I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
To run not uncertainly and to fight without beating the air means to press toward a definite goal with direct, effective effort rather than moving aimlessly or wasting strength. The picture is taken from the public foot-races and games pursued with earnest purpose, held up as the pattern for Christian service and work for the Lord. Christians run for an incorruptible crown of life, immortality and glory, in contrast to a perishable wreath, and unlike the earthly race where all run but one receives the prize, all may win immortal glory if they persevere, strive lawfully with the standard in view, and lay aside every weight. Running with certainty means striving for mastery by being temperate in all things and keeping the body under and bringing it into subjection, guarding appetite, passion and evil tendencies lest after preaching to others one becomes a castaway. It calls for earnest, vigorous effort against Satan, self and defects of character, straining every nerve, enduring discipline and self-denial, and running with patience while keeping the incorruptible prize in full view. This purposeful race is lived in dependence on God's power through faith, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of faith, cooperating with divine help with greater zeal than those who rely only on human strength.
Meaning of Race Imagery
To run without uncertainty and to fight without beating the air is to press toward a definite goal with direct and effective effort rather than aimlessly or wastefully. The runner does not run without a destination and the fighter does not strike at nothing, but both strive with clear aim, determined effort, purpose and self-control toward the imperishable reward of eternal life. That purposeful striving joins running and fighting to bringing the body under control, practicing self-denial and temperance, governing appetite and passion, and letting principle rather than appetite or fancy rule in order to remain fit for the race and faithful in service.
The running and fighting are drawn from the public games and foot-races pursued with earnest purpose in Paul's day, held up as the pattern for Christian service and work for the Lord. Like contestants, Christians must move toward the goal with certainty, steady and disciplined preparation, powers kept under control, and no unlawful advantage. The effort must not be uncertain, languid, lifeless, indolent or ease-seeking, but earnest, vigorous and exact, with every nerve and muscle strained and every word, thought and action strictly guarded. It calls for willing endurance of inconvenience, painful training, thorough temperance, severest discipline, self-denial and self-sacrifice, obedience to every injunction of the Word, careful study of the Lord's rules and faithful compliance with the conditions to the end, keeping in full view the incorruptible prize, the unfading crown of life, the eternal weight of glory and eternal life. Mind as well as body and muscles must be trained to put forth diligent, persevering effort along a rugged path filled with obstacles that can be surmounted only by patient toil, with preparation, earnestness and self-denying effort as much greater than those of aspirants for worldly honors as heavenly things are of more value than earthly.
Ancient racers for earthly honor made most extensive preparation, training for ten whole months and sometimes longer under different masters in physical exercises to give strength and vigor to the body. They restricted themselves to food that kept the body in the most healthful condition and to clothing that left every organ and muscle untrammeled. They placed every physical power under toilsome training, spared no toil, exercised every power, and ran at risk of life without knowing whether they would gain or lose only a perishable crown.
Pagan athletes submitted cheerfully to strict discipline, restraining appetite and denying weakening foods and luxuries to keep nerves, muscles, brain and body in full healthful tone. Yet they contended only for a perishable wreath of flowers and fading laurels, a mere perishable and corruptible crown. In that sense they fought as beating the air, while Christians contend for a glorious crown of immortality, incorruptible and eternal, and therefore must show the same temperance in all things with constant restraint over fleshly appetites and inclinations.
Certainty of Heavenly Prize
The prize set before the runner is imperishable, in contrast to a perishable earthly wreath. It is the crown of life, immortality, eternal life and glory, a life measuring with the life of God, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and the race is to be run with clear aim and determined effort toward that goal rather than without destination or as striking at nothing. The struggle calls for self-denial and temperance that brings bodily appetites and passions under control and keeps the whole person fit, with the athlete's training illustrating the self-control needed to keep the body in its best condition. Unlike contestants disciplined for a temporary crown, Christians prepare diligently and do their best to become fit for their calling in a noble contest without selfishness, unfairness or underhanded work, exerting every spiritual strength, and no one who does his best will fail.
Unlike the earthly race where all run but only one receives the prize and the result is uncertain, the heavenly race is not run in uncertainty. All may win the prize of immortal glory, incorruptible eternal life, if they meet God's conditions and persevere faithfully, with plenty of room for all and not one failing who so runs. This certain running means running well according to the light shining upon each one, putting on Christian and heavenly graces, preserving physical vigor, balanced minds and healthy morals, exercising abilities kept in healthful condition by temperance in all things, curbing fleshly appetites and inclinations, denying hurtful indulgences, and keeping nerves, muscles, brain and body in full healthful tone. It means keeping the eyes fixed on the crown of immortality and keeping Christ's humble, self-denying life as pattern, for even the best earthly runner might lose while faithful effort in the heavenly race receives the prize.
To run so as to obtain is to run not at random but with the standard in view and striving to reach it, with single-hearted purpose and deliberate striving, laying aside every weight and pressing toward perfection. It is striving lawfully without unlawful advantage, seeking piety and moral excellence day by day in a continuing struggle toward Christ's ideal. This requires submitting to severe training, obeying the laws of God, keeping strict guard over appetite, and keeping physical, mental and moral powers in the most perfect condition to obtain God's approval and not fail the examination test and be found wanting. It also calls for taking time for physical exercise as a great benefit, with ministers doing daily work that exercises the muscles, lest after preaching to others they become castaways.
Certainty is found by looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of faith, by whom believers are changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord, overcome, and hold fast their crown. God sets a more encouraging prospect and deals in a more noble, benevolent manner than the ancient games, for He does not require self-denial and strict discipline in spiritual things at the hazard of losing the race at last and missing the victor's crown, though ancient athletes spared no toil and ran at risk of life without knowing whether they would gain only a perishable crown. The runner keeps the eye fixed upon the mark of the prize and presses straight through in God's strength by looking to Jesus, who has marked the path through His own footsteps and whose followers share in its self-denial and suffering. Each person must fight the good fight of faith for himself to reach perfection of Christian character fitting for the society of the saints in light, moving firmly and steadily forward with unwavering purpose to win the prize of eternal life, and no one should hinder another from running.
