9:24 Do you not know that all the runners in a stadium compete, but only one receives the prize? So run to win. 9:25 Each competitor must exercise self-control in everything. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable one.

9:26 So I do not run uncertainly or box like one who hits only air. 9:27 Instead I subdue my body and make it my slave, so that after preaching to others I myself will not be disqualified.

10:1 For I do not want you to be unaware, ¹  brothers and sisters, ²  that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, 10:2 and all were baptized ³  into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, 10:3 and all ate the same spiritual food, 10:4 and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. 10:5 But God was not pleased with most of them, for they were cut down in the wilderness. 10:6 These things happened as examples for us, so that we will not crave evil things as they did. 10:7 So do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” ⁴  10:8 And let us not be immoral, as some of them were, and twenty-three thousand died in a single day. ⁵  10:9 And let us not put Christ ⁶  to the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by snakes. ⁷  10:10 And do not complain, as some of them did, and were killed by the destroying angel. ⁸  10:11 These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come. 10:12 So let the one who thinks he is standing be careful that he does not fall.