In 1 Corinthians 9:27, Paul writes, “I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified [adokimos].” Nearly every modern English Bible version translates the original Greek word adokimos as “disqualified” (ESV, CSB, LEB, NASB, NET, NLT, NKJV).
Paul seems to imply that “disqualification” was a real danger—a real possibility—in his own life. Without disciplined self-control of his fleshly appetites, even the apostle himself would have been “disqualified.” But what exactly does it mean to be “disqualified” in the context of 1 Corinthians 9:27? Disqualified from what?
The Preceding Context (9:1–26)
In Chapter 9, Paul explains why he surrenders some of his rights for the sake of the gospel. For example, Paul had a right to be paid for his ministry (1 Cor. 9:14), but he voluntarily chose not to be paid “that in my preaching I may present the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my right in the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:18). In verses 19–23, Paul writes,
19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. 20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though not being myself under the law) that I might win those under the law. 21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (not being outside the law of God but under the law of Christ) that I might win those outside the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
Paul wanted to win people to Christ, which meant saving them (9:22). He wanted others to share with him in the gospel blessings of salvation (9:23). Immediately after expressing this earnest desire, Paul writes,
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, 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 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
In the context of what Paul has been writing, “the prize” and “imperishable wreath” refers to final salvation or eternal life. The “race” is the race of persevering in faith to the end, as in 1 Timothy 4:7: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
The Christian race is by faith, but it is not a lazy faith that endures.
The Christian race is by faith, but it is not a lazy faith that endures. The fruit of sincere faith is focus, intentionality, discipline, and self-control—not aimless running and air-boxing. In 2 Peter 1:3–11, we are commanded, “supplement your faith … with self-control, … for in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” In Galatians 5:16–26, we are told that if we walk by the Spirit (by faith, trusting and yielding to his direction at every turn), we will not gratify the desires of the flesh, and the Spirit will produce in us the fruit of self-control. Here once again the faith that endures unto eternal life is not a lazy faith, but “faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6). When Paul spoke about faith in Christ Jesus, he also spoke about self-control (Acts 24:24–25). The grace which brings salvation teaches us to renounce worldly passions and to live self-controlled lives (Titus 2:11–12).
This brings us to verse 29, where Paul says that he is not exempt from the need for disciplined self-control in the race of faith, “lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” In other words, “lest I should be disqualified from the prize of eternal life, the saving blessings of the very gospel which I preach.”
The KJV reflects this interpretation: “lest … I myself should be a castaway.” In his translation of the New Testament, John Wesley uses similar language: “lest … I myself should become a reprobate.”
The Following Context (10:1–22)
This interpretation is strongly confirmed by the verses which follow. Remember that in the original Greek, there is no chapter division. Paul wrote,
9:27 I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. 10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, 2 and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
Note the conjunction (“Lest I be disqualified, for…”). When Paul mentions the real danger—the real possibility—of his own disqualification or apostasy, he is writing it for the sake of the Corinthians. That’s why Paul immediately express his concern that the Corinthians do not end up like those Israelites in the past who were in fact disqualified or “overthrown” (10:5). The wilderness generation desired evil (10:6), turned to idols (10:7), indulged in sexual immorality (10:8), put Christ to the test (10:9), and grumbled (10:10), and as a result, they “fell” (10:8) and were “destroyed” (10:9–10).
When we take into account the context which follows 1 Corinthians 9:27, “disqualified” is equivalent to becoming the object of God’s displeasure (10:5), being “overthrown” (10:5), and being “destroyed” (10:10). When we take into account the context which precedes 1 Corinthians 9:27, “the prize” from which Paul could have been disqualified is eternal life, the salvation provided by the gospel.
Adokimos (“Disqualified”) in the New Testament
This understanding of adokimos (“disqualified”) is consistent with how Paul uses the word elsewhere in his writings. Paul consistently uses adokimos to refer to being disqualified from salvation or in an unbelieving state.
Paul consistently uses adokimos to refer to being disqualified from salvation or in an unbelieving state.
In Romans 1:28, Paul writes about those who knew God through general revelation, but “since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased [adokimos] mind to do what ought not to be done.” The KJV translates adokimos here as “reprobate” (consistent with Wesley’s translation of 1 Corinthians 9:27).
Especially relevant is 2 Corinthians 13:5–7: “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test [adokimos]! I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test [adokimos]. But we pray to God that you may not do wrong—not that we may appear to have met the test, but that you may do what is right, though we may seem to have failed [adokimos].” This passage from 2 Corinthians 13 is strikingly similar to the passage from 1 Corinthians 9–10. “Failing to meet the test” (being “disqualified”) means being an unbeliever.
In Titus 1:16, adokimos is used once again of the reprobate: “They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.”
Finally, adokimos is used in Hebrews 6:4–8. Although it is unlikely that Paul wrote this passage, it’s noteworthy that adokimos appears in the context of a warning about apostasy: “For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless [adokimos] and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.”
