FAITH & CULTURE 22 SEPTEMBER 2025 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida Edition Football season is upon us. But sports, many think, are merely games, so they’re of little interest to God. As the argument goes, if God doesn’t care about sports, then our participation in sports doesn’t really require any theological or moral reflection. But God is the giver of all good gifts, including sports and competition. When we consider this God-given gift theologically, we can see God’s creational design for sports and competition, human’s sinful misdirection of that design, and Christian redirection of that design. God’s creational design for sports Being created in his image and likeness, he called us to till the soil (Genesis 2:15). To “till the soil” is to bring out the hidden potential of God’s good creation. The soil can be tilled both literally and figuratively. In other words, we can bring out creation’s hidden potentials not only through agricultural work (literally tilling the soil), but also through other kinds of cultural work, such as endeavors in art, science, education, entrepreneurship, and sports and competition. When we engage in cultural work, we are figuratively “tilling the soil.” Thus, it should be no surprise that human beings would creatively make sporting “worlds” complete with their own goals, obstacles, rules and parameters. The apostle Paul used sporting metaphors regularly and positively. He compared the Christian life to running in a race (1 Corinthinas 9:24), fighting in an arena (1 Timothy 6:12), and training for a competition (2 Timothy 3:16). Indeed, the development of sports is in accord with everything we know about God’s design for the world. Team sports are cooperative in nature, as teammates work together to meet goals and overcome obstacles. Coaches and athletes share their joy in creating strategies and tactics to overcome obstacles and achieve goals. Thus, cooperation is the essence of team competition. The joy of cooperation is enhanced by the challenge of competition. Goheen and Bartholomew write, “Competition can enhance the joy and emotional intensity of the whole athletic experience, helping to sharpen one’s skills and produce satisfying physical exertion. Thus, an opponent is not first of all a rival but rather someone who provides the opportunity for a more delightful experience of sport. Competition is an enriching part of God’s gift. One loves one’s neighbor in sport by providing stiff competition to enhance the athletic experience.” Sports and competition are intended to glorify God. They are good in and of themselves, and not a means toward some other human end. The corruption and misdirection of sports and competition God may have created the world as a perfect arena for healthy sports and competition, but human sin and idolatry have corrupted and misdirected the activities in that arena. We can see this corruption and misdirection in many ways. For sports enthusiasts, it can be easy to make a particular sport or team into a functional idol in our lives, enjoying it and centering our lives on it rather than on God. Once we’ve made an idol out of sports, it becomes our primary source of identity. We identify more readily and passionately as a fan of such-and-such team than we do as a follower of Christ. We might find ourselves devoting disproportionate amounts of our time and money to our favorite sports, thus elevating sports above family, friends or vocation. We might find ourselves defending our favorite athletes’ actions when they are arrogant, narcissistic or dishonest. Conversely, we might justify treating competitors with animosity, disdain, disregard, dishonor and disparagement. Similarly, we might catch ourselves justifying verbal abuse toward coaches or athletes who are not performing as well as we would prefer. The healing and redirection of sports and competition In the face of the corruption and misdirection of sports and competition, we must demote sporting to its proper place in life — so that it is not treated as an idol — while at the same time resist denigrating it as something that doesn’t matter. We must treat both our favorite teams and their competitors with dignity and respect. We must encourage on-the-field virtues such as humility, courage and strength, and model these virtues for both our fellow fans and our competitors. We must remember that sporting, like all cultural endeavors, is intended to glorify God rather than self. Conclusion Life is an integrated web, an interconnected whole. God created the world so that it would contain a variety of cultural spheres, each connected to the others and to Christ himself. Thus, our personal devotion to Christ cannot be separated from the way we live in the various “cultural” aspects of our lives. If we are to truly know and love God, we must know and love him not only in our personal devotions and church attendance, but also in the realms of sports, entertainment, education and politics. Thus, we should pray that God will glorify himself not only on Sunday mornings when the church is gathered, but also on Monday through Saturday, when the church is scattered into the broader world, among all of its cultural manifestations. Dr. Robert J. Pacienza is the Senior Pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church (Fort Lauderdale, FL), the CEO and President of Coral Ridge Ministries, and the Founder of the Institute for Faith and Culture. John Byl, “Coming to Terms with Play, Game, Sport, and Athletics,” in Christianity and Leisure: Issues in a Pluralistic Society, eds. Paul Heintzman, Glen Van Andel, and Thomas Visker (Sioux Center, IA: Dordt College Press, 1994), 155-63. Bradshaw Frey, William Ingram, Thomas McWhertor, and William Romanowski, “Sports and Athletics: Playing to the Glory of God,” in At Work and Play: Biblical Insight to Daily Obedience (Jordan Station, ON: Paideia, 1986), 46. Michael W. Goheen and Craig G. Bartholomew, Living at the Crossroads: An Introduction to Christian Worldview (Baker, 2008), 154. - Dr. Rob Pacienza - Senior Pastor, Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church More than a Game, Less than a God Boca Raton, FL, 2nd September 2023. FAU during a college football game between Florida Atlantic University Owls v Monmouth at FAU Stadium in Boca Raton.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjE2MjU=