A Brief Thelogy of Sports

The temptation when writing on a subject such as sports is to take just the verses that apply directly and interpret them literally and expand from them. The main verses come from Paul when in First Corinthians 9:25 he says “Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable reward.” And Second Timothy 2:5, “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.”

Truthfully, I could probably write a pretty decent article or two just on these two verses. I could even expand to talking about war, since that is the closest thing we see in ancient culture to what modern sports today have become. And there’s no doubt, I will speak on these.

But there’s a larger issue. Taking verses out of their context only creates a legalistic, semi-biblical perspective. Instead, we need to understand the Gospel in a deeper way to truly understand what role sports should play in the life of a Christian. And with that, let’s not forget about the role it plays in the church, the unbeliever, and the world as a whole. These are all issues I find myself curious about. I hope you will travel with me through the Gospel to find out what God has purposed sports for in His world.

I feel that even in a Reformed context (where people generally are more lenient and not as legalistic) that the enjoyment of sports is looked down upon. If someone is a sports addict, others immediately think “how could you be addicted to that? That’s dumb! It’s just a bunch of immature men throwing or hitting a ball or crushing each other for no reason.” Perhaps that’s you.

Perhaps you came to this book hoping to confirm your previous bias that sports are bad, evil, and a creation of the Devil. Or maybe you came as a woman hoping to provide biblical truth to your husband/boyfriend/fiancé as to why he should stop focusing so much on sports.

I’m not going to deny that it’s possible to become addicted to sports. And I won’t say sports addiction isn’t wrong. But I’m also not going to bash the sports addict, in part because that’s me, but also because sports are not the problem. The heart is the problem. We ALL have hearts that long and desire for things other than our Savior Jesus Christ.

There’s so much to write on the subject of sports. But organizing it is very difficult. At least with a topic like sex, there’s a whole book in the Bible pretty much concentrated on the subject. The Song of Solomon is a kind of checks and balances for anyone writing about sex. An expositor can look over the Song of Solomon and ask himself, “is this what the Bible really says about sex?” There is no such book that acts as a checks and balances for the topic of sports.

Where must we start when we talk about such an issue as sports? Well, just like any other issue we must start in the Word of God. But we aren’t going to start with the verses that mention directly athletes. Doing so would put us in a position where we go to the text for what we want it to say. Instead we must start with a basic understanding of the Gospel.

In Sex and the Supremacy of Christ, John Piper outlines the basic reason why sex is a gift from God to be enjoyed by his people. He uses a number of verses, primarily coming from Paul’s epistles, which speak of “all things”. Note he doesn’t start with verses that talk directly about sex. He starts talking about sex as being among “all things”. I wrote a paper on the subject of sexual pleasure in a class I had my final semester at San Diego State University. I used Piper’s argument to argue for sexual pleasure being okay in a Christian context. My primary argument was that sex is among “all things” and that all things are to be done for the glory of God.

Perhaps my favorite line in that entire paper is the following: “The church is not a group of old curmudgeons hoping to eliminate all pleasure and joy.” When we try to eliminate pleasure in sex, or pleasure from watching and/or participating in sports, we are acting as a bunch of old curmudgeons trying to eliminate all pleasure and joy. And when we do that, we are playing God. It is not our job to eliminate any person’s joy, whether they love Jesus or not. It is our job to point them to the true joy that exists when we see the cross of Christ as our lone hope.

My greater point is that just like in sex, where “all things” means we are to enjoy sex as a glorious gift from God, sports too is among all things. Sports is a gift from God. I think that’s clear since he gives young men and women tremendous athletic abilities. Just think about Kevin Durant and LeBron James, Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin, Stephen Strasburg and Albert Pujols, just to name a few. While all of those guys are ultimately great because they work very hard, they are all supremely talented. You might make the case that those guys are the most talented men to ever play their respective games or positions.

And in women’s sports today, you are seeing many women who are super talented, maybe even more talented than some men in previous generations. I don’t believe any of this is an accident. Nothing that happens on this earth is an accident. It is true that everything happens for a reason (which you of course hear a lot from famous athletes when they get hurt or traded, etc.). I mention that because God is sovereign. He is totally 100% in control of all things. He gave these men and women these amazing talents for a reason. I believe it was not to simply bring themselves joy or to make them famous, or worst of all, make them think they are something special. It was undeniably meant to show off His glory. It was meant to say, look at the talent developer that I AM!