form, occurs frequently, and
the passages in which it is found are of great importance as showing what is
the radical idea of the term. This may be
said to be the putting of anything to the proof so as to determine what
its true character is, and whether it is worthy of approval or the
reverse. A good example is found at 2 Cor. 10: 18: “For not he that commendeth himself is
approved (dohimos), but whom the Lord
commendeth”; and the context of that passage shows, with
abundant clearness, that the thought before the Apostle’s mind was the
difference between that approval of his service which the Corinthians had not
accorded him, but which he believed the Lord had accorded, as compared with the
approval or disapproval of certain persons whose
guidance and teaching had been approved among the Corinthians, but had not
been, as Paul believed, approved by their common Lord.
So much for the word, and
now let us look to the context in which it appears. In the ninth chapter of 1st Corinthians the Apostle is vindicating
his right to do certain things, from which, however, for the Gospel’s sake, and
for the sake of the Corinthians themselves, he had abstained. For example, he asserts his right, as a
minister of the Gospel, to temporal support from those to whom he had
ministered; but he had not availed himself of that right. He points out that he had the same right to marry as the other
Apostles, but that he had not availed himself of it, lest in any measure his
service in the Gospel should be hindered.
Free from the spiritual authority of all men, he had made himself a
servant to all that he might win over the more.
Accordingly, in associating with Jews, he had placed himself under
certain ceremonial restrictions as to food, etc., in order to avoid giving
needless offence; and when brought into contact with Gentiles, who were
dispensationally not under the Law, he had not stumbled them by the assertion
of Jewish ordinances and restrictions, lest their apprehension of the true
character of the Gospel should be hindered.
In this sense he had become “all things to all
men,” that he might “by all means save some.” Thus he showed that not only had he sought to
serve the Lord in the preaching of the Gospel, and in the teaching of its
truths, but that he had endeavoured also to be an example to others in all
things, proving to them by his life how
thoroughly his heart was controlled, and his activities guided, by the
self-same truths he had preached to others.
Now this could only have been done at the cost of much
self-sacrifice. Paul, like other men,
was but human, and his will, his feelings, his predilections [i.e., his
‘special likings and preferences’], were just as apt to assert themselves as those of
any one else. It was only by a stem and
continual repression of self, by a constant refusal to let his own will be the
guiding principle of his life, that he had been able to set before men that
Christ-like example of devotion, of
self-abnegation, of intensity in the following out of his one aim - the service
of the Lord and the salvation of souls* - which he had uniformly presented. And why had he acted thus? The Apostle looked upon the preaching of the
Gospel not as a task, but as an honoured service - a service which was a holy
privilege and delight; and which, if rightly discharged, would bring to him in
the end the reward of his
Master’s approval.** The words of
the 23rd verse show this: “And this I do for the Gospel’s sake, that I might be a
partaker thereof with them”; by which the Apostle did not mean that he
preached the Gospel to others in order that he himself might be saved by doing
so, but rather that he might share its
blessings with them in reaping the reward of a service rendered for their
sakes, and approved by the Lord.
Then, in the closing verses of the chapter, he goes on to explain how he
had done this; what had been necessary in order thereto; and what was the
ultimate end at which he had aimed: “Lest that by any
means, when I have preached to others, I
myself should be disapproved.”***
[*
See Philip Mauro’s ‘Faith to the Saving of the Soul’ in chapter 16 of “God’s Pilgrims.” - Ed.]
** Compare Philippians 2:
16: “That I may rejoice in view of (eis) the Day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”
***
Compare “Study to show thyself approved (dokimon) unto God, a
workman that needeth not to be ashamed,” 2
Tim. 2: 16.]
Let me briefly paraphrase these
last verses in order to bring out their meaning more clearly. The language is highly figurative, yet its
meaning would be perfectly clear to those to whom it was first addressed. The Isthmian games, the great public festival
of
This paraphrase
is long, but scarcely longer than the force and value of the language
demands. It is only when we enter into
the flow of thought which was in the Apostle’s mind, that we can see how impossible
it was for him to imply by the word translated “castaway”
a fear that in the end he might lose his soul; and how certain it was he meant
to show that the object* after which he was striving, with the full
earnestness of his whole being, was the approval
of his Master upon the service of his life!
Vast indeed is the difference between these things. Those who teach that
what the Apostle feared was the loss of his [eternal] salvation, not only obscure a deeply important and
precious doctrine of Scripture - the [eternal] security of
the believer in virtue of his Lord’s ever-availing, never-ceasing intercession
- but hide from our view what was the true impelling motive of his life, namely
a single-hearted desire for the service
and the glory of his Lord. To
represent him as working with the guiding motive of securing his own [eternal] salvation,
is surely to suggest that he was the subject of something indistinguishable
from a refined spiritual selfishness: to represent him, as this passage when
rightly interpreted does, in the character of a man influenced only by the
desire of securing his Lord’s glory, his Master’s approval, is a noble lesson
of complete unselfishness.** It is one
of the maturest attainments of the Christian life to learn to leave self as
much out of the question of service as of salvation, and to realise that the labour of the believer, as much as his
salvation, should have for its ultimate object,** the glory of his Lord.
