confine the statement to the Corinthians. To be a partaker of the gospel, means, of course, to be a partaker of its bene- fits ; the subject of the redemption which it announces. It is necessary to live for the gospel, in order to be a partaker of the gospel.
24. Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize ? So run, that ye may obtain.
An exhortation to self-denial and exertion, clothed in fig- urative language. As the exhortation is addressed principally to the Gentile converts, the imagery used is derived from the public games with which they were so familiar. These games, the Olympian and Isthmian, the latter celebrated every third summer in the neighbourhood of Corinth, were the occasions for the concourse of the people from all parts of Greece. The contests in them excited the greatest emulation in all classes of the inhabitants. Even the Roman emperors did not refuse to enter the lists. To be a victor was to be immortalized with such immortality as the breath of man can give. To Greeks, therefore, no allusions could be more intelligible, or more efiective, than those to these institutions, which have nothing to answer to them in modern times.
Know ye not. He took for granted they were familiar with the rules of the games to which he referred. That those running in a raee / literally in the stadium or circus in which the games were celebrated, so called because it was a stadium (a little more than two hundred yards) in length. All run^ hut one obtains the prize. It was not enough to start in this race ; it was not enough to persevere almost to the end ; it was necessary to outrun all competitors and be first at the goal. But one took the prize. So run that ye may obtain. That is, run as that one runs, in order that ye may obtain. The greatest self-denial in preparation, and the greatest efibrt in the contest, were necessary to success. In the Christian race there are many victors ; but the point of the exhortation is, that all should run as the one victor ran in the Grecian games.
25. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they (do it) to obtain a corruptible crown ; but we an incorruptible.