1 Corinthians 9:19-27 - Paul's Work As An Apostle

¹⁹ For being free from all men, yet I made myself a servant to all, that I might gain the more; ²⁰ and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain Jews; to those under the Law, as under the Law, not being myself under the Law, that I might gain those under the Law; ²¹ to those without the Law, as without the Law, being not without a law before God, but under the law of Christ, that I might gain those without the Law; ²² to the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; I have become all things to all, that I might by all means save some. ²³ And I do all for the sake of the gospel, that I may with others partake of it.

²⁴ Know ye not, that of those who run in the racecourse all run, but one receiveth the prize? Thus run, that ye may obtain. ²⁵ And every one who contendeth in the games is temperate in all things; they, however, to obtain a perishable crown, but we, an imperishable. ²⁶ I therefore so run, not as one uncertain; I so fight, not as one striking the air; ²⁷ but I beat down my body, and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have been a herald to others, I should myself be rejected as unworthy.