Bible Verse of the Day Thursday February 3rd, 2022

1 Corinthians 9:27 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.

Paul points out who our real opponent is; that would be ourselves. In “striking a blow” to his body, Paul says that we need to discipline our bodies to achieve our goals for Christ Jesus. Our primary goal should be to spread the Word of God and lead others to the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. We will have to sacrifice and relinquish certain entitlements and privileges to accomplish that goal. That is the only way we will be able to bring our bodies into subjection and be a faithful servant of Christ Jesus.

Disqualified for the prize in this verse does not mean that we lose our salvation; there is more than ample evidence in God’s Word to verify this. The award spoken of here is our earthly ministries, and there could be no more incredible prize here in this life than being a servant of the one that made our eternal life possible, the greatest reward of all.

Jesus has promised us a full life (John 10:10), and if we desire that full life, we can let nothing that Satan throws in our paths stand in our way of achieving our goal for Christ Jesus. Furthermore, if we want to be a servant for our Lord and Savior, we will have to become goal-oriented; this will give us a measuring rod of how we are moving along in our goals. Without this discipline in life, we might become like a Gerbil on an exercise wheel, running at wide-open speeds but getting anywhere.

To bring our bodies into subjection also means that we must subjugate the lusts and pangs of hunger that our physical bodies bring about. In other words, we should make our bodies our servants instead of our bodies holding us in servitude. We should be the masters of our bodies instead of our bodies controlling us.

Practice what you preach is a term that many people have used for many different reasons down through the years. The application of this term here means that a sermon seen is much more effective than one preached. As ministers of the Gospel of Christ Jesus, which is what all followers and believers in Jesus are, we should take precautions to hold ourselves accountable to the same standard that we are preaching.

Our prayer should be, Lord, please help me keep my walk consistent with my talk and always be pleasing in your sight. As James taught us in his letter, be doers of the word instead of hearers only.

James 1:22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.

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