24 [a]Know ye not, that they which run in a race, run all, yet one receiveth the prize? so run that ye may obtain.

25 And every man that proveth masteries, [b]abstaineth from all things: and they do it to obtain a corruptible crown: but we for an incorruptible.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Corinthians 9:24 He bringeth in another cause of this mischief, to wit, that they were given to gluttony, for there were solemn banquets of sacrifices, and the riot of the Priests was always too much celebrated and kept. Therefore it was hard for them which were accustomed to righteousness, especially when they pretended the liberty of the Gospel, to be restrained from these banquets: but contrarywise, the Apostle calleth them by a pleasant similitude, and also by his own example, to sobriety and mortification of the flesh, showing that they cannot be fit to run or wrestle (as then the games of Isthmians were) which pamper up their bodies, and therefore affirming that they can have no reward, unless they take another course and trade of life.
  2. 1 Corinthians 9:25 Useth a most exquisite diet.

12 1 He doth not only by the examples of the Fathers before recited, exhort them to patience and constancy, 3 but also by the example of Christ. 11 That the chastenings of God cannot be rightly judged by the outward sense of our flesh.

Wherefore, (A)[a]let us also, seeing that we are compassed with so great a cloud of witnesses, cast away everything that presseth down, and the sin that [b]hangeth so fast on: let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

[c][d]Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the [e]joy that was set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame, and is set at the right hand of the throne of God.

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Footnotes

  1. Hebrews 12:1 An applying of the former examples, whereby we ought to be stirred up to run the whole race, casting away all stops and impediments.
  2. Hebrews 12:1 For sin besiegeth us on all sides, so that we cannot escape out.
  3. Hebrews 12:2 He setteth before us, as the mark of this race, Jesus himself our captain, who willingly overcame all the roughness of the same way.
  4. Hebrews 12:2 As it were upon the mark of our faith.
  5. Hebrews 12:2 Whereas he had all kind of blessedness in his hand and power, yet suffered willingly the ignominy of the cross.

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