life together: run for the prize

1 corinthians 9:24-27

1 Cor. 9:24-2724 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.

2 Tim. 4:7-8

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day-- and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearing.

Rev. 2:10

“Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown.”

Phil. 2:12

Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling,

for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

1 Cor. 15:10

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect.

No, I worked harder than all of them-- yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

Everyone must be active in the process of theirsalvation and transformation to Christlikeness. This is an unescapable fact. But the initiative inthe process is always God’s, and we would donothing without his initiative…The issue nowconcerns what we will do. The idea that we cando nothing is an unfortunate confusion, and thosewho sponsor it never practice it, thank goodness.

Dallas Willard, Renovation of the Heart, p. 82.