Proximate Context
This thesis becomes most convincing as we lean in to consider the context more closely. Again, the verse being considered and exposited is: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (1 Corinthians 9.27.) The verse right before it is: “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.” This illustration to describe the apostle’s evangelistic work ethic highlights his goal of persevering until the end lest glory be not entered into at last. The runner runs that he may obtain the prize. But if he runs unworthily, he is disqualified, rejected, reprobate, cast away. Not only does he not win the prize, regardless of what that is, but he does not cross the finish line, or at least, if he does cross, it is of no account—he is disqualified. That is the natural trend of this figure of speech that is used. Matthew Poole sees it my way; John Gill does not. Two other commentators who agree with me are A. C. Gaebelein, and George Eldon Ladd in A Theology of the New Testament. Concerning the passage in question, Ladd says this, “The crown he hopes to win at the end of the race is the crown of life—the eschatological gift of God.” On the verse in particular he says, “It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that he is thinking of the possible failure to reach the goal of the Christian life.” Ladd’s deduction is identical to the fruit of my exposition, which I harvested before resorting to commentaries, lending credibility to my case. But notice the hesitancy in those words of his, “It is difficult to avoid the conclusion.” It sounds like he would rather not terminate as he did. Why shrink from the obvious? Why be tempted to resist an uncomfortable conclusion? While studying Scripture, the student should invariably be in utrumque paratus (ready for both of two possibilities.) He should be ready to have his preconceived notion confirmed, but just as ready to have it exploded. And he should receive any new truth without reservation or regret. To not be of this ready mind is to be sinfully resistant, and to be partially open to delusion. We may be tempted to draw back from the common sense interpretation of this text because we are not well equipped to handle what the apostle says. But it is not up to us to soften the blow of Scripture. We do not need to be scared of the full force of what is professed in 1 Corinthians 9.27: sanctification and industry, or else. A commentator might be afraid of the conclusion because he does not know how it might be squared with the orthodox belief that a Christian cannot become an infidel. Or he might be tempted to resist the conclusion because strict mortification is often confused with the heresies of asceticism and penance. But mortification does not mean whipping yourself on the back with knotted ropes. A method of mortification might be to exercise ‘bowels of mercies, kindness, meekness,’ and so on, in order to avoid ‘fornication, evil concupiscence,’ and so on (Colossians 3.5.) It is mortifying to serve. We are prone to explain away the looming castaway scare of 1 Corinthians 9.27 because we do not know how to take it in light of the doctrine that a Christian will persevere until the end and be saved at last. But see the matter in light of the apostle’s frame of mind. He trembles because he has in mind thoughts like, “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation” (James 3.1.) The apostle Paul surely thought along this line, regardless of his familiarity or not with these words of James. Indeed, the verse reminds us of his fear of being cast away. He must have had the words of Jesus in his mind as he went about to discharge his ministry: “Great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9.16.) And so he reasons that the least hint of impropriety or sloth might mean that he will suffer to a bad end, not a good one. Part of our suffering is to suffer the death of ourselves, as it were, which is to keep under the body, lest we should be cast away. Keeping under the body; that is to say, under control and subdued, is the negative half of sanctification, which the Bible calls, mortification. We should labor to see into the mind of the apostle a little. His musing, I doubt not, went something like this: “If I don’t maintain the highest standard, I will be a castaway. I will discover that the preacher who won souls, lost his own, and that Saul never became Paul, after all. I will have stayed a Pharisee, just like I was when consenting to the death of Stephen. It will then be true that he who labored the most was the chief of sinners but never an apostle, much less a notable one; it will be said that the light from the sky was not the Lord Jesus, only superstition; and the apostles will be vindicated for avoiding me in the beginning like they did. If I do not persevere, this will be my epitaph.” We have something akin to this mindset going on in 9.23-27 of his first epistle to the Corinthians. As we come to grips with the context and think about what this apostle’s frame of mind must have been, we come face to face with the fact that a professing Christian with a less than mortified lifestyle may be cast away in the end. The apostle’s psychology is not just an experience of doubt, but a doctrine also. The Holy Spirit ministers the truth through the apostle’s experience; and, in light of supporting verses, the apostle’s experience is also a doctrine. The doctrine is that perseverance is prosecuted from a state of grace, which state does not preclude a fear of perdition. Who is saved by Christ? Only the trembling saint who perseveres. That is the experience, the doctrine, and the outcome.
Immediately preceding the passage and verse is Saint Paul’s defense of his apostleship. He compares his single-minded conduct in the pursuit of souls to that of an athlete competing as if his life depends on it. And so the verse, “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” The evangelist must be all things to all people: ‘to them that are without law, as without law,’ &c. (verse 21.) Like the boxer who observes a strict diet and narrow parameters just before the fight, he must be in shape to meet every circumstance. He is no athlete who will not do this to win; he is no evangelist who will not be mortified for the sake of winning souls. A man is bound to make a mistake or be disqualified from his competition if he is not in tip-top form. We that are not apostles, nor missionaries, ought nevertheless to question ourselves as the apostle did, and be self-critical. The Holy Ghost will convince us of sin; we need to search ourselves, and not quench. The devil will accuse us of sin; we need to answer with Scripture, and make our behavior prop our profession to make our calling known. Paul the apostle lived up to his calling perhaps more than any other apostle did his own. But his position and experience were that salvation itself should not be doubtlessly presumed even when a high measure of obedience to the Lord can be demonstrated; and he felt this in the bowels of his being. What follows 1 Corinthians 9.27 is an example from history of what the apostle stated could be his own case if he did not keep under his body.
“Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as some of them; as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Corinthians 10.1-12.)
Rather than be ‘temperate in all things’ to obtain the crown (9.25), the Old Testament children of Israel committed idolatry, lusted, murmured, and fornicated, and ‘were overthrown in the wilderness’ (10.5.) A striking show of this intemperance was their eating of quails in Numbers 11. They stuffed that meat into their mouths without any more thought of giving thanks than the average North American as he eats his fries on his way from the counter to his seat at McDonald’s. The Israelites could use the excuse of being sick of eating manna; we have no excuse. Thoughtless unrestraint is the mark of unbelief. This kind of eating is savage gluttony. All eyes are on the blessing, and the blessing is not even considered a blessing. If it were, the blessed God would be acknowledged as the provider. “All our fathers were under the cloud…all baptized unto Moses…did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink…But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness” (1 Corinthians 10.1-5, emphasis added.) Is this not the meaning of tasting of the heavenly gift and of partaking of the Holy Ghost and then falling away nevertheless? (Hebrews 6.4.) All partook of the same religion, it seems, but many were overthrown. “We see that they could not enter in because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3.19.) A contemporary example of tasting of the heavenly gift and partaking of the Holy Ghost might be the experiencing of divine peace when the Holy Ghost settles down on a prayer group or Bible study. We can be under this blessed cloud without being Christians. There is a kind of eating and drinking that is not true communion. There is a baptism that is not spiritual, but ritual only. Intemperance may lead to stolid unbelief in the end. Those who were overthrown were the intemperate ones; they did not enter the Promised Land. Why should we not be castaways through intemperance? The apostle learned from history that many who think they will cross into heaven will not go there; so he kept under his body; and this doctrine of godly mortification is what he taught. “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life” is not an ultimatum that is limited to the members of the church in Smyrna. We might not have to put our faith on display before executioners. But we are called to live faithfully until we die.
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