The eight years I spent in competitive running demanded discipline and sacrifice. Friends wanted to hang out, I had to train. Unhealthy foods calling to me were ignored. “Early to bed and early to rise” was the motto overriding the desire to either stay up or sleep in. When an athlete is in full training mode, unless significantly gifted, discipline and sacrifice are essential components for any success.
Looking back on my running career, I feel like discipline and sacrifice were often short changed. With the amount of miles I was running combined with a high rate of metabolism, I could eat almost anything I wanted with very little consequences. I went to bed early, not because I rose early to run, but because I liked going to bed early. Since running was my identity, I never really saw myself giving anything up. I was sufficiently gifted to enjoy enough success to coast through the off seasons. Overall, I loved running. I had friends who were runners. Whatever sacrifices I was making seemed minimal compared to the gains of high school and college competition. In hindsight I do not believe I comprehended the sacrifice of a truly disciplined life. Thus, I was never genuinely disciplined.
Paul knew what it meant to keep the careless desires at bay, and so did the Corinthians. Paul used the athletic image of a runner running to win the prize and a boxer who does more than simply shadow box for victory (1 Cor. 9:24-27). Since Corinth hosted the Olympic-type events called the Isthmian Games, the church was well versed in the dedicated sacrifice of the athlete. Successful athletes embrace training that cost them something in life (v. 27) in order to achieve something greater. They controlled their lives, instead of their lives controlling them.
Paul’s use of the athletic imagery (1 Cor. 9:24-27) appears in the middle section of three chapters dedicated to addressing whether or not meat sacrificed to idols should be eaten by Christians (1 Cor. 8-10). By chapter 8’s ending Paul stated that if eating such meat causes a brother/sister to sin, then one should avoid eating the meat altogether (8:13). Turning the page to chapter nine Paul anticipates the pushback from the church as they demand their rights to eat the food. So Paul, dealing with rights, makes two strong points. First, he models giving up rights. He not only elects for a single life, but he refuses pay from the Corinthians for his preaching (9:3-6). Secondly, and to his point, giving up rights is an expression of the disciplined life as saying “no” manifests itself as a sacrifice. The athlete in training undergoes a strict regiment of diet, exercise, and sleep. In order to say “yes” to training he/she must say “no” to certain foods, to skipping workouts, and to sleep deprivation. Regardless of the pull to break training, the athlete leans into the power of a sacrificial discipline by saying “no.” In order to maintain control and discipline in his/her own life the athlete must say “no.”
I never quite understood this as a high school and college athlete. I was young and full of energy with a high metabolism. Much of that has changed. As I am staring down at the sixty year marker, not long ago, I experienced a health scare which forced me to alter my diet. I made changes that involved saying “no.” No to sweetened drinks and processed foods, while red meat and fried foods were far from my first choices. Sugar and salt intake were scaled back as I needed to drop significant weight. The disciplined life came into clear focus the day I craved a Sonic burger. I usually don’t crave Sonic burgers, but I did early on in this transition. I discovered that if I broke my fast and had the burger (with tater tots, yummm) I would satisfy my craving, but the hope of losing the weight and ruining my long term health were jeopardized. I came to realize that sometimes one just has to say “no” so that one remains in control and not being controlled by certain cravings. Even now, living with a clean bill of health, I’m pressed with the power that one must occasionally say “no.” Sometimes I succeed, other times I fail.
Such a sacrificial disciplined life stretches into our spiritual well-being. In a world that tells us to spend money and to embrace consumerism, sometimes acting in “no” helps reinforces contentment without forcing us into (more) debt. At a time when we’re bombarded by electronics and the need to mindlessly look at our phones, saying “no” frees us from all the negative social media platforms. In a culture driven by fast foods saying “no” might lead to a healthier lifestyle. Might. With an overly sexually stimulated society, saying “no” secures us from a deadly addiction with devastating consequences – not only to ourselves, but also to those we love the most. And for those who pride themselves on their own self-control, such self-control may simply be another cloak actually controlling you.
During the 1980’s FLOTUS Nancy Reagan initiated an anti-drug campaign called, “Just Say No.” Ultimately, the program failed because the producers underestimated the complexities of America’s drug problem (remember, the opioid crisis was still another generation away). The problem was individualized instead of empowering society. By treating the symptom of fighting peer pressure in the short term, they failed to provide concrete tools to resist drug use over the long haul.
What Paul is advocating is something far more encompassing than a political or social war on drugs. The discipline to say “no” is different in 1 Corinthians 9 than the “no” combating drugs. Paul is protecting the church from the arrogant as his community plea outweighs the individual rights. His message may be simplified by this axiom: you control it so that it does not control you.
I remember watching Rikki-Tikki-Tavi as a child and failing to understand why the mongoose refused the temptation to eat the entire banana. With danger lurking, the hero had to stay fit and sharp. Something was stalking, preying in the garden and far more pressing than Rikki’s personal desire and appetite. He had to stay in control so that the enemy would not gain control over him.
Thus, Paul argues, by saying “no,” we buffet our bodies over buffeting our bodies so that we remain in control so that it does not control us.
Solo Deo Glor
(i.e., Only God Is Glorified!)