1 Corinthians 9:26

τοίνυν. This particle does not occur elsewhere in St Paul’s writings.

ὡς οὐκ�. ‘As one who is not running uncertainly.’ So in the next member of the sentence, ‘so fight I, as one who is not beating the air.’ μή would have required us to render ‘As if I were not running uncertainly’; ‘as if I were not beating the air.’ The οὐκ stamps the unconditional character of the negation.

οὕτως πυκτεύω. The Christian career is not merely a race, but a conflict, and a conflict not only with others, but with oneself. St Paul had to contend with the fleshly lusts of the body, the love no doubt of ease, the indisposition to hardship and toil so natural to humanity. See Romans 7:23; and for the life of pain and endurance to which he had enslaved himself, ch. 4 of this Epistle, 1 Corinthians 9:9-13, and 2 Corinthians 11:23-28. πυκτεύω signifies to fight with the fists, to box.

ὡς οὐκ�. That is, not as one who struck out at random, but as one who delivered his blows with sure aim and effect. Cf. Virg. Aen. 9:377 ‘Verberat ictibus auras’; 446 ‘Vires in ventum effudit,’ and the German ‘ins Blaue hinein.’