1 COR. ix. 27.
“But I keep under the body, and bring it into subjection; lest
that by any means when I have preached to others I myself
should be a castaway.”
OBSERVE that it was towards the close of his Christian
career that St. Paul penned these words. It was not while
the genuineness of his conversion had still to be put to
the test, or the power of his ministry had not been fully
demonstrated. These are the words of a man who for
twenty years has been a consistent, self-denying believer,
a man upon whose ministry God has set His seal in the
plainest manner, and yet this man speaks like one in
doubt, yea as one who might still lose the crown. St.
Paul did not venture to count himself safe. He felt that
there was the same necessity as ever for keeping up the
warfare with the flesh.
I. Consider the apostle as an aged man. We observe
then that there is no period of his earthly life during which
the spiritual warrior may safely relax from his toil. It
will probably not be in the same form that the flesh wars
against the Spirit in age and in youth. One ruling desire
succeeds another, as though life were made up of seasons,
and each season had its appropriate dominant passion. It
should make us more than suspicious of our spiritual con-
dition if we feel that enough has been done, the flesh suffi-
ciently subjugated, and the world sufficiently overcome.
It is only the man who is wrestling with the last enemy,
Death, whom we may venture to congratulate as having
done with strife.
II. Consider the apostle as an aged Christian. In pro-
portion to long acquaintance with the Gospel is the danger
of resting in cold and barren orthodoxy. The great apostle
evidently thought that heaven might be lost so long as it
was not actually entered. Our text does not exactly state
doubt as to salvation, but affirms that there could not be
salvation were there to come a truce with the world and
the flesh. He alone has a right to hope whose whole effort
is to strive.
III. Consider the apostle as an aged minister. He con-
templates the possibility of failing to share in the blessings
which he had been instrumental in conveying to others.
It is not through what the man speaks, but through what
is handled and applied by God’s Spirit, that souls are
converted. The preacher may after all be a castaway.
Let us all take heed that we be not high minded, but fear.
Hugh Macmillan, D.D.