COUNT THE COST & DON'T LOOK BACK

57 Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, "Lord, I will follow You wherever You go."
58 And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."
59 Then He said to another, "Follow Me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father."
60 Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but go you and preach the kingdom of God."
61 And another also said, "Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house."
62 But Jesus said to him, "No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." (LUKE 9:57-62).


9:57, 58 I will follow you: This man volunteered to follow Jesus without reservation. His problem was that he had not realistically counted the cost of discipleship. His enthusiasm, based on his feelings of the moment, would not be strong enough to sustain him during the trials that lay ahead. Jesus warned the would-be disciple that He, the Son of Man, did not have even the ordinary comforts of home.


9:59 let me first go and bury my father: This aspiring disciple placed family responsibilities ahead of following Jesus. The concerns of home were this man's stumbling block. Unlike the previous volunteer (v. 57), this man was slow, meditative, and contemplative. He was counting the cost of discipleship. Cultic purity was viewed as very important in Jewish circles, so a quick burial of the dead was required (7:11-17).


9:60 Jesus emphasized that a disciple must have clear priorities. The call of God should receive priority over everything else.


9:62 Jesus' remark about being fit for the kingdom of God demonstrates the seriousness of commitment to Him. Putting a hand to the plow means engaging in a task. Here the task is serving the kingdom. Looking back makes it difficult to plow straight furrows.
[THE NKJV STUDY BIBLE Second Edition].


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JESUS IS LORD. 

FIGHT THE GOOD FIGHT, FINISH THE RACE & KEEP THE FAITH

7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who loved His appearing. 
(Read: 2 TIMOTHY 4:6-8).


7 There are two ways of interpreting this verse. One is to assume that we have here three figures of speech: the first military, the second athletic, the third religious. But the three clauses of the verse may all be taken as related to athletics. The verb translated "fought" can have a military meaning (cf. Jn 18:36), but it can just as clearly relate to athletics (1 Cor 9:25). All in all, it seems more natural to understand Paul as speaking in the athletic sense in all of them (cf. especially 1 Tim 6:12). If so, the we can paraphrase the verse like this: "I have competed well in the athletic contest [of life], I have finished the race, I have kept the rules"-not "fouled out" and so been disqualified from winning.


8 One of the main reasons for preferring the athletic interpretation in v.7 is that it fits in perfectly with v.8, where Paul says a "crown" awaits him. The word for "crown" is not the one used for a royal crown but for the laurel wreath that was given to the winner of the Marathon race (cf. 1 Cor 9:25). The Lord, the righteous Judge (of the contest) was ready to "award" this prize to Paul at the end of the race, his victorious life. The same reward awaits all who run the Christian race successfully to the finish and long for "his appearing" (the Second Coming). 
[NIV BIBLE COMMENTARY Volume 2: New Testament].


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JESUS IS LORD.

RUN YOUR RACE TO WIN THE PRIZE

24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but [only] one receives the prize? So run [your race] that you may lay hold [of the prize] and make it yours.
25 Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things. They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither.
26 Therefore I do not run uncertainly-without definite aim. I do not box as one beating the air and striking without an adversary.
27 But [like a boxer] I buffet my body-handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships-and subdue it,  for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit-not stand the test and be unapproved-and rejected [as counterfeit]. (1 CORINTHIANS 9:24-27).


24-27 By way of practical application, Paul now gives a strong exhortation for Christian self-denial, using himself as an example and employing athletic figures familiar to the Corinthians at their own Isthmian athletic games, hosted every other year by the people of Corinth. The particular events he refers to are running and boxing.
         Paul assumes their common knowledge of the foot race in the stadium (v.25). Every one of the Corinthian believers should run as these runners do, with an all-out effort to get the prize. "Strict training" refers to the athlete's self-control in diet and in his rigorous bodily discipline. Paul observes that the athlete's train vigorously for a "corruptible crown"-a laurel or celery wreath that would soon wither away. But the Christian's crown, eternal life and fellowship with God, will last forever (Rev. 2:10).
        Paul says of himself that he does not contend like an undisciplined runner or boxer. Rather, he aims his blows against his own body, beating it black and blue. The picture is graphic: the ancient boxers devastatingly punishing one another with knuckles bound with leather thongs. So, by pummeling his body, Paul enslaves it in order to gain the Christian prize.
        In the Greek games, there was a herald who announced the rules of the contest; but Paul is not only a Christian herald (i.e, preacher), he is also one who plays in the game. That is, he not only preached the Gospel but he also lived by the Gospel's rules. True Christians, while confident of God's sovereign grace, are nevertheless conscious of their own battle against sin. They do not want to be "disqualified [i.e., tested and disapproved] for the prize."
[NIV BIBLE COMMENTARY Volume 2: New Testament].


