1D. Folks, Paul practiced self-restraint. And though he wrote about paying the preacher, he would not allow the churches he started to pay him. Why? In part, because he would not risk his opportunity to glory.

2D. To glory is to brag and to boast. But it isn’t bragging and boasting on yourself. Paul restrained himself, would not take pay for himself, lest it diminish the effectiveness with which he bragged on God.

3D. He wanted folks to understand that he did not brag on God because he was paid to do it, but because he wanted to do it. Amen?

1D. Paul is quick to point out in this verse that he has no reason to brag on himself. Indeed, he has nothing to glory of. Folks, don’t even brag on him for being such a faithful preacher.

2D. He points out that he preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ because he has to. God has worked in him both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

3D. Friends, why doesn’t this happen more often today? Does God no longer work this way in people’s lives?

1D. Do you see the word "dispensation" in this verse? It refers to taking care of something which belongs to someone else. Paul had been given responsibility to watch over someone else’s stuff. Whose stuff was it? God’s. Christ’s.

2D. Paul restrained himself and served God and Christ as an apostle because it was a responsibility entrusted to him and to no one else. He rose to the occasion to fill a need. Why don’t more people do that, as well? We have need of more workers in various ministries of our Church.

1D. Paul knew what liberty was. He who had grown up under the Law of Moses and had been set free from the Law by Christ, knew the exhilaration of liberty. But he had been a Christian long enough to see that liberty is a fragile thing that can easily be abused, or overused.

2D. Ever own something that is so precious to you that you keep it in a special place and use it carefully, so as not to overuse it and make it common and ordinary? That’s how Paul felt about liberty. That’s how you ought to feel about liberty. Amen?

1D. You see the difference between Paul and someone who does not properly understand liberty? Most people use their liberty so they will not have to submit to others, while Paul used his liberty to make himself a servant to others.....so he could win them to Christ.

2D. Paul restrained himself for the purpose of winning others to Christ. Hold that thought. Temperance, self-control, not as a means to achieving good health, or as an end in itself, but to reach the lost for Christ.

1D. Paul is telling us that he actually altered his behavior around different groups of people. Around Jews he became as a Jew. Around them who were under the Law of Moses he became as one under the Law of Moses. To them that are without law as without law.

2D. Do you see what Paul was engaging in? He was removing barriers between other people and himself. But notice the word "as." Paul did not become a Jew, did not place himself under the Law he had been set free from, and did not act lawless around Gentiles, did not actually become spiritually weak.

3D. What Paul did was conform without compromising. He would never compromise. Never! But he would do whatever could be done to minimize the cultural and religious differences between himself and others, without compromising.

4D. That’s the difference between Paul and many today. Paul would conform only so long as there was no compromise of Biblical truth, Biblical standards, Biblical convictions. He did not try and force lost people to conform to him.

1D. Paul would do anything that liberty would allow him to do to win folks to Christ. He always stopped when liberty became license. But short of that Paul would do anything to use his liberty to win folks to Christ.

2D. How differently so-called Christians usually use their liberty nowadays. Nowadays, instead of using liberty to the limit to serve God, people stretch liberty to the limit to avoid serving God. People are more concerned about disappointing the boss than disappointing the Savior.

3C. We have things upside down and backwards. Paul’s instruction of verses 15-23 teaches Christians to use their liberty to serve God and seek the salvation of the lost, not to find excuses not to do right. Amen?

1D. Think about something very sad, indeed. All lost runners run, though only one of them has any hope of winning.

2D. On the other hand, though all Christians are runners who will win, few run. Isn’t that a sad commentary on the behavior of so-called Christians? This is why Paul says, "Run, that ye may obtain."

1D. Here’s the comparison and contrast. Don’t the Olympic athletes who really shoot for gold medals practice self-restraint? Don’t they watch what they eat, watch how much they sleep, watch their exercise? Sure they do. And they do it for some no account prize.

2D. In Paul’s day it was a wreath that turned brown and crumbled after a day or two. Yet men will go to the most unusual lengths to increase their likelihood of winning that race which only one man can win. I call that temperance followed by tragedy.

3D. The Christian life is similar to the Olympian’s race in this one respect: We can win a prize, too. But the prize we can win won’t fade in a few days and crumble. The prize that we could win is incorruptible. That’s temperance followed by triumph.

1D. First, the runner. The word "uncertainly" has to do with unseen and indistinct. I think that Paul is telling his readers that he doesn’t run in a way which cannot be seen. The marathon runners, for example, until television coverage changed things, were almost never seen running. They did their running miles away and could only be seen at the finish line. But Paul points out that everyone can see the way he runs. The way in which he lived his life was out in the open for everyone to see. This is the first thing he did. Live openly.

2D. Second, the boxer. "So fight I, not as one that beateth the air." Paul is not throwing punches that don’t land. When Paul throws out a left jab it sticks. When he hooked to the body, he simply did not miss. He is like a fighter, in that he seeks to force another into submission, but he is not like a fighter, in that he wastes no movement and makes everything he does count. In other words, he isn’t just busy to be busy. This is the second thing he did.

3D. Still with the boxer, the third thing he did was to keep under his body and bring it into subjection. Here is another contrast with the boxer comparison. While most boxers strive to bring another into submission to their will, Paul’s goal was to bring his own body into subjection. His body was not his enemy, but his body, as your body is and my body is, was unruly. And it was a constant struggle for Paul, throughout his entire lifetime, to keep his body under his control.

4D. This was Paul’s practice. It ought to be our practice.

"lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."

1D. The word "castaway" refers to being disapproved, not losing your salvation. The word, literally, refers to not passing a test, to flunking an exam.

2D. Paul’s practice was to restrain himself and to make sure that he ruled his body and that his body did not rule him. And why did he do this? He wanted to make absolutely sure that the exercise of his liberty did not get out of control and become license, did not get out of control and discredit his Christian testimony.