2 Timothy 2:5

2 Timothy 2:5. Strive for masteries. St. Paul's habitual way of looking at the Christian life led him to pass naturally from the thought of the soldier to that of the athlete. We want some word to express this more adequately in the English. ‘Strive in the games' would perhaps answer the purpose, as bringing out more distinctly the new comparison.

Lawfully. The phrase, which is found in precisely the same connexion in Galen (Comm. in Hippocr. I. 15), was technical, half medical, and half belonging to the training schools of athletes, and implied the observance of all rules of life prior to the contest as well as during it. Failure to keep to the appointed diet and discipline, no less than taking an unfair advantage at the time, excluded the competitor from his reward.