Are you running your race well?
By Elizabeth Prata
I am “holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.” (Philippians 2:16)
Are you running well, or toiling in vain? Christian, when at the end of your life are you able to say, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith;”? (2 Timothy 4:7)
The journey is long and we are small, only humble servants and wretched sinners. There are obstacles and there are hindrances to our course. Some stumble when hindrances are met. “You were running well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?” (Galatians 5:7).
Keep running! Keep one step in front of the other! The time is but a vapor, so short, and what is hunger or cold or discomfort to us when we have an eternity of peace and joy to look forward to?
Martyn Lloyd Jones, a noted Welsh preacher from the mid 1900s, preached a series on holiness from 1 John. He said,
[Holiness] “is not some mystical experience that suddenly comes to us, but the outworking of the doctrine and the truth which we claim to believe.”
…”holiness is not something we are called upon to do in order that we may become something; it is something we are to do because of what we already are. . . . I am not to live a good and holy life in order that I may become a Christian; I am to live the holy life because I am a Christian.”
The first thing a Christian does to run the race well, in practical terms is:
“…that I try to separate myself from the sins which I have committed in the past; it includes that, but it goes well beyond it. It means that with the whole of my being I shun sin, I avoid it.”
Actively avoid all sins, big ones, little ones. In fact, it’s the little ones that get us. Why? Because little sins open the door to incrementalism. In the Good News Club, (evangelism for children program) we would teach the children that sin is “anything we think, say, or do that angers God.” It begins with a thought. Thinking about your favorite pub. Thinking about the next swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated. Wondering what that secretary will be wearing today. Musing about your easy access tot he boss’s business checkbook. They’re just thoughts, right? Nothing harmful, nothing active.
But the thoughts are active. Next, you buy the swimsuit edition, you open the drawer to see if the checkbook is there, you go out of your way to see the secretary, you drive by the pub ‘to see who’s there’.
Soon the sin grabs hold and you are doing what you though you would never to. Porn, adultery, embezzlement… it all began with a thought you did not hold captive.
It’s our pride. We think ourselves capable, strong. But we are weak, pitiful, and stupid. We are sheep needing guidance every moment. Apart from Christ we can do nothing.
Run your race well. Pray, stay close to Jesus in His word, immediately banish sinful thoughts when they occur. Congregate with the saints, building them up and being built up.
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let’s cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. (2 Corinthians 7:1).
And we desire that each one of you demonstrate the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and endurance inherit the promises, (Hebrews 6:11-12).
Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (Colossians 3:5)
