Striving for a Crown

²⁴ Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? ^(A)Run in such a way that you may ^[a]obtain it. ²⁵ And everyone who competes for the prize ^[b]is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for ^(B)an imperishable crown. ²⁶ Therefore I run thus: ^(C)not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. ^27 (D)But I discipline my body and ^(E)bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become ^(F)disqualified.

^7 (A)I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

The Race of Faith

12 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, ^(A)let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and ^(B)let us run ^(C)with endurance the race that is set before us,

Love Fulfills the Law

⁷ You ^(A)ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

¹⁶ holding fast the word of life, so that ^(A)I may rejoice in the day of Christ that ^(B)I have not run in vain or labored in ^(C)vain.

^24 [a]But ^(A)none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, ^(B)so that I may finish my ^[b]race with joy, ^(C)and the ministry ^(D)which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.