Why do Christians get their priorities mixed up?
Even believers remain tied to this world and blind to the glory that awaits them, so their priorities become disordered. Instead of running to win the prize—not salvation, which is secure, but the reward accompanying salvation—they fixate on temporal things.
Les explains that even believers are so tied to this world and so blind to the glory that is out there that they get their priorities mixed up. Paul therefore says to run to win the prize. That prize is not salvation, since believers already have it, but the reward that will go with salvation. Les points out this concept of working for reward has been on believers’ minds from day one. He illustrates it with Abraham in Genesis 15, who was already a believer when God promised him the land as an inheritance; Abraham asked, “How shall I know that I shall inherit it?”