Hebrews 12:1 – “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,”
The writer of Hebrews, probably Paul, here alludes to the
Greek games which were so popular throughout the world of his day. Oh, Paul probably didn’t waste a lot of his
time attending these games, but it is evident that he was very familiar with
this form of athletic entertainment.
Very often in his epistles he compares the Christian to an athlete.
In 1 Corinthians 9:24, he says, “Know ye not that they
which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” He likens the Christian life to a race that
we are to run to obtain a prize. So it
is obvious that Paul is knowledgeable in this area, so he must have been a fan
in that ancient day. I can imagine Paul
sitting in the great crowd overlooking a sports arena watching all the athletes
warming up for their races. As he
watches, a light comes across his face as he imagines that each runner
represents a Christian striving for an unseen prize.
As he peruses the crowd, his gaze falls on last year’s
champion and then on the champion from the year before. This causes him to reflect on the many
champion Christians who have gone before now sitting on the sidelines cheering
each of us on to victory. There is
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Daniel and more all looking over the battlements
of heaven rooting for us as we strain and strive.
He thinks to himself, “Seeing we also are compassed about
with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us run . . .” Let us run! How should we run as Christians? He says we should run patiently, one step at
a time, pacing ourselves, living each day before God doing his bidding. He says we should run temperately, laying
aside every weight and sin. Notice he
does not say just sins, but also every weight.
A weight is anything that might hold us back, anything that we might put
before Him – every weight. To a
runner whether it be a jug of whiskey or a jug of water, it is a weight that
holds him back. All weights in the
Christian’s life are not necessarily bad things, but all are weights
nonetheless. “Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all
things (1 Cor. 9:25).”
Paul set this goal for himself as well as for all of
us. He says, “I therefore so run (1
Cor. 9:26).” Then at the end of his
life he has this testimony, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished
my course, I have kept the faith (2 Tim. 4:7).” He then became one of that great cloud of
witnesses spurring us on to obtain the prize.
Remember the prize – “Now they do it to obtain a
corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible (1 Cor. 9:25b).” What is our incorruptible crown? The blessed favor of an Eternal Christ. If we can come to the end of our lives and
have the testimony that we pleased Christ, then we have lived a successful
life. But oh, the horror of that
testimony of David in 2 Samuel 11: 27, “But the thing that David had done
displeased the Lord.”
Let’s make it our personal goal to always please the Lord in
all our Christian race.