Running with certainty means holding a heart fixed and trusting in God, unmoved by enemies, lying words, slander, deceit, darkness, opposition, trifling or scorn, knowing the running and labor are not in vain. The certain runner possesses a whole Saviour and rejoices in His rich fullness, longs to be more devoted and consecrated, finds this world too dark, and leaps with joy at the mansions Jesus prepares where He is. Profession alone is of little value unless the everlasting victory is kept in view and the life needed to share Christ's life and immortal inheritance is pursued, with the Holy Spirit daily making purposes fruitful and alive, without which the person falls back into the former way of life.
Temperance and Bodily Discipline
To run without uncertainty and to fight without wasting blows means to strive for mastery by being temperate in all things and by keeping the body under and bringing it into subjection. This discipline guards appetites, passions, evil tendencies and the body itself, keeping them in perfect control, because the prize sought is an incorruptible crown of immortality and a life measuring with the life of God, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Without this rigid discipline over the body a person will be lost and faces perdition, even after preaching to others.
This temperance means letting principle rule instead of appetite or fancy in eating, drinking and dressing. It avoids unhealthful food and food of objectionable quality, overeating even of wholesome food, eating at all hours, and hurried eating. It calls for abstinence from all that tends to intemperance — intoxicating beverages, liquor, alcohol and stimulating drinks by total abstinence rather than moderate use, with abstinence also from tea, coffee, flesh meat and tobacco — living on fruits and grains and eating temperately and only of food that will not confuse the mind. This self-denial and victory over appetite is especially required when associating with unbelievers, not being swerved from right principles so that spiritual things can still be discerned.
It also requires taking time for physical exercise as a great benefit, with ministers to do every day some work that exercises the muscles. That includes rest from taxing labor, daily physical exercise such as cultivating a garden, refusal to overtax and abuse the body, and daily cheerful useful labor that secures well-balanced circulation. It joins a most healthful diet with strong willpower to control appetite and educate taste, since God will not insure health to those who indulge fancy and lack moral power over appetite.
Letting appetite govern and indulging pernicious habits clouds the moral sense and largely destroys power to discern sacred things, beclouding the mind so that sacred and common are leveled. It enfeebles brain and nerve power, weakens moral powers, strengthens animal propensities and cripples growth of the moral faculties, and eating too much or food of objectionable quality easily leads into dissipation and into foolish hurtful lusts drowning men in destruction and perdition. It brings impatience, faultfinding, envy, jealousy, hatred and malice bringing reproach on God's cause, while gluttony, selfishness and every injurious gratification in eating and drinking must be avoided. By contrast, temperance preserves physical, mental and moral power, keeps the body under control and the brain clear for divine enlightenment, gives vigor for efficient labor, clears spiritual perception to understand true godliness and discern imperfections of character, and fits believers with pure holy character to meet Christ in peace.
The verse places health reform on its right basis as part of present truth, as closely connected with it as the arm is connected with the body. It is to be taken hold of intelligently with individual accountability, educated intellect and aroused moral sensibility rather than made a test over articles of diet, and its requirement of self-control and purity applies equally to deacons and to elders. In the last days it belongs to walking in the light and presenting mind, soul, body and strength as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, to answer the purpose of creation.
Spiritual Warfare for Character
The contest is against Satan's temptations and the evil desires of the carnal nature, against self and internal foes and defects of character and a deceptive and desperately wicked heart seen in the mirror of how God views the self. Satan's eye watches intensely to stir the passions and make believers run uncertainly through weakness, impatience, complaining, instability, and swings from exaltation to despondency, while he grasps them on the right hand and left, before and behind, and seeks to take precious graces when they are unguarded. Winning requires not languid, lifeless, indolent ease-seeking but earnest, vigorous, exact effort, straining every nerve and muscle and strictly guarding every word, thought and action. It requires willing endurance of inconvenience, painful training, severest discipline, self-denial and self-sacrifice, and obedience to every injunction of the Word through careful study of the Lord's rules and faithful compliance with the conditions to the end. It requires laying aside every weight and the sin easily besetting, laying aside intemperance, selfishness and indulgence of appetite, and running with patience while keeping in full view the incorruptible prize, the crown of life that does not fade, the eternal weight of glory and immortal inheritance, surveyed, admired, dwelt upon and longed for until no sacrifice seems severe.
Overcoming demands persistent energy, patient industry, unwearied effort, untiring zeal, perseverance, courage and vigilance, working by personal effort in penitence and repentance through faith in Christ's grace to wash robes of character white in the blood of the Lamb. When weary, discouraged and longing for release, and tempted to turn heartsick from the mirror, believers in view of the prize arise again and gird on the armor anew and toil on to gain it, while thousands fail through love of ease, indulgence and self-gratification and thousands gain because they persevere. Believers must be on guard every moment against temptations that debase mind and character and leave the soul like a wrecked vessel adrift. They gain a sense of sin's exceeding sinfulness by drawing nigh to God and beholding Jesus until changed into His image, resist the devil so God will draw nigh, keep the soul's barriers from giving way lest Satan come in like a flood and overwhelm with perplexities fatal to the soul, turn from the path of those who do wickedly and not enter it, and stand fully on God's side as co-workers to rescue souls from death and hide a multitude of sins by studying and practicing the Word.
Power to run comes by exercise in helping and blessing those in need, living and working for the good of others, for strength comes by exercise and action is the condition of life. Trying to keep Christian life by passively receiving blessings without doing anything for Christ is living by eating without working, which in spiritual as in natural things brings degeneration and decay, so that one who will not exercise God-given powers not only fails to grow up into Christ but loses the strength already had. The running and fighting are spiritual exercise, the training of mind and heart, even more essential than physical training. By this training of heart and mind spiritual strength is gained and weak points of character are made strong.
