Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! [1 Corinthians 9.24]
It is no surprise that everyone gets a participation prize these days.
God is a bit of a capitalist I think. His idea is that if you don't work, you don't eat. And, in the scripture above, the prize goes to the race winner and no one else. Otherwise, how is it really a prize if everyone gets rewarded? What is winning if it is not actually "winning?"
Somehow this translates to me that it is insufficient to "run the race" of following Christ with no aspiration of excelling. In other words, Christians do not have the choice to make no effort fulfilling the commission Jesus left us with. There is no option to be satisfied that others do the work of ministry while we just coast in. That mindset totally misses the point.
The teaching here is clear: run to win.
Father, help me to actively engage myself in the work of ministry as Jesus described it.
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