Every two years, Corinth hosted the Isthmian games, and everyone knew how hard the athletes trained for a winner’s wreath of olive, laurel or pine. Paul used those races to teach the Saints. “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” Athletes were “temperate in all things” for “a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.”
Later, the Epistle to the Hebrews carried the picture further. Surrounded by “so great a cloud of witnesses,” we are to “lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us,” and “run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.” Near the end of his life, Paul could say, “I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.”
Who’s who
Paul: the Apostle who compared discipleship to a race
The Corinthian Saints: people who knew the Isthmian games well
Jesus Christ: the author and finisher of our faith
Where and when
Corinth, near the site of the Isthmian games, and the Saints everywhere who read Hebrews.
Watch for the Savior
Watch how the race ends with Jesus Christ, not with beating anyone else.
Eight stops from the stadium to the finish line. Scroll, or tap a number on the map.
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The story, plainly
Four scenes: the training, the weights, the fall and the finish. Look for the Savior in each one.
Read it plainly
The words that trip people up
Tap any dotted word for its meaning. The scripture stays exactly as written.1
1 Corinthians 9:25“striveth for the Meaning: victory, the prize.”
1 Corinthians 9:25“a Meaning: one that decays or wilts. crown”
1 Corinthians 9:27“I Meaning: discipline, control. my body”
1 Corinthians 9:27“I myself should be a Meaning: disqualified, rejected.”
Hebrews 12:1“the sin which doth so easily Meaning: surround, trip up. us”
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Look closer
Small details tell the story. Some cards are details in the text; others share insights from Church leaders or Church resources. Each card says which.
0 of 9 turned
All nine. The runner, the wreath, the crown, the sack, the cloud, the cross, the ribbon, the stretch and the lamp. 1 Corinthians 9:24–27
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Where are you?
Worn out, carrying too much, I fell, or almost there. Which feels most like you right now?
A next step for you
Your choice is saved only on this device.
Try it
Keep running
This race is won with patience, not speed. Press and hold the button, and keep holding, to keep running. As you go, the words of the race appear. Let go and the runner rests.
“Let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” Hebrews 12:1
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Their world, their words
A little background helps us picture the games Paul’s readers knew. Outside sources are labeled.
Church resource · Student manual
The Isthmian games
The student manual: “In Corinth, the Isthmian games were held every two years.”8
Paul’s readers had seen these races.
Church resource · Student manual
Strict training
“Temperate in all things” probably alludes “to the strict diets and training regimens that athletes adopted.”8
Discipline for a prize.
Church resource · Student manual
Not against each other
“Saints run a race not against others, but against sin and the challenges of mortal life.”8
Everyone who finishes wins.
Church resource · Student manual
Leader and Perfecter
“Author and finisher of our faith” “can also be rendered as ‘the Leader and Perfecter of our faith.’”9
The story does not say only one person can win. In Paul’s day one runner got the wreath, but the student manual notes Saints run “not against others.” And King Benjamin adds: no one needs to “run faster than he has strength.”4
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Look to Him
He is the author and the finisher. He ran the race first, and He waits at the end.
Elder Monson’s question: “Shall I falter or shall I finish?”
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” Hebrews 12:2
King Benjamin
At your own pace
“It is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize.” Mosiah 4:27
Ask Heavenly Father to show you one thing slowing you down. Then make a plan to set it aside this week.
Try it today
One step each day. It saves on this device, one day at a time.
0 of 7 today
This week:0 of 7 days
Seven days of running. Come again tomorrow.
A quiet moment
“Looking unto Jesus.”
Read Hebrews 12:1–3 slowly. Picture the Savior at the end of your race. Thank Him for running it first, and ask Him for strength to keep going. Hebrews 12:1–3
A verse to hold
Talk about it
What did athletes in Paul’s day win?
What crown do followers of Jesus run for?
What “weights” slow us down?
Why is Jesus called the “finisher of our faith”?
Open
For adults and deeper study
Go deeper
Longer readings, harder questions, and where to study next. Each one says what it is before you click.
Prophet
President Thomas S. Monson, “The Race of Life” (2012)
Where we came from, why we are here and where we are going, with Paul’s race as the frame.5
Everything on this page as a 11-page letter-size PDF: the map, scenes, cards, activity, word studies, tracker, Go deeper and sources. For home, class or a quiet Sunday.
Run the Race is part of the Scripture Story Sketch Notes for the New Testament, set alongside Come, Follow Me for August 23–29, 2027 (1 Corinthians 8–13).
Independent study notes from Weak Things, not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. The race is described in 1 Corinthians 9 and Hebrews 12; the insights in “Look closer” are labeled by source.
