Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
Know ye not. The Isthmian games, in which the foot- race was a leading one, were a subject of patriotic pride to the Corinthians in the neighbourhood. These periodical games were to the Greeks rather a passion than an amusement: a suitable image of Christian earnestness. Paul uses the same image, Acts 20:24 - an undesigned coincidence between the history and the letter: a proof of genuineness.
In a race х stadioo (G4712)] - 'in a race-course.'
All ... one. Although we knew that one only could be saved, it would be well worth our while to run. Not "all" who enter on the Christian race win (1 Corinthians 10:1-5).
So run, that ye may obtain - parenthetically: the words in which the instructors in the exercise schools (gymnasia) and the spectators on the race-course exhorted runners to put forth all exertions. The gymnasium was a prominent feature in every Greek city. Every candidate had to swear that he had been ten months in training, and that he would not violate the regulations (2 Timothy 2:5: cf. 1 Timothy 4:7-8). He lived on a strict diet, refraining from wine and pleasant foods, and enduring cold and heat and laborious discipline. The "prize" awarded by the judge was a chaplet of green leaves; at the Isthmus, of the indigenous pine, for which parsley leaves were temporarily substituted (1 Corinthians 9:25). The Greek х katalabeete (G2638)] is fully obtain, Here is the true scope for 'ambition' (2 Corinthians 5:9). It is vain to begin unless we persevere to the end (Matthew 10:22; Matthew 24:13; Revelation 2:10). "So" expresses, Run with such perseverance in the heavenly course as "all" exhibit in the earthly "race." Run so as not only to receive salvation, but a full reward (1 Corinthians 3:14-15; 2 John 1:8).