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Verse: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. —1 Corinthians 9:25, NIV
In June 1998, I visited the Greek cities of Athens, Corinth, and Olympia. Close to the latter city, I saw the complex of the ancient Olympic Games, including the ruins of the Temple of Olympian Zeus and the old stadium.
The first recorded Olympiad was held in 776 BC, and it occurred every four years during a religious festival honoring Zeus, the greatest of all Greek gods.
The Olympic Games became the most important of all the athletic contests in the ancient world. But they were held for the last time in AD 393, after which the Roman emperor Theodosius I forbade their celebrations.
Fifteen centuries later, on April 6, 1896, the first modern Olympic Games opened in Athens. Since then, they have again been celebrated every four years, but in a different city around the world each time. Eleven women, representing the Vestal Virgins, go to the site of the ancient Olympics and ignite the Olympic flame with the light of the sun concentrated by a parabolic mirror. From Olympia, the torch is taken first to the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens and from there to the city where the Olympic Games will take place. In 1 Corinthians 9:24–27, Paul used the image of those ancient games as an analogy for the Christian race. First, he urges the Christian to be a victorious runner. In the Olympic Games, “all the runners run, but only one gets the prize” (verse 24, NIV).
But in the Christian race, all can be victorious.
Second, Paul highlights that the Christian reward is worth the effort. In Olympia, the prize for the winner was a wild olive wreath; and in Corinth, it was an even more perishable crown of wilted celery. But the victorious Christian will receive “a crown that will last forever” (verse 25, NIV). In Hebrews 11:39–12:2, all past victorious Christian runners are represented as watching our race and cheering us on to victory.
We do not ignite our Olympic flame at the sanctuary of the Temple of Hera (Zeus’s wife) but at the altar of the cross of Calvary, and we do not expect to receive just a perishable wreath but the imperishable “crown of righteousness” (2 Timothy 4:8).
Run victoriously!