August 30

“I therefore so run, as not uncertainly.” 1 Corinthians 9:26

The Lord who is the Creator of our bodies has endowed them with many legitimate impulses; but remember, he created the body to be our servant and not our master. Until that is established, we cannot serve him as we ought. Of those who enter the race, Paul warns us, not all are prizewinners. He stresses, therefore, the importance of self-discipline on the part of each competitor.

If in ordinary, everyday life the Christian worker’s body has not been taught to know and obey its master, how can it be expected to respond to the extraordinary demands he will sometimes have to make upon it for the sake of the work of God? Paul is no ascetic. He does not teach, as some did, that the body is an encumbrance. On the contrary, he declares that the believer’s body is a dwelling-place of the Holy Spirit. Yet as a messenger of the gospel, he is certain of the value of training and self-discipline if the goal is to be attained.