Paul concludes his spiritual exhortation in 1 Corinthians 9 with a challenge to Christians to have a goal-oriented spiritual life (see verses 24-27). It is pretty evident that Paul is advocating a purposeful, goal-oriented spiritual life. He focuses on this quality of the athletes of the Ithsmian Games. He says this is the way he lives his life - doing the things calculated to win (disciplined training schedule; efficiency in effort)- but for different goals and for a different prize. And he directly calls on the Corinthian Christians (and us) to imitate him in this area.
Yet, like the Corinthians, many of us struggle in this area. Most of us have goals for other areas of our lives (economic; educational; family; recreational), but it is relatively rare to meet Christians who can articulate clear spiritual goals. Some even protest that it is unspiritual to be goal-oriented in your walk with Christ, as though the Spirit-led life is completely spontaneous. This is an important area which we need to explore in depth.
But is this an isolated passage that can be written off as a neurotic fit by Paul? When we survey the Bible on this subject, we find an amazing amount of material. We can distill this material into the following theses:
1. God is goal-oriented. (Jn. 5:17; Eph. 1:10)
2. Goal-orientation is part of being made in God's image. (Gen 2:15)
3. Eternal life will include goal-oriented activity. (Lk. 19:17)
4. Jesus and other biblical models were spiritually goal-oriented. (Lk. 13:32; Jn. 17:4; 1 Cor. 9:26,27; Phil. 3:13,14; 2 Tim. 4:7,8)
5. God exhorts all Christians to be spiritually goal-oriented. (1 Cor. 9:24,25; 2 Pet. 1:5-8; 1 Pet. 3:15; Heb. 10:24,25)
Thus, all Christians should have clear spiritual goals, and these goals should be the most important goals in our lives! This is a non-optional component of a spiritually healthy life. You can see from many of these passages that there is a close connection between spiritual goal-orientation and motivation and fulfillment in your Christian life. This is a big reason why so many Christians are unmotivated in their walks. If you want your relationship with God to be motivating, it has to be making progress, accomplishing something.
But how do I do this? I plan to teach this Sunday on the topic of Christian Goal Setting. Come and be with us as we explore this timely topic.