Through Christ, who conquered appetite, believers can overcome and gain physical, mental and moral strength for the struggle against Satan, a victory open to all who choose to engage. Christ's forty-day fast set the example and made overcoming on the point of appetite possible, calling for cleansing from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of God, leading to sitting with Him on His throne. This discipline gives physical and mental vigor and moral power by bringing appetites and passions under an enlightened conscience in obedience to the laws of health and life. John's mission illustrates the same purposeful running and fighting, for he had to control appetites and passions and govern all his powers to serve with physical, mental and spiritual strength and remain unmoved by surrounding circumstances.
The Christian warfare is a battle and a march requiring daily progress, learning self-control, and gaining new victories with Christ present in everything, with deliberate ambition and earnestness rather than indifference or passive waiting. Each person must gain personal spiritual experience and faithfully do a part to obtain everlasting life, vigilantly keeping precious graces and severely struggling to regain them if lost.
Faith and Cooperation with God
The purposeful race is lived in dependence on the power of God through faith, with Christ living within, by holding fast to God in daily communion against temptation and the strong undercurrent drawing back to indifference and sinful forgetfulness of God. Discipline depends on God's power and requires constant watchfulness over self, guarding appetites, passions and evil tendencies, with firm resistance against evil propensities and unruly appetites and passions. Believers are to cooperate with divine help and show greater zeal and self-denial in overcoming evil than worldly competitors show in pursuits that rely only on human strength.
Running with certainty and fighting with purpose means cooperating with God and with one another in harmoniously working out the divine plan rather than entering the work to manage it in one's own way, wisdom and strength. It means submitting self to die so that God works within and is evidenced without, receiving imparted moral powers and spiritual susceptibilities with defects of character supplied by His holy attributes. It requires using all the helps God has offered as saving agencies, praying, believing and obeying for salvation by putting on Christ in character purification, bringing every power into union with divine power and divine opportunities by diligently and conscientiously yoking up with Christ. Everyone must decide under which banner to fight, standing under the blood-stained banner of Christ instead of arraying nature against God, accepting Christ and cooperating with God in bringing appetites and passions under control to stand in God-given manhood and womanhood as conquerors. Complete self-control comes only in strength from Christ keeping the higher powers and attributes in rightful dominion over the lower, for the race is not run by confidence in one's own judgment or by living to please self and making duty soft and accommodating to natural character, but by faithfulness to duty under God's standard of perfection of character with a principle implanted by God.
Work done out of harmony with God and outside His arrangement accomplishes nothing, and effort apart from His planning and pleasure is empty labor like beating the air. To avoid beating the air workers must be laborers together with God in every sense, taught by Christ as the disciples were taught, with the grace of Christ as an abiding principle in the life forming the character after the divine model, giving increased moral power and deep religious experience. Christian effort becomes purposeful and effective when mental and spiritual powers are called into action, every help God offers is appreciated and used, and Christian duties are faithfully done, giving heavenly agencies channels through which they can work in probationary time to develop moral improvement under grace bestowed without limit, full and broad and deep. By contrast, unguided, self-willed effort is purposeless striving that wastes God-given capabilities, goes more often in the wrong direction than the right, brings years of waywardness, disappointment and shame, destroys influence, causes good to be evil spoken of, and leaves the soul soured, unsanctified, unholy and stained. It seeks liberty but brings bondage worse than slavery, misses the right way and reaps what is sown, leaving one wounded, bruised and dwarfed in religious character until exhausted and turning to the Lord humbled, penitent and confessing errors to place the will on the side of the will of God under the counsel of experience and of those whom the Lord teaches.
Running not uncertainly means holding holy faith and hope in expectation of winning the prize, pursuing the course with purposeful, steady, confident effort toward the goal rather than aimlessly or ineffectively. It means refusing to lose heart and courage and faith or to talk doubts and unbelief when things become entangled, but resisting discouragement and continuing to trust God, because those who hope and trust in God cannot fall. Running with certainty instead of uncertainty means knowing in whom belief is placed, being hopeful, trustful and patient, knowing how to wait as well as labor, drawing consolation even from apparent defeat, with caution in judgment and industry in a large way. It holds firm confidence that God is working, that affliction will give way to health and triumph in Christ's name through prayer heard through the Son, with the compassionate Saviour keeping His eye upon believers, touched with the feelings of their infirmities and strengthening and supporting them by His all-powerful arm, that patient waiting a little longer will see the salvation of God, and that all will come out right in the end with strength to rejoice in God as Deliverer.
Not fighting aimlessly means not dwelling in darkness and doubt with lost sight of the Saviour, but maintaining clear and practical views of the agencies connected in God's economy with working out salvation, keeping the Saviour in view and knowing that power is of God and not of self, so that out of weakness strength is gained. Success in God's work comes not from much activity but from well-directed effort that does not beat the air, by not trusting in self but through the grace of Christ taking God at His word, working humbly with Him, keeping self under strict control, preserving nerve and brain from overtaxation, and having religion as the controlling element of life so that the atmosphere of heaven is diffused in the home circle, in the church and everywhere. It means showing belief in God by subduing self-will by the Word of God rather than impulses or impressions, bringing every thought, word and action into submission to Christ, and fighting lawfully by controlling self when trying things arise, refusing retaliation and hasty words that would sacrifice peace, staying armed with It is written and close beside Jesus, doing duty faithfully under God's direction and looking unto Jesus to hold fast to the words of eternal life instead of making shipwreck of faith. The race and warfare must be carried on with certainty and aim and with real effect by working right with God in building and fitting character, putting away whatever weakens and enfeebles any organ of body or mind, and improving every capability by clinging to Christ, through whom believers receive living grace bringing healing power in body and mind and strengthening capability to glorify God and magnify His name. This gives great comfort and joy with lifelong assurance that God supplies strength for service, keeps the soul committed to Him as a faithful Creator, and calls believers to arise in His strength and build for time and eternity.
