Las Vegas, Nevada Church
Affiliated with the Intercontinental Church of God and the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

 
 
 Survey of the Letters of Paul:  2 Timothy 2:5  
  
                                                                                                                                                                                    
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2 Timothy 2:5
And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.
 
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This section has just the one verse.

And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully.

We will begin in the Barclay

THE ATHLETE OF CHRIST
2 Timothy 2:5 - paraphrased
And if anyone engages in an athletic contest, he does not win the crown unless he observes the rules of the game.

PAUL has just used the picture of the soldier to represent the Christian, and now he uses two other pictures – those of the athlete and of the toiling farmer [we will see in verses 6-7]. He uses the same three pictures close together in 1 Corinthians 9:6-7, 9:24–27. Paul says that no athlete can win the crown of victory without observing the rules of the contest. There is a very interesting point in the Greek here which is difficult to bring out in translation. The Authorized Version speaks of striving lawfully. The Greek is athlein nomimo¯s. In fact, that is the Greek phrase which was used by the later writers to describe a professional as opposed to an amateur athlete. The person who strove nomimo¯s was the one who concentrated completely on the struggle. That struggle was not just a spare-time concern, as it might be for an amateur; it was a full-time dedication of that individual’s life to excellence in the chosen contest. Here, then, we have the same idea as in Paul’s picture of the Christian as a soldier. Christians must concentrate their lives upon their Christianity just as professional athletes concentrate upon their chosen contest. The spare-time Christian is a contradiction in terms; the whole of life should be an endeavour to live out our Christianity. What then are the characteristics of an athlete which are in Paul’s mind?

Quoted verses:
1 Corinthians 9:6-7
6 Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?
7 Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?

1 Corinthians 9:24-27
24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
25 And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
27 But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. 
 
Discussion regarding the, "professional Christian."

Continuing now in the Barclay:

(1) Athletes are under discipline and self-denial. They must keep to their schedule of training and let nothing interfere with it. There will be days when they would like to drop their training and relax the discipline; but they must not do so. There will be pleasures and indulgences they would like to allow themselves; but they must refuse them. Athletes who want to excel know that they must let nothing interfere with that standard of physical fitness which they have set themselves. There must be discipline in the Christian life. There are times when the easy way is very attractive; there are times when the right thing is the hard thing; there are times when we are tempted to relax our standards. Christians must train themselves never to relax in the life-long attempt to make their souls [character] pure and strong.

(2) Athletes are people who observe the rules. After the discipline and the rules of the training, there come the contest and the rules of the contest. It is not possible to win without playing the game.  ~ Barclay commentary

Discussion on how the description of the Athlete relates to the description of the Christian.

Now to the other commentaries.  The verse is primarily in three parts:

1] And if a man also strive for masteries.
2] Yet is he not crowned.
3] Except he strive lawfully.


Commentaries differ on how they combine these phrases for discussion.

First the general commentary of the Matthew Henry Concise for the first seven verses:

2 Timothy 2:1-7
As our trials increase, we need to grow stronger in that which is good; our faith stronger, our resolution stronger, our love to God and Christ stronger. This is opposed to our being strong in our own strength. All Christians, but especially ministers, must be faithful to their Captain, and resolute in his cause. The great care of a Christian must be to please Christ. We are to strive to get the mastery of our lusts and corruptions, but we cannot expect the prize unless we observe the laws. We must take care that we do good in a right manner, that our good may not be spoken evil of. Some who are active, spend their zeal about outward forms and doubtful disputations. But those who strive lawfully shall be crowned at last. If we would partake the fruits, we must labour; if we would gain the prize, we must run the race. We must do the will of God, before we receive the promises, for which reason we have need of patience. Together with our prayers for others, that the Lord would give them understanding in all things, we must exhort and stir them up to consider what they hear or read. ~Matthew Henry Concise

1] And if a man also strive for masteries.

And if a man also strive for masteries - As in the Grecian games. See this favorite illustration of Paul explained in the notes at 1 Corinthians 9:24.

