1 Corinthians 9:27
1 Corinthians 9:2727No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.
is a common Watchtower proof-text for eternal insecurity. The argument runs: if even Paul feared being adokimos ("disapproved" in the NWT), then no one can have assurance of final salvation. The verse is used to underwrite a works-dependent perseverance model — salvation is held provisionally and must be secured by discipline, loyalty, and endurance, especially organisational endurance.
Let Paul interpret Paul. In his very next letter to the same church, , Paul uses adokimos explicitly as an evidential test of whether Christ is in the believer — "examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith ... unless, indeed, you are disapproved" (NWT). The NWT even renders adokimos identically across both verses. In 2 Cor 13, adokimos names not salvation-revocation but counterfeit faith — the self-examination asks whether one is actually in Christ, not whether one can be kicked out of him. 1 Cor 9:27 is the same register: Paul is living like a marathoner who intends to finish, not a justified man worried his justification might be revoked. The same Paul writes ("no condemnation for those in Christ"), ("nothing can separate us from the love of God"), ("he who began a good work will perfect it"). Diligence plus assurance — not diligence instead of assurance. Paul's discipline is what a saved man does, not what he does to get saved. Use the verse to open the self-examination conversation ("am I in the faith?") rather than to concede the premise that salvation can be lost.