Even the great apostle lived in constant dread and trembling in view of weakness lest after preaching to others he himself should be a castaway. This proves no one has a right to feel self-confident, self-sufficient, exalted and boastful, for the moment that confidence begins there is danger of stumbling and falling in disgraceful failure. Believers are therefore to strive earnestly and train themselves for growth and nobility of character, while keeping their confidence firm to the end.
Application to Ministry and Life
Ministers are to heed the verse as counsel, warning and reproof in striving with certainty for the incorruptible reward rather than wasting effort. It is their privilege and duty to read it and put it into practice, running to obtain the prize and not lose the reward, fighting with aim, being temperate in all things and keeping the body under and bringing it into subjection lest after preaching to others they become castaways. Gospel work is not trifling but striving for the crown of eternal life, and ministry cannot benefit others if the worker's own life fails to follow the principles preached. Conduct, influence and refusal of self-gratification must show a living connection with God, with earthly desires guarded against, natural inclinations resisted, and habits, passions, words and practices brought under the Spirit's control in willing obedience through life.
God's work in ministry, pulpit, press and publishing must be earnest rather than ineffective striking of the air, requiring courage and clear discernment to distinguish truth from error and to heed faithful warnings. It requires men like Caleb who will do and dare, whose eyes are single to detect truth from error and whose ears are consecrated to catch words from the faithful Watcher. When done in this earnest way the Spirit from God's throne makes itself felt upon degenerate Christianity and a corrupt world ripe for judgment.
To strip for the race and harness for the battle means endeavoring to become efficient in various lines of sacred work and doing it conscientiously and well in the Lord's fear instead of placing it in unbelievers' hands. Those who so run and fight are blessed to become more intelligent, capable and proficient to stand where Christ desires and to go to distant countries if needed, finding highest pleasure not in amusements but in faithfully carrying God's work to the very end of time. Very few fit themselves for earnest running, and those chafing under lack of Conference help must not fasten guilt on others but learn meekness and lowliness in Christ's school, become forbearing, cease murmuring, and find rest in His easy yoke and light burdens.
Overcoming the enemy and gaining eternal life through faith and perfect obedience is not easy, and no one reaches the incorruptible inheritance without personal effort, constant striving, diligence, spiritual vigilance and earnest exertion. To look back is to grow dizzy and to let go is to perish, while relaxing diligence leads to selfishness and self-indulgence. Christians must no longer devote time and talents, brain, bone and muscle to selfish purposes and earthly employments, but accept God-given responsibilities, deny self, take up the cross, improve talents to fill a noble place in God's plans, with transformed character. Selfish thoughts wither nobler aspirations, and unused talents and lost opportunities leave men shriveled, dying and destitute of God's Spirit, while planting, building and unconscious influence testify that they are not watching for the Lord's appearing but saying His coming delays.
Stripping for the race now is urgent because the time of trouble is upon us, sustained by feeding on the bread from heaven and learning true godliness' simplicity at Jesus' feet, exchanging ponderous volumes of history and many other books for Christ's simple lessons. The call to strive for mastery applies to resisting inclination and selfish desires and gaining victory over self through patient, loving, cheerful living requiring constant help from God. It applies to sexual purity by restraining passions and refusing soul-and-body-destroying moral pollution whose continuance wrecks body and mind, benumbs moral sensibility until sin is no longer seen as sin, and turns man made in God's image into a gross beast, without which definite self-restraint one is unworthy of the Christian name.
In home life children must from infancy be taught to restrain appetite, submit wills to calm reason, control anger and passion, and eat to live rather than live to eat. Parents must teach by example and precept to be cheerful, obedient, helpful, prayerful and temperate, closing the soul to earthly things and opening it to heaven, putting away tobacco and liquor and all that tends to intemperance and living on fruits and grains rather than flesh meat. The race for the crown of life, for immortality, is toward a goal that must be reached and cannot be missed because this life is lived only once, run with patience, certainty and purpose, requiring temperance in all things even more than worldly racers keep bodily powers in best condition to succeed.
The verse is to be placed before students as Paul's illustration from races pursued with earnest purpose, meaning to run so as to obtain, temperate in all things for an incorruptible rather than corruptible crown. It applies to training youth to face life's trials with patience and courage and form habits that help attain the crown, through daily vigorous self-denial and sanctification. Believers must fight as wrestlers for the crown of life, resisting Satan grasping on every side, wrenching free and trampling him underfoot in sincerity and faith by coming to Jesus and abiding in Him for grace in the risen Saviour's strength, for if the crown is not won everything in this life and the future is lost.
Christian temperance must be placed on an elevated platform in family and church as a living working element reforming habits, dispositions and characters, since intemperance lies at the foundation of all evil. It calls fathers and mothers to abstain not only from intoxicating beverages but from tea, coffee and flesh meat, and calls for self-denial and victory over appetite when associating with unbelievers, eating temperately and only of food that will not confuse the mind. Such disciplined life gives influence by teaching through example rather than attacking wrong habits and pointing out faults, letting life witness to truth's sanctifying influence while keeping mental and physical powers so spiritual things can be discerned.
People in positions of influence and trust need to recognize harm of indulgence and exercise self-control in all things by true temperance and God's purpose for humanity. Running with certainty and striking with aim means striving for mastery by temperance covering rest from taxing labor, daily exercise such as cultivating a garden, refusal to overtax the body, and care of digestion by avoiding hurried eating, unwholesome food, overeating even wholesome food, and eating at all hours. Keeping the body in order honors life's holy trust, keeps the brain clear for divine enlightenment, makes labor strong and efficient, and caring for health in this way is as truly doing God's work as holding meetings.
Health is an indispensable instrument for doing work well, so people should learn and follow health's laws instead of spending strength recklessly. Religious instruction given to people with little interest in spiritual things may be like beating the air, effort without effect, requiring simple practical speech in words listeners understand. Likewise abrupt changes such as those at the Nashville publishing house are beating the air and not the Lord's purpose, for action should not be aimless or ineffective.
