All Things For the Gospel

Another passage we must consider is 1 Corinthians 9:23-27.  When you consider this familiar passage with an open mind, what it says will stop you dead in your tracks, demanding carefull scrutiny.  Paul sums up the context which frames these verses when he says, “I do all things for the sake of the gospel, that I may become a fellow-partaker of it” (verse 23).  Note very carefully the reason he does all things for the gospel.  It is not in order to keep on being an apostle.  Paul is not concerned that God might take his ministry from him.  Some attempt to avoid the clear teaching of this passage by claiming that the disqualification Paul refers to (in verse 27) is concerned only with his status as a divinely-appointed apostle commissioned by God to proclaim the gospel.  But what he actually writes is that he does all things for the gospel so that other people might be saved, and that he himself might share with them in its blessings.  Does he really mean what he says here?  That his own participation and enjoyment of eternal life is contingent in some way on his faithful proclamation of the gospel?  We must deal honestly with such provocative passages, for they abound in Scripture.  Paul then uses the familiar illustrations of a race and a boxing match.  The prize that the believer is running to win is “imperishable.”  The reference is clearly to eternal salvation.  Paul preaches the gospel to save others (verse 22), and he wants to share the same blessing (verse 23).  The adversary in the boxing match is his own body, and more particulalrly the sinful desires that express themselves through our bodies.  Paul fights to master every sinful desire, that he might not be disqualified from running the race, that is, from attaining eternal life.  With that statement, he seems to be stepping over the line into salvation by works again!

God must have good reasons for letting these verses stand in a way that appears to invite controversy.  A sincere believer cannot fail to attain salvation.  Yet Paul writes as if his salvation would be in peril if he didn’t continue holding to the gospel by suppressing indwelling sin.  So why are these warnings so common in the Bible?  Part of the answer is that God prevents genuine Christians from being disqualified by giving them grace to heed these warnings.