[*
NOTE. The ‘object’
in Phil. 3: 11 was “to
attain
to the [out] resurrection
from the dead” (Gk.); the ‘object’ in 1 Cor. 9: 24 was “to get
the prize”; the ‘object’ in Rom. 8: 17, was to “also
share in his [Christ’s] glory”; the ‘object’
in 1 Tim. 6: 19, was “that they may (in ‘the coming age’) take hold
of the life that is truly life”; the ‘object’
in 2.Tim 2: 12, was “if we endure we will also reign with him”
[Christ]; the ‘object’ in Titus 3: 7, is that “we might
become heirs having the hope of aionious life,”
that is, ‘life’ in the coming ‘age’; the ‘object’
in 1 Thess. 2: 12, was “to live lives worthy of God, who calls
you into his kingdom and glory”; the ‘object’
in Col. 3: 23, was to “work for the Lord, not for men”: and all of these texts point
us onward to “an INHERITANCE
from the Lord as a REWARD” (Col. 3: 24).]
[** “For if thou not to Him
aspire,
But to His gifts alone,
Not love, but covetous desire,
Has brought thee to His throne”
‑ Trench.]
In endeavouring to lay before you a few of the
lessons of this holy subject, let me group what has to be said under two heads:
(1) the Christian’s work and its reward; and (2) some of the hindrances which
stand in the way of the accomplishment of that work and the attainment of the
reward. Both of these lines of thought
are suggestively illustrated by the chapter before us.
1. THE
CHRISTIAN’S WORK AND ITS REWARD.
It is needful to realise that a Christian is always
represented in Scripture as saved for
a purpose; and that purpose is that he should show forth on earth now,
and presently in heaven above, the excellencies of Him who hath called him out
of darkness into His marvellous light.
Christian service is, therefore, the development of God’s redemption in
its effects on life and character in this world. The holy walk of the Christian, and his
practical likeness to his Lord, are the evidence that he is saved with a divine
salvation. But this salvation is
represented in Scripture in different aspects.
It is sometimes spoken of as complete, and the passages which so describe it refer to its judicial title. This
is not derived from any efforts of
our own, or any merit of our own, but only from the finished work of our Lord
and Saviour. In another class of texts
it is spoken of as incomplete - continuously
developing, as to its practical effects, from one stage to another; and in
this aspect it is represented, necessarily, as a matter of progression and
future attainment.* The passages which
so describe it are, accordingly, those which speak of the manifest results of salvation displayed in a holy walk and
conversation from day to day. In
following out the analogy of the race and the prize, we may say that [eternal] salvation
in the first sense, that is as to judicial title, is the starting post of our
course; and that salvation [of the ‘soul’
(See 1 Pet. 1: 5, 9)]
in the second sense that is as to its matured development in, all practical
results, is the goal where we shall receive the crown of approval from
our Lord’s hand, if our work has been rightly done, our service rightly
rendered. Let us take two
passages illustrating these two aspects of [the
present and future aspect of] salvation. In 2 Tim. 1: 9,
it is described in these words, “Who hath
saved us and called us with
an holy calling.” Here we have
salvation represented as complete so far as its title is concerned. But look now
at Phil. 2: 12, where believers are exhorted
to “work out
(into practical detail) their own salvation.” Here is a passage which speaks of salvation
as incomplete, as to the development of its character
and effects from day to day, in the lives of Christians. It is, then, in this progressive sense that salvation is a race. We start with a title, a free title, secured
for us in the blood of the Lamb; with a sure and certain hope that, not
according to our own works, but according to the purpose and grace of God
dealing with us for Christ’s sake, we have “acceptance
in the Beloved,” and shall reach heaven at last; but if we realise this,
we ought, surely, to show its due effects, and to manifest, in all the details
of holy living, the evidence of our salvation.
Alas, how often do Christians
give less heed to this last aspect of the matter than to the first!
[*
See, for example, 1 Pet. 2: 2, “As newborn babes desire spiritual unadulterated milk that by
it ye may grow unto salvation,”
i.e., the development of salvation, and its effects, in character and
life. The words, “unto salvation,” are added by the six great editors,
and adopted by the R.V.]