Quoted verse:
1 Corinthians 9:24
Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.

I want to focus on the phrase, "So run." Let us look at the commentary on this.

So run, that ye may obtain - So run in the Christian race, that you may obtain the prize of glory, the crown incorruptible. So live; so deny yourselves; so make constant exertion, that you may not fail of that prize, the crown of glory, which awaits the righteous in [The Kingdom]; compare Hebrews 12:1. Christians may do this when:

(1) They give themselves wholly to God, and make this the grand business of life;
(2) “When they lay aside every weight” Hebrews 12:1; and renounce all sin and all improper attachments; [See sermons, Cargo, Part 1 and Part 2.]
(3) When they do not allow themselves to be “diverted” from the object, but keep the goal constantly in view;
(4) When they do not flag, or grow weary in their course;
(5) When they deny themselves; and,
(6)When they keep their eye fully fixed on Christ Hebrews 12:2 as their example and their strength, and on [The Kingdom] as the end of their race, and on the crown of glory as their reward. ~Barnes Notes

Quoted verse:
Hebrews 12:1-2
1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
 
Discussion on these 6 points and Hebrews 12:1-2


If a man also strive for masteries - If a man contend in the public games - the Olympic or Isthmian games among the Greeks, so often alluded to and particularly explained in the notes on 1 Corinthians 9:24-26. ~Adam Clark

And if a man also strive for masteries - In the Olympic games, by running, wrestling, leaping, &c. ~John Gill

And if a man also strive for masteries - “strive in the games” [Alford]; namely, the great national games of Greece. ~JFB

And if a man also strive for masteries - Paul’s habitual way of looking at the Christian life led him to pass naturally from the thought of the soldier to that of the athlete. We want some word to express this more adequately in the English. ‘Strive in the games’ would perhaps answer the purpose, as bringing out more distinctly the new comparison. ~Popular commentary

2] Yet is he not crowned.

Is he not crowned - Though he may have conquered, except he strive lawfully - unless he enter according to the rules of the athlete, and act as these direct. No man, however zealous he may have been, is to expect the Well done, good and faithful servant, from Jesus Christ, unless he have labored in the word and doctrine, preached the truth as it is in Jesus, and built up the Church upon Him who is its only Foundation. ~Adam Clarke

Yet is he not crowned - with a corruptible, fading crown, a crown made of herbs and leaves of trees, as parsley, laurel, &c. ~John Gill

3] Except he strive lawfully.

Except he strive lawfully - according to the laws and rules fixed for those exercises; so no man that calls himself a Christian, minister, or any other, can expect the crown of life, the prize of the high calling of God, except he runs the race set before him, in the right way; looking to Christ, the mark, pressing through all difficulties, towards the prize, and holds on and out unto the end.

Lawful diet
The phrase “lawfully” which is found in precisely the same connection in Galen (Comm. in Hippocrates 1.15) was technical, half-medical, and half belonging to the training schools of athletes, and implied the observance of all rules of life prior to the contest as well as during it. Failure to keep to the appointed diet and discipline, no less than taking an unfair advantage at the time, excluded the competitor from his reward. ~ Biblical Illustrator

Lawful striving
I. A Christian is a striver.
1. In the breast and forefront of this strife thou must contend with ignorance, which adversary, though his eyes be put out, and he be as blind as a mill-horse, yet his strength is like behemoths, his weapons Goliahs, his blows the batterings of a tearing cannon; for if this giant be not quelled, killed, he will lead you into mazes of error.

2. This monster being put to flight, you are to encounter with aged superstition.

3. Close after idolatry follows covetousness.

4. At the heels of every striver you shall have sloth and idleness.

II. Eternal life is called a crown. For the worth and excellency of it.

III. The lawful striver shall be crowned. ~ Biblical Illustrator

Strive lawfully — observing all the conditions of both the contest (keeping within the bounds of the course and stript of his clothes) and the preparation for it, namely, as to self-denying diet, anointing, exercise, self-restraint, chastity, decorum, etc. ~JFB
 



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