The Bible talks about five different crowns, and they may overlap. Some of them may mean the same thing, it's not always easy to tell; but they do refer to five different crowns and that's what we're going to look at. Each one represents a different award, or a prize, you must contend for.
A crown then, if a crown is awarded to you, is a visible, tangible sign to everyone you won. The winner's crown means you won. Everyone who sees you with it will know that you're the winner. We tend to have a medal around the neck, and it's got #1, or First Place. Everyone knows you won. The crowns are incorruptible. That means they will go on forever; so forever, we will have something given to us, that acknowledges the kind of race that we run, and the kind of battles we fought; and they will no doubt differ from person to person.
Crowns are very important to God. When the high priests’ garments were defined, God gave exceptional detail, in Exodus 28, about the high priest’s garments. One of the things He gave detail to, was the crown that he would wear. The high priest had a head covering: a turban; and then a golden plate, which had on it: Holiness To The Lord; and jewels, and various other things.
Obviously, if you win a crown it's a treasured possession. People put the things that they've won up on a wall, its visible to everyone coming in, an honour is presented. When we win one of these five crowns, it will be clear for all eternity, that we have won a crown. The honour will be recognisable.
Let's first look at the incorruptible crown, the one we've just looked at it. Paul is using the term ‘run a race’. He's referring to the Roman public games, and what he's saying is that, naturally, there was a certain kind of lifestyle, and a certain kind of preparation, that they all went through; and their goal was to win in the games. If they won in the games, then they got a wreath - the victor's crown. They got also a stone, with their name on it, which gave them access to public events free of charge. In other words, they were honoured.
Notice he says: not everyone wins the race. He's saying then, it is possible, as a believer, you won't complete your race; that you will drop out of your race; that you will not do what's required to complete, or to win, the race. He says there's a prize; one receives the prize. In the Roman games, in each race that was run, only one got the prize. He's not saying that for us - everyone can win the prize. However, you've got to do what's required of you, and that's an individual thing. The prize is a crown, awarded to the victor, at the public games, and it was a symbol of the reward. Notice he says, that in the public games, it's corruptible. The garland eventually withers, and after a while it's just an old, dried up set of leaves. We're after something that's absolutely incorruptible; it goes on for eternity.
He says then: if they put in all that effort, for something natural that gets withered after a while; then how much more should we put in the effort needed, for something that is totally incorruptible, that will last for eternity? So, he says: run your life, or run your race, fulfil your following the Lord in such a way that you win the prize. That word ‘obtain’ or ‘win’ the prize means ‘to possess’ or ‘take a hold of it’.
If you look through there, you'll see there are four different things that he points out in that passage there, that are required for winning the crown - four things!
1) We need to value the prize. If you don’t know there's a prize, you won't put a value on it. You won't change your life to win the prize. Paul knew that there was a prize, and he knew the value of the prize.
Philippians 3:7-8 – “For the things that were gain to me, I counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I count everything loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and I count them rubbish, that I might gain or win Christ”.
He knew exactly what was at stake. He was called up to heaven, he had a heavenly vision, where God showed him His eternal plan, and showed him what was at stake; and then he tries to express it and write it. When he's writing this, he's saying: I see what it is; everything else is just nothing, because everything else, you'll leave it behind; but this is eternal, and it's about winning Christ.
If we don't know there's a prize, we won't value it; so he valued the prize, to the point where he said: nothing in my life compares to this; whereas in contrast, Esau didn't value the prize, and so he placed no value on it, and he traded it away for a bowl of beans, which is where many Christians are. They either don't know the inheritance God has; or if they do know, they trade it away, because they don't value it. Many people come into the church, but without a vision of eternity, of preparing, running the race, of actually what God has in store for them, then they place no value on the price needed to get there. There's no internal desire, and longing, that I can experience that.