To run not uncertainly and to fight without beating the air means to press toward a definite goal with direct, effective effort rather than moving aimlessly or wasting strength. The picture is taken from the public foot-races and games pursued with earnest purpose, held up as the pattern for Christian service and work for the Lord. Christians run for an incorruptible crown of life, immortality and glory, in contrast to a perishable wreath, and unlike the earthly race where all run but one receives the prize, all may win immortal glory if they persevere, strive lawfully with the standard in view, and lay aside every weight. Running with certainty means striving for mastery by being temperate in all things and keeping the body under and bringing it into subjection, guarding appetite, passion and evil tendencies lest after preaching to others one becomes a castaway. It calls for earnest, vigorous effort against Satan, self and defects of character, straining every nerve, enduring discipline and self-denial, and running with patience while keeping the incorruptible prize in full view. This purposeful race is lived in dependence on God's power through faith, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of faith, cooperating with divine help with greater zeal than those who rely only on human strength.
Meaning of Race Imagery
To run without uncertainty and to fight without beating the air is to press toward a definite goal with direct and effective effort rather than aimlessly or wastefully. The runner does not run without a destination and the fighter does not strike at nothing, but both strive with clear aim, determined effort, purpose and self-control toward the imperishable reward of eternal life. That purposeful striving joins running and fighting to bringing the body under control, practicing self-denial and temperance, governing appetite and passion, and letting principle rather than appetite or fancy rule in order to remain fit for the race and faithful in service.
The running and fighting are drawn from the public games and foot-races pursued with earnest purpose in Paul's day, held up as the pattern for Christian service and work for the Lord. Like contestants, Christians must move toward the goal with certainty, steady and disciplined preparation, powers kept under control, and no unlawful advantage. The effort must not be uncertain, languid, lifeless, indolent or ease-seeking, but earnest, vigorous and exact, with every nerve and muscle strained and every word, thought and action strictly guarded. It calls for willing endurance of inconvenience, painful training, thorough temperance, severest discipline, self-denial and self-sacrifice, obedience to every injunction of the Word, careful study of the Lord's rules and faithful compliance with the conditions to the end, keeping in full view the incorruptible prize, the unfading crown of life, the eternal weight of glory and eternal life. Mind as well as body and muscles must be trained to put forth diligent, persevering effort along a rugged path filled with obstacles that can be surmounted only by patient toil, with preparation, earnestness and self-denying effort as much greater than those of aspirants for worldly honors as heavenly things are of more value than earthly.
Ancient racers for earthly honor made most extensive preparation, training for ten whole months and sometimes longer under different masters in physical exercises to give strength and vigor to the body. They restricted themselves to food that kept the body in the most healthful condition and to clothing that left every organ and muscle untrammeled. They placed every physical power under toilsome training, spared no toil, exercised every power, and ran at risk of life without knowing whether they would gain or lose only a perishable crown.
Pagan athletes submitted cheerfully to strict discipline, restraining appetite and denying weakening foods and luxuries to keep nerves, muscles, brain and body in full healthful tone. Yet they contended only for a perishable wreath of flowers and fading laurels, a mere perishable and corruptible crown. In that sense they fought as beating the air, while Christians contend for a glorious crown of immortality, incorruptible and eternal, and therefore must show the same temperance in all things with constant restraint over fleshly appetites and inclinations.
Certainty of Heavenly Prize
The prize set before the runner is imperishable, in contrast to a perishable earthly wreath. It is the crown of life, immortality, eternal life and glory, a life measuring with the life of God, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, and the race is to be run with clear aim and determined effort toward that goal rather than without destination or as striking at nothing. The struggle calls for self-denial and temperance that brings bodily appetites and passions under control and keeps the whole person fit, with the athlete's training illustrating the self-control needed to keep the body in its best condition. Unlike contestants disciplined for a temporary crown, Christians prepare diligently and do their best to become fit for their calling in a noble contest without selfishness, unfairness or underhanded work, exerting every spiritual strength, and no one who does his best will fail.
Unlike the earthly race where all run but only one receives the prize and the result is uncertain, the heavenly race is not run in uncertainty. All may win the prize of immortal glory, incorruptible eternal life, if they meet God's conditions and persevere faithfully, with plenty of room for all and not one failing who so runs. This certain running means running well according to the light shining upon each one, putting on Christian and heavenly graces, preserving physical vigor, balanced minds and healthy morals, exercising abilities kept in healthful condition by temperance in all things, curbing fleshly appetites and inclinations, denying hurtful indulgences, and keeping nerves, muscles, brain and body in full healthful tone. It means keeping the eyes fixed on the crown of immortality and keeping Christ's humble, self-denying life as pattern, for even the best earthly runner might lose while faithful effort in the heavenly race receives the prize.
To run so as to obtain is to run not at random but with the standard in view and striving to reach it, with single-hearted purpose and deliberate striving, laying aside every weight and pressing toward perfection. It is striving lawfully without unlawful advantage, seeking piety and moral excellence day by day in a continuing struggle toward Christ's ideal. This requires submitting to severe training, obeying the laws of God, keeping strict guard over appetite, and keeping physical, mental and moral powers in the most perfect condition to obtain God's approval and not fail the examination test and be found wanting. It also calls for taking time for physical exercise as a great benefit, with ministers doing daily work that exercises the muscles, lest after preaching to others they become castaways.
Certainty is found by looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of faith, by whom believers are changed from glory to glory as by the Spirit of the Lord, overcome, and hold fast their crown. God sets a more encouraging prospect and deals in a more noble, benevolent manner than the ancient games, for He does not require self-denial and strict discipline in spiritual things at the hazard of losing the race at last and missing the victor's crown, though ancient athletes spared no toil and ran at risk of life without knowing whether they would gain only a perishable crown. The runner keeps the eye fixed upon the mark of the prize and presses straight through in God's strength by looking to Jesus, who has marked the path through His own footsteps and whose followers share in its self-denial and suffering. Each person must fight the good fight of faith for himself to reach perfection of Christian character fitting for the society of the saints in light, moving firmly and steadily forward with unwavering purpose to win the prize of eternal life, and no one should hinder another from running.