Let us look at the application of these things to
the passage just quoted. The Philippians
were exhorted to work out their
salvation with fear and trembling and one has only to glance at the context
to see how needful this was. It is
evident that amongst them there was much murmuring and self-seeking, many
differences of judgment, and perhaps even sharp disputes, which, though they
may have been about important matters, appear to have caused those engaged in
them to fail in manifesting the peaceful loveliness of the Christian
character. An onlooker might have said,
“These Philippians are very much like other men: they
dispute amongst themselves, and seem to be selfish, proud, and contentious.” Here, then, is the point of the exhortation
to them, which may be paraphrased thus: “Work out your
salvation into all the practical details of life. Let men see that you are saved from the rule of those motives and passions which govern worldly hearts; and
remember in working out your salvation, that God is working in you; that you
are face to face with Himself; that you stand in His holy presence: work on, therefore, in a spirit of holy
reverential awe, trembling lest you should fail to rightly accomplish that
which He has given you to do.”
How evident it is from our text in Corinthians that the Apostle himself
was influenced by such feelings as these; that he himself habitually worked on the lines he laid down for others! The “fearing and trembling” of which he spoke to the
Philippians are well illustrated by his own words, “Lest
after I have preached to
others, I myself should be
disapproved.” In
reverence and godly fear he wrought his work, and ran his course, as under the
eye of that [righteous Judge], Lord and Master before whose holy tribunal he
should one day appear, and whose
approval he hoped then to gain.
It is needful, however, to realize that salvation,
in the practical sense of which we are speaking, is neither to be confined, on
the one hand, to the work in the Christian’s own soul and character, nor, on
the other hand, to the work God may call
him to do for the good of others. We
all have, in some sense, a public side to our Christian life, even as we
certainly have a private one; and no man’s life can be shut up to his own inner
experience. Sometimes our danger lies in
thinking too much of the service we have amongst others - our external
service: sometimes we are in danger of thinking too much of service as entirely a matter of that life
within the soul whose activities are seen only by the eye of our Lord. It is in the union of these two aspects, the
inner and the outer, - the external being indeed the outcome of the internal -
that we shall best learn how salvation is to be developed in the daily
life. In the passage which forms the
text, the Apostle was speaking of his visible service amongst the Corinthians
and others, but all the observations he makes express principles which must
have guided him and should guide us in the inner life also. We
should work for our Master’s approval: and that approval, or diapproval,
must rest upon every aspect of the work [which He has] given us
to do. Of every day’s life,
therefore, and that in all its aspects, we have to say, “I fear lest I should be disapproved: I desire that that which
I do may be approved.”
It is now easy to understand
what the Apostle meant by comparing the approval of the Lord upon his service,
to the wreath laid upon the victor’s head at the end of the race. His anxiety was, and it was a deep anxiety
indeed, that he should do nothing of which the Lord, whom he so loved, and for
whom he laboured with the full intensity of his heart’s devotion, should not be
able to say, when it was laid at His feet, “Well done,
thou good and faithful servant.”
He thought of that ‘DAY’ [See
2 Pet. 3: 8.] when all things should be revealed, and the
counsels of all hearts made manifest, and longed that it might be then seen
that, not selfishness, but love for
his heavenly Master, had been the impelling principle of his life and service;
and that of him it might be then found true, even as he had told the
Corinthians earlier in the Epistle, that
then “every man shall have (his due) praise of God.”
With this, also, we may compare the analogy of the race and the prize,
as wrought out by the Apostle in application to himself, in the third chapter
of Philippians: “Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended, but this one thing I do: forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forward to those things which are before, I press towards the mark
for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus.” The imagery
of the arena is easily traceable here: the runner, not looking backwards but
reaching forward, his body bent, and every nerve strained in the effort to
reach the goal first, and receive the victor's prize - all these are in strict
analogy with our text. The Apostle says
he had not yet reached that “mark” nor gained that “prize,” but he “followed
after,” he pressed on continually, that he might “apprehend”
it, that he might reach and secure
the approval he so earnestly desired.
And surely this approval is [in] itself [part of] the “prize!”* It is false teaching to represent final [eternal] salvation
as the prize; for unless we first receive salvation by grace through faith, we
cannot even start in the race of the Christian life. We are not qualified to begin our course
until by faith we receive and possess [eternal] salvation through the blood of the Lamb of
God. “The prize
of our high calling” can surely only
be held out to those who have already been called with that calling. These, then, are they who can run: these are
they who should so rum as to obtain that prize - the approving words, “Well done, thou good
and faithful servant.”
[* We believe attaining the “our-resurrection from the dead” (Phil. 3: 11; Luke 20: 35) – that is, “the resurrection of the righteous” (Luke 14: 14. cf. Matt.
5: 20) and of REWARD - must also
be part of the “Prize”; and the “Prize” must, at a future date, pointing the holy dead
toward the “Crown” and coming “Glory” (Luke 9: 24-26)
– a salvation of the “soul”
(not “life” as found in the N.I.V.) which can be
lost!
