1 Corinthians 9:26

not as uncertainly i.e. with no definite object, but "looking to some goal," as St Chrysostom observes, and that goal the salvation of himself and others.

so fight I 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 especially 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.

not as one that beateth the air That is, not as one who struck out at random, but as one who delivered his blows with effect. Cf. Virg. Æn. v. 377, Verberat ictibus auras; 446, Vires in ventum effudit, and the German "ins Blaue hinein."