1 Corinthians 9:24,25 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

Know ye not that In those famous games, which are kept in the isthmus, near your city; they who run in a race Εν σταδιω, in the stadium, (so the place was called where the athletes contended,) run indeed all And contend one with another; but one Only of them all; receiveth the prize Whereas in the Christian race, the success of one is no hinderance to that of others. How much greater encouragement then have you to run, since you may all receive the prize of your high calling. And every man that striveth for the mastery That there contendeth; is temperate in all things To an almost incredible degree; using the most rigorous self-denial in food, sleep, and every other sensual indulgence. It may not be improper to observe here, that “those who taught the gymnastic art, prescribed to their disciples the kind of meat that was proper, the quantity they were to eat, and the hours at which they were to eat: they prescribed to them likewise the hours of their exercise and rest: they forbade them the use of wine and women. So Horace tells us, Article Poetry, line 412:

Qui studet optatam cursu contingere metam, Multa tulit fecitque puer, sudavit et alsit, Abstinuit Venere et Baccho.

A youth who hopes the Olympic prize to gain, All arts must try, and every toil sustain; The extremes of heat and cold must often prove, And shun the weakening joys of wine and love. FRANCIS.

This whole course, which lasted for many years, was called ασκεσις, exercise. Hence the ancient monks, who imitated, and even outstripped, the athletics in their rules of temperance, and in the laboriousness of their exercises, were called ασκηται, ascetics.” Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown “The crowns for which the Greeks contended in their games, were, for the most part, of the leaves of trees, which, though evergreens, soon withered. In the Olympic games, sacred to Jupiter, the crowns were of the wild olive; in the Pythian, sacred to Apollo, they were of laurel; in the Isthmian, of pines; and in the Nemæan, of smallage, or parsley. The honours, likewise, of which these crowns were the pledges, by length of time lost their agreeableness, and at last perished, being all confined to the present life.” But we are animated by the view of an incorruptible crown; termed a crown of righteousness, 2 Timothy 4:8; and a crown of life, James 1:12; and Revelation 2:10. A crown this which never fades, as the word αφθαρτος, here used, implies: that is, there never shall be any period put to the honours and advantages of it. As a reason for what the apostle here says, Dr. Macknight thinks that his enemies, (who, from his not taking a maintenance, inferred that he was no apostle,) “affirmed, that whatever disinterestedness he might pretend, it was not credible that he would undergo such continued labour in preaching, and in complying with the humours of mankind, unless he had reaped some present advantage from his labours. But to show them the futility of their reasoning, he desired them to consider the long course of laborious discipline and exercise which the contenders in the Grecian games submitted to, for so small a prize as a crown of leaves; which, after their utmost pains, they were not sure of obtaining, and which, when obtained, would soon fade, with all its honours and advantages. Whereas, by the labours and sufferings which he underwent as an apostle, he was sure of obtaining an infinitely better crown, which would never fade.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-25

24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

25 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.