1 Corinthians 9:24-27 New King James Version (NKJV)

Striving for a Crown

²⁴ Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may ^[a]obtain it. ²⁵ And everyone who competes for the prize ^[b]is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. ²⁶ Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. ²⁷ But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.