Expert: Dr. Ronald E. Shultz - 7/31/2006

Question
Could you help me understand 1 Cor. 9:27 thank you.

Answer
We must remember that we must take all passages in context and also in light of all other Scripture.  I use brackets to "highlight" since I cannot bold or anything else to show my emphasis.  The same man who wrote this by Inspiration also wrote Ephesians.  He also wrote

1 Cor 3:9-15
9 For we are labourers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.
10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
[11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
12 Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. ](KJV)

1 Cor 5:1-6
1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife.
2 And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.
3 For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed,
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
[5 To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.]
6 Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?  (KJV)

Those are clearly eternal security verses.  If I am saved and build my house with junk, not just sins of omission or commission but works done in the flesh and not in the Spirit so that all goes WHOOSH in the fire I am still saved.

The couple in fornication would be turned over to the devil to be killed BUT their spirit is saved.  

Paul is not talking about his salvation in in 9:27 after writing these things just a few chapters before.

Salvation is a gift, not a prize but there are rewards to be won or lost as 1 Cor 3 shows us.

Will there be many preachers who do wonderfully from what we see in this life but may well find their work rejected because it was wood, hay, stubble and thus receive no prize or crown?  Sure, they may have been great orators but trusted more in their fleshly abilities than the power of God or preached just for the money's sake or the prestige.  They may backslide or quit the ministry for a spell or for the rest of their life and lose out on the "prize" but not the gift.  That is why salvation is not of works, lest any man should boast.

So we look at where Paul was taking us into the next chapter and the illustrations he gives is that all that came out of Egypt were "saved" out of bondage but not all entered the Promised Land.  Many take the Promised Land to mean Heaven but it is better understood as the victorious Christian life else Moses went to Hell and that didn't happen.  He did miss out on the blessings and he did preach to others but because of his sin he was cast away before getting the fulness of the reward of his ministry.  The ones that died in the desert were heirs to the promise and had gotten out of Egypt but they didn't get all they could have had from that promise.

I Jn 5:16-17
16 If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.
17 All unrighteousness is sin: and there is a sin not unto death. (KJV)

Remember our couple in fornication?  They were obviously on the brink of this sin though there may well be many other scenarios that would cause an untimely death like eating and drinking the Lord's Supper unworthily but it does not mean that they are not saved, just sent home early.  They will lose all future chances of rewards and they will most likely lose much of what they thought they had because such a sin doesn't happen overnight so all that led up to it would be wood, hay and stubble.  

That same man wrote that we are adopted and in an adoption you cannot deny that child ever.  You can cut a natural born child out of the will but never an adopted one.  That was the law of that time and God had Paul to use it.  We are born again sons and some might have said that a son can be denied but God had both terms used to assure us of our salvation.  Yes, He has brought us to birth but He has also adopted us so that we could not be cut of the will but would always be joint heirs with Christ.

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: [I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.] (KJV)

God was going to give the Isrealites a life more abundantly in the land of milk and honey. They missed it by unbelief and wandered forty years and then missed it by failing to run out all the enemies.  They lived in a blessed life when they were obedient and a cursed one when they were not.  So, the Promised Land is not Heaven for once there we will have no enemies within or without and we will never be cut off from it so the Promised Land is not Heaven.

We live a more abundant life when we are in obedience and submission by faith not having it when we are not in obedience and submission by faith.

Paul wanted to win the full prize of his ministry and he was exhorting the Corinthians to do the same and not be lax thinking that by being lazy or apathetic or worse practicing sin that grace may abound that they would get to the victorious life that is part of the promise of salvation or their version of the Promised Land. He also warned that they may find themselves in an early grave.

Either Paul was contradicting all the other passages on eternal security in 1 Cor 9:27 or he was talking about rewards here and there.  

2 Cor 5:9-10
9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. (KJV)

2101  euarestos (yoo-ar'-es-tos);
from 2095 and 701; fully agreeable:
KJV-- acceptable (-ted), wellpleasing.

This doesn't mean accepted as in salvation for he said

Eph 1:6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (KJV)

We are already accepted in the Beloved, if we are saved.

5487  charitoo (khar-ee-to'-o);
from 5485; to grace, i.e. indue with special honor:
KJV-- make accepted, be highly favoured.

If we are not pleasing then we lose reward in 1 Cor 3 but we enter into eternity with Him because we were accepted or made accepted because we are in Him!  GLORY!!!

II Jn 1:8 Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a [full reward].
(KJV)

May the Lord bless you as you seek His will through His Word!