Selected Sunday Scriptures- #54

Short post today. The first passages is from St. Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians:

^24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. ^25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. ^26 Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; ^27 but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

(1 Cor 9:24-27)

St. Paul reminds us here to keep our eyes on the prize. The prize is eternal life, and is worth the cost in training, and the wait. I find that I not infrequently need a reminder that this world is merely transitory, what matters is what comes next.

As a man, there are special implications to this. St. Peter sets one of them out his First Letter:

^7 Likewise you husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor on the woman as the weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered.

(1 Peter 3: 7)

Whatever authority or power we might have over others in this life, it is just a product of this life. The one to come is ordered differently. While men and women are different in the world, they are at the same time equal owners in the inheritance of eternal life. Consequently, those with power or authority, husbands in this instance, should keep in mind that their higher station is a temporary thing. They must use it well, or risk the consequences. And they need to keep in mind that whoever wishes to be great among others must be their servant.