1 Corinthians Chapter 9

If You’re Not Self Disciplined With Your Faith, Beware Lest You Fail.

Paul, as a preacher of the Gospel, has the full rights of being paid in his services. He says everyone else with a job receive some type of compensation. So should those who preach the Gospel. God commanded that those who preach the Gospel should receive their living from the Gospel.

Paul is adamant about his persistence in preaching Jesus because he wants people to get saved. He wants to become like every culture so as to connect with that culture and so that what he says is more apt to be listened to. He becomes like others so that he might share Jesus but he does not compromise his faith walk. Do we compromise our faith walk when around non-believers?

Paul says serving the Lord is like running a race. It takes a lot of self-discipline. To run a race you go into strict training. You hope to get a reward at the end. You don’t want to be disqualified. Serving the Lord takes self-discipline. There will be distractions, temptations, and obstacles that could result in getting our focus off from serving and sharing Christ. You don’t want to start out strong with your faith only to not finish the race because the world became so attractive to us. We don’t want to forfeit what God has to offer and become disqualified. No! Paul said to treat our bodies as if it is a slave and push it hard so as to stay focused on the Lord and keep reaching and keep serving the Lord. I want to receive the prize that awaits those in heaven who persevered and endured to the end (Matthew 10:22).

How are you doing with your faith walk? Are you still in the race? Or has distractions, temptations, and or obstacles stopped you? Keep running!