But I roughly treat my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified.
All Commentaries on 1 Corinthians 9:27 Go To 1 Corinthians 9
John Chrysostom
AD 407
If Paul—a man of such caliber and stature, who traversed the whole world like a winged creation, who proved superior to bodily necessities and was privileged to hear those secret words that no one else to this day has heard—if he wrote these words, “I punish my body and bring it into subjection lest while preaching to others I myself become disqualified,” if then that man, the object of so great favor, despite such conspicuous prowess felt the need to pommel his body, bring it into subjection, submit it to the authority of the soul and place its impulses under the virtue of the soul … what then would we say, deprived as we are of these virtues and with nothing to show in addition to this beyond deep indifference? After all, this war admits of no truce, does it? It has no set time for the assault, does it?. Homilies on Genesis;