(Acts 5: 1-10); and this points us forward
to rulership in the millennial “Kingdom” (Rev. 20: 4-6) of Christ: and that “kingdom” (Luke 22: 30;
Mark 14: 25) is the future “inheritance”
of “saints” - an inheritance which Paul
repeatedly states throughout his epistles to the churches - we can lose in the
“day” of judgment by wilfil sin and
disobedience: (1 Cor. 5: 9-13; 6: 9-11; Gal. 5:
13-21; Eph. 5: 3-7; Heb. 10: 26-30, etc. -
Ed.]
2. THE
HINDRANCES WHICH MAY RETARD US IN THIS
EFFORT TO
OBTAIN THE HEAVENLY PRIZE.
They may be summed up in one word - SELF.
True, they may not orginate in ourselves, for our difficulties often
come to us from without; but if the heart is right, if self, as to all its evil impulses and influences, is duly
controlled, difficulties from without will not gain the mastery over us. It was of evil self struggling for dominion
that the Apostle spoke when he said, “I buffet my body,
and bring it into slave-subjection” which language imports, “I serve God through the body and its powers, but, by His
grace, I allow not the body to be the master and myself its servant.” Nothing is more evident than that by “the body” here, the Apostle means not merely the
material body, but the whole of his natural being. For
the body and its members may be used
as “instruments of righteousness”
for the service of God, or as “instruments of unrighteousness” in the service
of sin, at the impulse of that will which is naturally always evil, but which
in [regenerate] believers
is [should be]
subdued and controlled by grace. In the sixth chapter of 2
Corinthians the Apostle recounts a multitude of difficulties which had
gathered around his life and his ministry - difficulties so mighty and so many that, but for God’s help, he would
have been turned aside or stopped altogether in his work. But these things prevailed not: in all, and
notwithstanding all, he approved
himself, by the abounding grace of God, to be a faithful servant of Christ. It is a common mistake, one which we are all
apt to make, that our circumstances control and govern us. We are always prone to say, “I could and I would do this, or that, if only my
circumstances were different.”
The text, however, shows us that this
ought not to be so. In the midst of
the most adverse circumstances we may be
more than conquerors through Him who loved us and in spite of all difficulties we may do the Lord’s will, and secure
the Lord’s approval, if only the heart be kept right. Let us then, as to this point, concentrate
our attention upon OURSELVES. Let us discern that in self lies the great
difficulty; that self must be subdued; that the body must be kept under and
brought into subjection; that lust
and passion, pride and vain-glory, self-love and self-gratification, must not
guide or control us. If they do,
our path will be a self-chosen path, our work a self-devised one: we shall miss
the work which our Lord would give us to do; we shall not run in the race to
which He would direct us. In another
Epistle we find these words, “If a man also strive for
masteries, yet is he not crowned
except he strive lawfully” - words fully parallel with our text,
for they teach us that in the Lord’s work we must work lawfully; that is, the
principles, restrictions, and rules which are to govern us must not be
self-contrived nor self-dictated, but received from Him. We need, therefore, first, to know His will; then to do it. We cannot know His will unless He teach us, so guiding us, by His revealed truth, that in
every exigency, in every difficulty, we may find the right path by the light of
His Word. We cannot do His will unless our wills be laid at His feet unless
self shrink out of sight, and the Lord become all in all to our souls. How difficult is this! So difficult is it, indeed, that unless it
were for the words, “but He giveth more grace” (Jas. 4: 6), it would prove for all of us, not only
difficult, but insuperable.
May God give us grace to
share the Apostle’s fear lest, after we have discerned the true principles
which should guide us in service for God, and perhaps even pointed them out to
others, we should ourselves fail so to
work by the direction of these principles
as to miss the Master’s approval of our labour. May He fill us with holy “fear and trembling:”
fear lest we grieve Him, and a trembling distrust of ourselves! But this is not the only motive that should constrain our souls to seek
and long for our Lord’s approval. Let
Him but reveal Himself to us in His
surpassing love, in the matchless beauty of His holiness, and the irresistible
attraction of His grace, and our
hearts shall be bound to Him with cords of love never again to be loosed, and
drawn as willing captives after His
blessed footsteps. Of Him, “the chiefest among ten thousand and the altogether lovely,”
it is written that “He pleased not
Himself.” Let us learn to be
like Him in this. May we have such a
view of His perfectness, that our whole being may gladly yield itself to Him;
and that we may learn to regard ourselves, as the Apostle himself delighted to
do, as the “BOND-SLAVES”
of Jesus Christ; realising that the approval
of our Heavenly Master, in THE DAY OF HIS COMING GLORY, is the
sweet REWARD laid up for all who truly serve Him here below.*
-------
[*
Read more background information about the ‘good doctor’ C. Y. Biss, in the “Writings of Others” section. – Ed.]