4160 — Striving for a Prize
By G. R.
Is it wrong for us to enter worldly contests to win a prize? Is this self-denial?
G. R. It would seem as tho the prize which is set before God's children, the crown of eternal life, ought to be so prized as to use all their energies, without dividing them between the crowns or prizes that perish. To the young man Timothy the apostle addressed these words: "No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please him who enrolled him as a soldier." And then he uses this illustration concerning worldly things: "And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he have contended lawfully." Now that is what the Christian ought to do. In the great race set before him, he should contend lawfully, that is, in harmony with the rules of God's word. Another illustration, found in the 12th chapter of Hebrews, is that in running in the race, he should "lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us." In other words, every energy should be bent to the one thing of winning what God has called us to win. See Phil. 3:7-14.