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JESUS IS LORD.

LOOK UNTO JESUS, OUR EXAMPLE

12 THEREFORE THEN, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony of the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance-unnecessary weight-and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,
     2 Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher, [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
     3 Just think of Him Who endured from sinners such grievous opposition and bitter hostility against Himself-reckon up and consider it all in comparison with your trials-so that you may not grow weary or exhausted, losing heart and relaxing and fainting in your minds. (Hebrews 12:1-3).


12:1 The cloud of witnesses refers to the people of faith mentioned in ch 11. They are not actually spectators watching us; they are witnesses testifying to the truth of the faith (11:2, 4-6). Weight is anything that hinders a runner.


12:2 Looking here means "fixing one's eyes trustingly." We need to consistently focus on Christ instead of our own circumstances. finisher: Christ has done everything necessary for us to endure in our faith. He is our example and model, for He focused on the joy that was set before Him. His attention was not on the agonies of the Cross, but on the crown; not on the suffering, but the reward.


12:3 Consider here involves the idea of comparison, as an accountant would compare the various columns of a balance sheet. Believers should compare their sufferings to the torture Christ endured on their behalf (v.4). 
[THE NKJV STUDY BIBLE Second Edition].


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JESUS IS LORD.

DO THIS ONE THING AND PRESS ON

12 Not that I have now attained [this ideal] or am already made perfect, but I press on to lay hold of (grasp) and make my own, that for which Christ Jesus, the Messiah, has laid hold of me and made me His own.

13 I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do-it is my one aspiration: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

14 I press on toward the goal to win the [supreme and heavenly] prize to which God in Christ Jesus is calling us upward.

15 So let those [of us] who are spiritually mature and full-grown have this mind and hold these convictions, and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also.

16 Only let us hold true to what we have already attained and walk and order our lives by that. (Philippians 3:12-16).

12 Having stated that his conversion brought about a new assessment of his goals and gave him the overwhelming desire to know Christ ever more fully, Paul then explains how his present life is a pursuit in this new direction. But he does not want to be misunderstood as claiming that his conversion on the Damascus road has already brought him to the final goal. He has not yet received all he longs for, nor has he been brought to that perfection to which he has aspired. Perhaps there were those in Philippi who were claiming to have acquired already the consummation of spiritual blessings. But Paul knows that he must continue to pursue the purposes Christ had chosen him for. Spiritual progress is ever the imperative Christians must follow.

13 Paul now addresses the Philippians by the endearing title "brothers" and repeats the thought of v.12. He did not regard himself as having obtained the final knowledge of Christ and the fullest conformity to him. One thing, therefore, was the consuming passion of his Christian life. Using the metaphor of a footrace, Paul describes it as involving the continual forgetting of "what is behind" and the relentness centering of his energies and interests on the course that is ahead of him. "Forgetting" did not mean obliterating the memory of his past (cf. vv.5-7), but was a conscience refusal to let it absorb his attention and impeded his progress. He never allowed his Jewish heritage nor his previous Christian attainments (vv.9-12) to obstruct his running of the race. No present attainment could lull him into thinking he already possessed all Christ desired for him.

14 Continuing the metaphor, Paul likens his Christian life to pressing onward to the goal so as to win the prize. In applying the figure, the goal and the prize are virtually identical, though viewed perhaps from different aspects. Paul's goal was complete knowledge of Christ, both in the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings (v.10). When the goal was reached, this prize would be fully his. The calling "heavenward" may relate to the summons to the winner to approach the elevated stand of the judge and receive the prize. The word "called" is always used elsewhere by Paul to denote the effective call of God that brings people to salvation (1 Cor. 1:26).

15 In concluding this section, Paul exhorts those who are "mature" (1 Cor. 14:20) to think in harmony with what he has just said, and he promises that those who think differently about minor points will be enlightened by God if their attitude is right. By "mature," Paul is referring to a certain level of spiritual growth and stability in contrast to infants. If the Philippians believers are lax in their pursuit of spiritual goals or erroneously suppose they have already arrived, they need to understand Paul's declaration . And if they generally agree but still differ on some isolated point, Paul is confident that God will lead them to the truth.

16 No one, however, must wait for God to reveal the truth on all points before one begins to give oneself to spiritual growth. Each believer should exercise fully the degree of maturity already possessed. "Live up to" calls for Christians to maintain a consistent life in harmony with the understanding of God's truth they already have. Paul recognizes that Christians, though proceeding along the same path, may be at different stages of progress and should be faithful to as much of God's truth as they understand.

[NIV BIBLE COMMENTARY Volume 2: New Testament].

[http://twitter.com/SowersOfTheWord].

JESUS IS LORD.