September 26, 1964 is a day we should never forget. Seven individuals boarded a charter boat in Honolulu, Hawaii. A freak storm erupted during their cruise, shipwrecking the crew. Search parties looked for the ship for years but eventually, it was declared “lost at sea” and the crew and passengers declared dead. About 15 years later, the ship and all the crew and passengers were found alive and doing well. Remarkably, they wore the same clothes and shoes the entire time and they never wore out!
Their story has become a thing of legend and has been immortalized in a familiar ballad.
Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale,
A tale of a fateful trip
That started from this tropic port
Aboard this tiny ship.
The mate was a mighty sailing man,
The skipper brave and sure.
Five passengers set sail that day
For a three hour tour, a three hour tour.
The weather started getting rough,
The tiny ship was tossed,
If not for the courage of the fearless crew
The Minnow would be lost, the Minnow would be lost.
The ship set ground on the shore of this uncharted desert isle
With Gilligan
The Skipper too,
The millionaire and his wife,
The movie star
The Professor and Mary Ann,*
Here on Gilligan’s Isle.1
Did you see that coming?!? I wish I could have been sitting with you as you read this to see the exact moment the light bulb of recognition came on! What a lot of people have forgotten is that the show had two themes, one playing at the beginning of the episode and the other playing at the end. The ending theme had these words that bring me to my devotional point:
Now this is the tale of our castaways,
They’re here for a long, long time,
They’ll have to make the best of things,
It’s an uphill climb.2
I was reading an article that featured the story of six real-life castaways that were stranded in a variety of locations before being rescued. Two thoughts popped in my mind: Gilligan’s Island and 1 Corinthians 9:27. The thoughts are totally unrelated except for one word.
“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
Some read this verse and say that Paul disciplined himself so that he wouldn’t do something that would cause him to lose his salvation. However, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that we are eternally secure. We cannot lose our salvation. The context of the passage tells us what he meant.
1 Corinthians 9:24-26 asks, “Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. (25) And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. (26) I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air.”
The Believer’s Bible Commentary says, “Paul is not speaking here of salvation at all but of service. He is not suggesting that he might ever be lost, but that he might not stand the test as far as his service was concerned and might be rejected for the prize. This interpretation
exactly fits the meaning of the word disqualified and the athletic context. Paul recognizes the awful possibility that, having preached to others, he himself might be put on the shelf by the Lord as no longer usable by Him.”3
Since the setting is the Greek games, the Enduring Word Commentary writes, “In this context, disqualified … doesn’t refer to the loss of salvation (no Greek’s citizenship was revoked upon losing), but the loss of reward. Disqualified: “Signifies such a person as the… judges of the games, reject as not having deserved the prize. So Paul himself might be rejected by the great Judge; and to prevent this, he ran, he contended, he denied himself, and brought his body into subjection to his spirit, and had his spirit governed by the Spirit of God.” (Adam Clarke)4
There is hope and the possibility of being rescued for castaways such as those stranded on Gilligan’s Island. Biblical castaways, though, seem incapable of rescuing lost rewards. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Nothing in Scripture seems to suggest that what is lost can be regained. Therefore, we want to discipline our lives in order that we don’t lose rewards.
May we desire God’s rewards and discipline ourselves accordingly. Heed the reminder of Philippians 2:16, “Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”
1https://lyricsondemand.com/tvthemes/gilligansislandlyrics.html
2Ibid.
3Believer’s Bible Commentary module, e-sword.net
4Enduring Word Commentary module, e-sword.net.
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