Discipline in the Christian Race: Guarding Heart and Body

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. ²⁵ Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. ²⁶ Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. ²⁷ No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (NIV)

Our bodies can be the source of temptation. We are tempted in our bodies by sexual sin. We are tempted in our bodies due to fatigue, hunger, or physical pain. We must let the Holy Spirit help us discipline our bodies, but also discipline our intellect and emotions when they may tempt us. This is our heart, above all, we are to be guarding heart and body.

The Apostle Paul is comparing the Christian journey to a race. We begin the race when we accept Christ as Lord, but then Paul recognizes that the enemy will come against us to destroy our faith. Paul is calling himself and us to discipline ourselves, knowing how great an effort Satan puts forth to pull us away from God forever.

These are things we know, but when we remember that Paul’s spiritual maturity and knowledge were of the highest level. After all, he wrote most of the New Testament. Yet, even he realizes that if he doesn’t discipline his mind and body, he could be disqualified from the prize of a crown that lasts forever in Heaven.

Unless we establish the spiritual disciplines of daily prayer, scriptural meditation, corporate worship, serving the forgotten, and teaching one another, our hearts remain vulnerable. We need consistent and regular help from the Holy Spirit so that we, as Paul says, will not be disqualified from the prize. We all sin, but if we lose our daily spiritual practices, we slowly begin to accept our sin, then we come to a place of justifying our sin, and finally to a place of choosing sin as we reject God. Our daily prayer, Bible readings, and meditations keep us far from that place. Then, when we sin, we repent and stay right with the Lord.

Prayer: Lord, keep my ears open to Your voice calling me daily into Your presence that I might guard my heart and resist the devil. Amen.