²⁴ You know that in a race all the runners run but only one wins the prize, don’t you? You must run in such a way that you may be victorious. ²⁵ Everyone who enters an athletic contest practices self-control in everything. They do it to win a wreath that withers away, but we run to win a prize that^[a] never fades. ²⁶ That is the way I run, with a clear goal in mind. That is the way I fight, not like someone shadow boxing. ²⁷ No, I keep on disciplining my body, making it serve me so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified.

Pursuing the Goal

¹² It’s not that I have already reached this goal or have already become perfect. But I keep pursuing it, hoping somehow to embrace it just as I have been embraced by the Messiah^[a] Jesus. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider myself to have embraced it yet.^[b] But this one thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I keep pursuing the goal to win the prize^[c] of God’s heavenly call in the Messiah^[d] Jesus.

¹⁹ After all, who is our hope, joy, or reason for^[a] rejoicing in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? It is you, isn’t it?

⁸ The victor’s crown of righteousness is now waiting for me, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on the day that he comes,^[a] and not only to me but also to all who eagerly wait for his appearing.