Running with certainty means holding a heart fixed and trusting in God, unmoved by enemies, lying words, slander, deceit, darkness, opposition, trifling or scorn, knowing the running and labor are not in vain. The certain runner possesses a whole Saviour and rejoices in His rich fullness, longs to be more devoted and consecrated, finds this world too dark, and leaps with joy at the mansions Jesus prepares where He is. Profession alone is of little value unless the everlasting victory is kept in view and the life needed to share Christ's life and immortal inheritance is pursued, with the Holy Spirit daily making purposes fruitful and alive, without which the person falls back into the former way of life.
Temperance and Bodily Discipline
To run without uncertainty and to fight without wasting blows means to strive for mastery by being temperate in all things and by keeping the body under and bringing it into subjection. This discipline guards appetites, passions, evil tendencies and the body itself, keeping them in perfect control, because the prize sought is an incorruptible crown of immortality and a life measuring with the life of God, a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Without this rigid discipline over the body a person will be lost and faces perdition, even after preaching to others.
This temperance means letting principle rule instead of appetite or fancy in eating, drinking and dressing. It avoids unhealthful food and food of objectionable quality, overeating even of wholesome food, eating at all hours, and hurried eating. It calls for abstinence from all that tends to intemperance — intoxicating beverages, liquor, alcohol and stimulating drinks by total abstinence rather than moderate use, with abstinence also from tea, coffee, flesh meat and tobacco — living on fruits and grains and eating temperately and only of food that will not confuse the mind. This self-denial and victory over appetite is especially required when associating with unbelievers, not being swerved from right principles so that spiritual things can still be discerned.
It also requires taking time for physical exercise as a great benefit, with ministers to do every day some work that exercises the muscles. That includes rest from taxing labor, daily physical exercise such as cultivating a garden, refusal to overtax and abuse the body, and daily cheerful useful labor that secures well-balanced circulation. It joins a most healthful diet with strong willpower to control appetite and educate taste, since God will not insure health to those who indulge fancy and lack moral power over appetite.
Letting appetite govern and indulging pernicious habits clouds the moral sense and largely destroys power to discern sacred things, beclouding the mind so that sacred and common are leveled. It enfeebles brain and nerve power, weakens moral powers, strengthens animal propensities and cripples growth of the moral faculties, and eating too much or food of objectionable quality easily leads into dissipation and into foolish hurtful lusts drowning men in destruction and perdition. It brings impatience, faultfinding, envy, jealousy, hatred and malice bringing reproach on God's cause, while gluttony, selfishness and every injurious gratification in eating and drinking must be avoided. By contrast, temperance preserves physical, mental and moral power, keeps the body under control and the brain clear for divine enlightenment, gives vigor for efficient labor, clears spiritual perception to understand true godliness and discern imperfections of character, and fits believers with pure holy character to meet Christ in peace.
The verse places health reform on its right basis as part of present truth, as closely connected with it as the arm is connected with the body. It is to be taken hold of intelligently with individual accountability, educated intellect and aroused moral sensibility rather than made a test over articles of diet, and its requirement of self-control and purity applies equally to deacons and to elders. In the last days it belongs to walking in the light and presenting mind, soul, body and strength as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, to answer the purpose of creation.
Spiritual Warfare for Character
The contest is against Satan's temptations and the evil desires of the carnal nature, against self and internal foes and defects of character and a deceptive and desperately wicked heart seen in the mirror of how God views the self. Satan's eye watches intensely to stir the passions and make believers run uncertainly through weakness, impatience, complaining, instability, and swings from exaltation to despondency, while he grasps them on the right hand and left, before and behind, and seeks to take precious graces when they are unguarded. Winning requires not languid, lifeless, indolent ease-seeking but earnest, vigorous, exact effort, straining every nerve and muscle and strictly guarding every word, thought and action. It requires willing endurance of inconvenience, painful training, severest discipline, self-denial and self-sacrifice, and obedience to every injunction of the Word through careful study of the Lord's rules and faithful compliance with the conditions to the end. It requires laying aside every weight and the sin easily besetting, laying aside intemperance, selfishness and indulgence of appetite, and running with patience while keeping in full view the incorruptible prize, the crown of life that does not fade, the eternal weight of glory and immortal inheritance, surveyed, admired, dwelt upon and longed for until no sacrifice seems severe.
Overcoming demands persistent energy, patient industry, unwearied effort, untiring zeal, perseverance, courage and vigilance, working by personal effort in penitence and repentance through faith in Christ's grace to wash robes of character white in the blood of the Lamb. When weary, discouraged and longing for release, and tempted to turn heartsick from the mirror, believers in view of the prize arise again and gird on the armor anew and toil on to gain it, while thousands fail through love of ease, indulgence and self-gratification and thousands gain because they persevere. Believers must be on guard every moment against temptations that debase mind and character and leave the soul like a wrecked vessel adrift. They gain a sense of sin's exceeding sinfulness by drawing nigh to God and beholding Jesus until changed into His image, resist the devil so God will draw nigh, keep the soul's barriers from giving way lest Satan come in like a flood and overwhelm with perplexities fatal to the soul, turn from the path of those who do wickedly and not enter it, and stand fully on God's side as co-workers to rescue souls from death and hide a multitude of sins by studying and practicing the Word.
Power to run comes by exercise in helping and blessing those in need, living and working for the good of others, for strength comes by exercise and action is the condition of life. Trying to keep Christian life by passively receiving blessings without doing anything for Christ is living by eating without working, which in spiritual as in natural things brings degeneration and decay, so that one who will not exercise God-given powers not only fails to grow up into Christ but loses the strength already had. The running and fighting are spiritual exercise, the training of mind and heart, even more essential than physical training. By this training of heart and mind spiritual strength is gained and weak points of character are made strong.
