After each stage of creation, God looked at what he created and called it good. Then, he created humanity, and he called it very good (Gen. 1:31). Enjoying sports gives us the ability to look at an aspect of God’s creation, subsequently experience awe and wonder, and join with God in calling it very good.
Paul’s sports analogies provide us more evidence that sports, appreciated broadly, might lead us to change our behaviors to better worship God. These references include running a race with perseverance (Heb. 12:1, 2 Tim. 4:7) and gaining a prize in competition through discipline and self-control (1 Cor. 9:24-27). The St. Louis Cardinals’ David Eckstein may not have had the physical prowess of other baseball players, but his discipline and hard work earned him a World Series MVP award in 2006. Not all of the exemplary individuals we find in athletics follow after God, but God can use their practical example to nudge us into disciplining ourselves toward godliness.
Enjoying sports serves another possible purpose in our lives: helping to fulfill the necessity of human connection (Eccls. 4:9-12). Sports can bond people with one another and open avenues of conversation both with fellow believers and others we are trying to reach with the gospel. However, a word of warning: Sports can also be a fallback conversation that we use to stay comfortable in a relationship. Men especially must learn to turn superficial conversations into deeper conversations. This can aid in the loneliness that we experience, as 31% of Christians reported feeling loneliness daily before the pandemic undoubtedly made it worse. [1]
While sports are useful tools in starting these conversations, our own spiritual health and the souls of others depend on conversations that are much more meaningful than last night’s game.
Sports Fandom Can Become Idolatry
As with many parts of God’s creation, Christians can cross the line into sinfulness when sports fandom distorts our rightly ordered loves. Most often, sports monopolize our time, function as identity, and compromise our values.
I used to be a huge football fan and wanted to be a football coach (that’s how God juked me into becoming a high school teacher). I spent all day Saturdays and Sundays watching games, and then again Monday nights. Sports quickly began consuming my life at the cost of distracting me from what God truly wanted from me. I needed to consider whether the time I spent with sports crossed the line into idolatry.
For me, sports clouded my vision because it gave me pleasure. As the Teacher in Ecclesiastes tells us, all the pleasure in the world, if pursued apart from God, turns out to be futile, accomplishing nothing (Eccl. 2:1-2). Rightly ordering our love for sports takes honesty and prayer. We may also need to allow other Christians to speak truth to us in love (Eph. 4:21).
The licensed sports merchandise industry made over $33 billion in sales in 2022. [2] This should cause us to wonder whether sports fandom has become an identity to which we voluntarily surrender our resources. I often see an Arkansas Razorbacks shirt or polo I just must have in an effort to show the world who I am. I am a Razorback.
Being a sports fan often involves a significant amount of money, whether in tickets, gear, or unlimited television and streaming packages. An identity found in sports fandom might cause us to spend money on experiences or memorabilia to the extent that we are storing up treasures on earth rather than in heaven (Matthew 6:19-21). As Christians, we must evaluate what our time and resources say about where we are finding our identity.
Sports fandom can cause Christians to compromise on our values
God tells us we are made in his image (Gen. 1:26-27), and this should determine what we do with our bodies. Culture desensitizes us to the inherent violence in sports, which can too often overwhelm our biblical convictions and make us blind to the darker sides of football, MMA, hockey, or NASCAR. I am not saying you cannot be fans of these sports, but our conviction concerning the value of a life should make us the greatest supporters of reforms to make sports safer. Even in my preferred sport of basketball, players will choose to remove God-given cartilage in their knees (rather than repair it) at the expense of long-term health to return to the game sooner.
Although sports offer us tangible examples of running the race with endurance, as Christians we should uphold the high value of life by evaluating whether we are prioritizing our short-term pleasure over athletes’ long-term health.
There are no black and white answers in the Bible regarding sports. However, as Christians we should constantly be evaluating whether we are using sports to glorify God or letting sports—our enjoyment of them—become our gods.
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