But this does not seem to be St Paul's meaning. In the first similitude he takes no account of the time which precedes the soldier's service, during which he may be supposed to be preparing himself for it. The Christian's life and the soldier's service are regarded as co-extensive, and there is no thought of any previous period. So also in the second similitude. The Christian's life and the athlete's contest are regarded as co-extensive, and no account is taken of anything that may have preceded. Baptism is entering the lists, not entering the training-school; and the only rules under consideration are the rules of the arena. No doubt there are analogies between the training-school and Christian discipline, and St. Paul sometimes makes use of them (1 Cor. ix. 25, 27); but they do not seem to be included in the present metaphor. But it is about the third similitude that there has been most discussion. "The husbandman that laboureth must be the first to partake of the fruits:" not, as the A. V., "must be first partaker of the fruits;" which seems to imply that he must partake of the fruits before he labours. What is the meaning of "first"? Some commentators resort to the rather desperate hypothesis that this word is misplaced, as it sometimes is in careless writing and conversation: and they suppose that what St. Paul means is, that "the husbandman, who labours first, must then partake of the fruits," or, more clearly, "the husbandman, who wishes to partake of the fruits, must first of all labour." The margin of the A. V. suggests a similar translation. But this is to credit the Apostle with great clumsiness of expression. And even if this transposition of the "first" could be accepted as probable, there still remains the fact that we have the present and not the aorist participle (κοπιῶντα and not κοπιάσαντα). Had St. Paul meant what is supposed, he would have said "The husbandman who _has_ first _laboured_," not "who _labours_ first." But there is no transposition of the "first." The order of the Greek shows that the emphatic word is "labours." "It is the _labouring_ husbandman who must be the first to partake of the fruits." It is the man who works hard and with a will, and not the one who works listlessly or looks despondently on, who, according to all moral fitness and the nature of things, ought to have the first share in the fruits. This interpretation does justice to the Greek as it stands, without resorting to any manipulation of the Apostle's language. Moreover, it brings the saying into perfect harmony with the context.