Through Christ, who conquered appetite, believers can overcome and gain physical, mental and moral strength for the struggle against Satan, a victory open to all who choose to engage. Christ's forty-day fast set the example and made overcoming on the point of appetite possible, calling for cleansing from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfecting holiness in the fear of God, leading to sitting with Him on His throne. This discipline gives physical and mental vigor and moral power by bringing appetites and passions under an enlightened conscience in obedience to the laws of health and life. John's mission illustrates the same purposeful running and fighting, for he had to control appetites and passions and govern all his powers to serve with physical, mental and spiritual strength and remain unmoved by surrounding circumstances.
The Christian warfare is a battle and a march requiring daily progress, learning self-control, and gaining new victories with Christ present in everything, with deliberate ambition and earnestness rather than indifference or passive waiting. Each person must gain personal spiritual experience and faithfully do a part to obtain everlasting life, vigilantly keeping precious graces and severely struggling to regain them if lost.
Faith and Cooperation with God
The purposeful race is lived in dependence on the power of God through faith, with Christ living within, by holding fast to God in daily communion against temptation and the strong undercurrent drawing back to indifference and sinful forgetfulness of God. Discipline depends on God's power and requires constant watchfulness over self, guarding appetites, passions and evil tendencies, with firm resistance against evil propensities and unruly appetites and passions. Believers are to cooperate with divine help and show greater zeal and self-denial in overcoming evil than worldly competitors show in pursuits that rely only on human strength.
Running with certainty and fighting with purpose means cooperating with God and with one another in harmoniously working out the divine plan rather than entering the work to manage it in one's own way, wisdom and strength. It means submitting self to die so that God works within and is evidenced without, receiving imparted moral powers and spiritual susceptibilities with defects of character supplied by His holy attributes. It requires using all the helps God has offered as saving agencies, praying, believing and obeying for salvation by putting on Christ in character purification, bringing every power into union with divine power and divine opportunities by diligently and conscientiously yoking up with Christ. Everyone must decide under which banner to fight, standing under the blood-stained banner of Christ instead of arraying nature against God, accepting Christ and cooperating with God in bringing appetites and passions under control to stand in God-given manhood and womanhood as conquerors. Complete self-control comes only in strength from Christ keeping the higher powers and attributes in rightful dominion over the lower, for the race is not run by confidence in one's own judgment or by living to please self and making duty soft and accommodating to natural character, but by faithfulness to duty under God's standard of perfection of character with a principle implanted by God.
Work done out of harmony with God and outside His arrangement accomplishes nothing, and effort apart from His planning and pleasure is empty labor like beating the air. To avoid beating the air workers must be laborers together with God in every sense, taught by Christ as the disciples were taught, with the grace of Christ as an abiding principle in the life forming the character after the divine model, giving increased moral power and deep religious experience. Christian effort becomes purposeful and effective when mental and spiritual powers are called into action, every help God offers is appreciated and used, and Christian duties are faithfully done, giving heavenly agencies channels through which they can work in probationary time to develop moral improvement under grace bestowed without limit, full and broad and deep. By contrast, unguided, self-willed effort is purposeless striving that wastes God-given capabilities, goes more often in the wrong direction than the right, brings years of waywardness, disappointment and shame, destroys influence, causes good to be evil spoken of, and leaves the soul soured, unsanctified, unholy and stained. It seeks liberty but brings bondage worse than slavery, misses the right way and reaps what is sown, leaving one wounded, bruised and dwarfed in religious character until exhausted and turning to the Lord humbled, penitent and confessing errors to place the will on the side of the will of God under the counsel of experience and of those whom the Lord teaches.
Running not uncertainly means holding holy faith and hope in expectation of winning the prize, pursuing the course with purposeful, steady, confident effort toward the goal rather than aimlessly or ineffectively. It means refusing to lose heart and courage and faith or to talk doubts and unbelief when things become entangled, but resisting discouragement and continuing to trust God, because those who hope and trust in God cannot fall. Running with certainty instead of uncertainty means knowing in whom belief is placed, being hopeful, trustful and patient, knowing how to wait as well as labor, drawing consolation even from apparent defeat, with caution in judgment and industry in a large way. It holds firm confidence that God is working, that affliction will give way to health and triumph in Christ's name through prayer heard through the Son, with the compassionate Saviour keeping His eye upon believers, touched with the feelings of their infirmities and strengthening and supporting them by His all-powerful arm, that patient waiting a little longer will see the salvation of God, and that all will come out right in the end with strength to rejoice in God as Deliverer.
Not fighting aimlessly means not dwelling in darkness and doubt with lost sight of the Saviour, but maintaining clear and practical views of the agencies connected in God's economy with working out salvation, keeping the Saviour in view and knowing that power is of God and not of self, so that out of weakness strength is gained. Success in God's work comes not from much activity but from well-directed effort that does not beat the air, by not trusting in self but through the grace of Christ taking God at His word, working humbly with Him, keeping self under strict control, preserving nerve and brain from overtaxation, and having religion as the controlling element of life so that the atmosphere of heaven is diffused in the home circle, in the church and everywhere. It means showing belief in God by subduing self-will by the Word of God rather than impulses or impressions, bringing every thought, word and action into submission to Christ, and fighting lawfully by controlling self when trying things arise, refusing retaliation and hasty words that would sacrifice peace, staying armed with It is written and close beside Jesus, doing duty faithfully under God's direction and looking unto Jesus to hold fast to the words of eternal life instead of making shipwreck of faith. The race and warfare must be carried on with certainty and aim and with real effect by working right with God in building and fitting character, putting away whatever weakens and enfeebles any organ of body or mind, and improving every capability by clinging to Christ, through whom believers receive living grace bringing healing power in body and mind and strengthening capability to glorify God and magnify His name. This gives great comfort and joy with lifelong assurance that God supplies strength for service, keeps the soul committed to Him as a faithful Creator, and calls believers to arise in His strength and build for time and eternity.
