PT-2 "The Athlete" (2 Tim. 2:5)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/16/2025 8:36 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                                 Focus:  PT-2 “The Athlete”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                     Reference:  2 Timothy 2:5

 

            Message of the verse:  “5 Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules.”

 

            I want to continue looking at the athlete in this morning’s SD as I begin with a quotation from the commentary of John MacArthur.  “The very fact that we are Christians means we have met the qualification of being born again.  But the other two requirements are far from automatic and involve constant dedication and constant effort.  Together they constitute spiritual discipline, which come from the same root as ‘disciple’ and is the foundation of spiritual maturity.  The disciplined disciple has control of his affection, his emotions, his priorities, and his objectives.”

 

            This is especially true in the life of a believer, but it can be true also in the life of a non believer, but the difference is that in the believer’s life they have the Holy Spirit of God living in them to aid in these important issues that bring about spiritual maturity.

 

            I have read that when a boxer trains for an upcoming fight that they train for months and months in getting their bodies ready, and not just physical training but also mental training as they will study film of their upcoming opponent so that they know his weakness’s and his strengths.  If one takes this in the spiritual mode then one needs to know how the devil works to bring a believer down and the devil has different tactics, but he never changes them as they have worked good throughout the time he began to use them in the garden of Eden.

 

            MacArthur writes “It goes without saying that all serious athletes must exert special effort not just during a game or a race but for many months, even years, beforehand.  Writing to believers at Corinth, who were very familiar with the Isthmian games, which were played nearby, Paul asked rhetorically, ‘Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize.  Run in such a way that you may win.  And everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things.  They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.  Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave, lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified’ (1 Cor. 9:24-27).    Paul’s victory in the realm of ministry was dependent on his body, with its lusts and impulses, not being in control of him, but rather he of it.”

 

            In the passage that we just looked at Paul also emphasizes the wreath which in the Greek is stephanos for which the Greek athletes competed and it was perishable, but the one for which the Spiritual Christian competes is imperishable.  What was Paul referring to?  It is ‘the crown [stephanos] of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me [Paul] on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing’ (2 Tim. 4:8), ‘the unfading crown of glory’ is what we will receive ‘when the Chief Shepherd appears’ (1 Peter 5:4), ‘the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to those who live Him’ (James 1:12; Rev. 2:10).  MacArthur concludes “One day, like the twenty-four elders, we ‘will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast [our] crowns before the throne’ (Rev. 4:10). 

 

            A long time ago after leading some neighbors to the Lord I was talking to them about the robes that believers will get when they get to heaven, and I mentioned that even though all will get robes that there will be some believers there who will get into heaven but will not have any rewards because they did not do what the Lord called them to do for the cause of Christ.  They would have what I called “smelly robes” because they just missed out on the flames of hell.  I certainly do not want to be wearing a smelly robe, but desire to do what the Lord has called me to do.

 

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The disciplined disciple has control of his affection, his emotions, his priorities, and his objectives.”

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To have control of those highlighted things in the paragraph above.

 

1/17/2025 8:16 AM