While “disqualified” is a perfectly reasonable translation of adokimos in 1 Corinthians 9:27, and probably the best one (since it fits well with the context of the athletic metaphor and being disqualified from “the prize”), its meaning is very much in line with the KJV and Wesley: “castaway” or “reprobate.”
A Calvinist Who Agrees
Some have ruled out this interpretation, claiming that “disqualified” in 1 Corinthians 9:27 merely means disqualified from certain ministry rewards (e.g., Verlyn Verbrugge leans this way). This interpretation fits nicely with the doctrine of “once saved, always saved” (“eternal security” or “perseverance of the saints”), but it does not fit with the context of 1 Corinthians 9–10 or Paul’s normal use of adokimos.
It is significant that some Calvinists agree. In his commentary on 1 Corinthians 9:24–27, Thomas Schreiner writes,
Believers should exert every effort to win, to attain the prize. The prize or the award here is eternal life itself; it is not a reward above and beyond eternal life. … Paul undergoes training so that he will not be disqualified after proclaiming the gospel to others. Once again, Paul presents himself as an example for the readers, for he does not want them to become disqualified either, as the subsequent verses reveal (10:1–22). Some interpreters argue that the disqualification (adokimos) meant that Paul would lose his reward in ministry, while his salvation would still be secure. Such a reading is understandable, but it strays from the context since Paul warns his readers about matters relating to salvation in 10:1–22.
Schreiner goes on to acknowledge the complexity of harmonizing this and other similar passages with the doctrine of eternal security. His solution is to say that “the warnings and admonitions in the New Testament are one of the fundamental means used to preserve Christians in the faith.” In other words, every regenerate person will always heed these warnings and persevere. I find this to be a very difficult position to hold. If Paul knew that he could not actually be disqualified, why would he write 1 Corinthians 9:27? If Paul knew that no truly born-again person in Corinth could fall away, why was he so burdened to warn them about it? We do not warn people about things that we know are not a real danger. If apostasy was not a real possibility for any of the born-again Christians to whom Paul was writing, then his warnings seem disingenuous.
If apostasy was not a real possibility for any of the born-again Christians to whom Paul was writing, then his warnings seem disingenuous.
Another common claim is that the New Testament warning passages are aimed at members of the visible church who think they are saved but are not truly born again. If they fall away, it simply proves that they were never saved. We can be thankful that this position challenges people to examine themselves and take holiness seriously. But it can inadvertently diminish the assurance of those who currently believe they are saved and actually are! By including himself among those who could be disqualified, was Paul suggesting that he could not know for sure that he was among the unconditionally elect until he persevered to the end? While the eternal security position aims to increase assurance, it can send people into the same anxious mind games often linked with an imbalanced focus on free will.
Theological and Pastoral Implications
While I do not deny that there are other texts which seem, prima facie, to support eternal security (or Calvinism in general), and those texts must be given a fair hearing, 1 Corinthians 9:27 is a strong verse in favor of Wesleyan doctrine. John Wesley goes so far as to say,
This single text may give us a just notion of the scriptural doctrine of election and reprobation; and clearly shows us, that particular persons are not in holy writ represented as elected absolutely and unconditionally to eternal life, or predestinated absolutely and unconditionally to eternal death; but that believers in general are elected to enjoy the Christian privileges on earth; which if they abuse, those very elect persons will become reprobate. St. Paul was certainly an elect person, if ever there was one; and yet he declares it was possible he himself might become a reprobate. Nay, he actually would have become such, if he had not thus kept his body under, even though he had been so long an elect person, a Christian, and an apostle.
This interpretation of 1 Corinthians 9:27 is a powerful preaching point and a much-needed warning in today’s landscape of easy believism and nominal Christianity. Many evangelicals have become allergic to any talk of works, endurance, or self-control, as if these things are an automatic threat to the gospel of grace. John Chrysostom, however, was not rejecting the doctrine of justification by faith alone when he wrote,
If Paul, who had taught so many, was afraid of being rejected at the end, what can we say? Mere belief is not enough; we must behave in a way which is blameless if we hope to inherit salvation.
On this point, Chrysostom is very much in line with classical Protestant teaching on good works and holy behavior (see Doctrine of Good Works: Reclaiming a Neglected Protestant Teaching). Our works do nothing to merit salvation (Ephesians 2:8–9), but we cannot hope to be saved in the end if we do not restrain our bodily desires (1 Corinthians 9:27).
Our works do nothing to merit salvation, but we cannot hope to be saved in the end if we do not restrain our bodily desires.
Perfect love casts out anxious and insecure fear (1 John 4:18), but the fear of reverence and godly seriousness about the coming judgment is an important motivation in the Christian life: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). “While the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it” (Hebrews 4:1). “If you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile” (1 Peter 1:17).