Even the great apostle lived in constant dread and trembling in view of weakness lest after preaching to others he himself should be a castaway. This proves no one has a right to feel self-confident, self-sufficient, exalted and boastful, for the moment that confidence begins there is danger of stumbling and falling in disgraceful failure. Believers are therefore to strive earnestly and train themselves for growth and nobility of character, while keeping their confidence firm to the end.
Application to Ministry and Life
Ministers are to heed the verse as counsel, warning and reproof in striving with certainty for the incorruptible reward rather than wasting effort. It is their privilege and duty to read it and put it into practice, running to obtain the prize and not lose the reward, fighting with aim, being temperate in all things and keeping the body under and bringing it into subjection lest after preaching to others they become castaways. Gospel work is not trifling but striving for the crown of eternal life, and ministry cannot benefit others if the worker's own life fails to follow the principles preached. Conduct, influence and refusal of self-gratification must show a living connection with God, with earthly desires guarded against, natural inclinations resisted, and habits, passions, words and practices brought under the Spirit's control in willing obedience through life.
God's work in ministry, pulpit, press and publishing must be earnest rather than ineffective striking of the air, requiring courage and clear discernment to distinguish truth from error and to heed faithful warnings. It requires men like Caleb who will do and dare, whose eyes are single to detect truth from error and whose ears are consecrated to catch words from the faithful Watcher. When done in this earnest way the Spirit from God's throne makes itself felt upon degenerate Christianity and a corrupt world ripe for judgment.
To strip for the race and harness for the battle means endeavoring to become efficient in various lines of sacred work and doing it conscientiously and well in the Lord's fear instead of placing it in unbelievers' hands. Those who so run and fight are blessed to become more intelligent, capable and proficient to stand where Christ desires and to go to distant countries if needed, finding highest pleasure not in amusements but in faithfully carrying God's work to the very end of time. Very few fit themselves for earnest running, and those chafing under lack of Conference help must not fasten guilt on others but learn meekness and lowliness in Christ's school, become forbearing, cease murmuring, and find rest in His easy yoke and light burdens.
Overcoming the enemy and gaining eternal life through faith and perfect obedience is not easy, and no one reaches the incorruptible inheritance without personal effort, constant striving, diligence, spiritual vigilance and earnest exertion. To look back is to grow dizzy and to let go is to perish, while relaxing diligence leads to selfishness and self-indulgence. Christians must no longer devote time and talents, brain, bone and muscle to selfish purposes and earthly employments, but accept God-given responsibilities, deny self, take up the cross, improve talents to fill a noble place in God's plans, with transformed character. Selfish thoughts wither nobler aspirations, and unused talents and lost opportunities leave men shriveled, dying and destitute of God's Spirit, while planting, building and unconscious influence testify that they are not watching for the Lord's appearing but saying His coming delays.
Stripping for the race now is urgent because the time of trouble is upon us, sustained by feeding on the bread from heaven and learning true godliness' simplicity at Jesus' feet, exchanging ponderous volumes of history and many other books for Christ's simple lessons. The call to strive for mastery applies to resisting inclination and selfish desires and gaining victory over self through patient, loving, cheerful living requiring constant help from God. It applies to sexual purity by restraining passions and refusing soul-and-body-destroying moral pollution whose continuance wrecks body and mind, benumbs moral sensibility until sin is no longer seen as sin, and turns man made in God's image into a gross beast, without which definite self-restraint one is unworthy of the Christian name.
In home life children must from infancy be taught to restrain appetite, submit wills to calm reason, control anger and passion, and eat to live rather than live to eat. Parents must teach by example and precept to be cheerful, obedient, helpful, prayerful and temperate, closing the soul to earthly things and opening it to heaven, putting away tobacco and liquor and all that tends to intemperance and living on fruits and grains rather than flesh meat. The race for the crown of life, for immortality, is toward a goal that must be reached and cannot be missed because this life is lived only once, run with patience, certainty and purpose, requiring temperance in all things even more than worldly racers keep bodily powers in best condition to succeed.
The verse is to be placed before students as Paul's illustration from races pursued with earnest purpose, meaning to run so as to obtain, temperate in all things for an incorruptible rather than corruptible crown. It applies to training youth to face life's trials with patience and courage and form habits that help attain the crown, through daily vigorous self-denial and sanctification. Believers must fight as wrestlers for the crown of life, resisting Satan grasping on every side, wrenching free and trampling him underfoot in sincerity and faith by coming to Jesus and abiding in Him for grace in the risen Saviour's strength, for if the crown is not won everything in this life and the future is lost.
Christian temperance must be placed on an elevated platform in family and church as a living working element reforming habits, dispositions and characters, since intemperance lies at the foundation of all evil. It calls fathers and mothers to abstain not only from intoxicating beverages but from tea, coffee and flesh meat, and calls for self-denial and victory over appetite when associating with unbelievers, eating temperately and only of food that will not confuse the mind. Such disciplined life gives influence by teaching through example rather than attacking wrong habits and pointing out faults, letting life witness to truth's sanctifying influence while keeping mental and physical powers so spiritual things can be discerned.
People in positions of influence and trust need to recognize harm of indulgence and exercise self-control in all things by true temperance and God's purpose for humanity. Running with certainty and striking with aim means striving for mastery by temperance covering rest from taxing labor, daily exercise such as cultivating a garden, refusal to overtax the body, and care of digestion by avoiding hurried eating, unwholesome food, overeating even wholesome food, and eating at all hours. Keeping the body in order honors life's holy trust, keeps the brain clear for divine enlightenment, makes labor strong and efficient, and caring for health in this way is as truly doing God's work as holding meetings.
Health is an indispensable instrument for doing work well, so people should learn and follow health's laws instead of spending strength recklessly. Religious instruction given to people with little interest in spiritual things may be like beating the air, effort without effect, requiring simple practical speech in words listeners understand. Likewise abrupt changes such as those at the Nashville publishing house are beating the air and not the Lord's purpose, for action should not be aimless or ineffective.