What kind of crown are Christians running for compared to athletes?
Christians are running for an incorruptible crown, one that will last for all eternity. By contrast, athletes train temperately to obtain a perishable crown of leaves and vines that will die and amount to nothing. The believer's prize is eternal and imperishable, not a temporary athletic reward.
Les explains that the runners train temperately in all their intake, food, and drink, doing everything temperately to enhance their body strength, and they do it to obtain a crown or reward. But believers are running the spiritual race, not for a crown of leaves and vines that will die and amount to nothing. They run for an incorruptible crown that will last for all eternity. Les also notes that the runner does not run uncertainly; he knows what the prize is. He is not shadow boxing or beating the air, but training himself spiritually to run the race of life that he might win the prize. The text refers to Philippians, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, so that he might win the prize. Finally, Les says the last verse, "I keep under my body," has been misconstrued in the King James; it means keeping everything under control.
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.