9:25. And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things. And they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown: but we an incorruptible one.
9:26. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air.
9:27. But I chastise my body and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.
I chastise, etc. . .Here St. Paul shews the necessity of self-denial and mortification, to subdue the flesh, and its inordinate desires.
1 Corinthians Chapter 10
By the example of the Israelites, he shews that we are not to build too much upon favours received but to avoid their sins and fly from the service of idols and from things offered to idols.
10:1. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud: and all passed through the sea.
10:2. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud and in the sea:
In Moses. . .Under the conduct of Moses, they received baptism in figure, by passing under the cloud, and through the sea; and they partook of the body and blood of Christ in figure, by eating of the manna, (called here a spiritual food because it was a figure of the true bread which comes down from heaven,) and drinking the water, miraculously brought out of the rock, called here a spiritual rock, because it was also a figure of Christ.
10:3. And did all eat the same spiritual food: