Does the Christian athlete have an advantage? Consider this... what character quality does every great athlete possess? Discipline. The ability to do the hard things, the little things, do them right, stick to it, persevere, etc. It’s the stand out feature that top sports people MUST have.
What does the Bible say on this? We’ve been given discipline... 2 Timothy 1.7 says, "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but one of power, love and discipline." The original Greek word here is only used once in the Bible- "sofronismon". It’s a unique word that can also be translated as "having soundness of mind, self control, moderation". And remember, we’ve been given this.
In the Galatians fruit of the Spirit list, self control is also mentioned. "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace....self-control". Again, this is GIVEN to us, as a gift, a supernatural endowment.
One of the coolest sport motifs in the Bible, and there are several, is in 1 Corinthians 9.25, "Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable". Along the same lines 2 Peter 1.6 admonishes us to supply self-control among a list of other qualities that will render us useful & fruitful in God’s Kingdom.
So on the one hand we’ve been given an internal empowering, but in other passages we’re commanded to apply self-control/discipline. Like many things in the Christian life we’ve got promises to believe in, but also admonitions to give it our best effort.
How cool is it that we can step out in faith, believing that we’ve been given the gift of discipline and make sure we’re exercising it to the best of our ability?
So what do you think? Does the Christian athlete have an advantage? It’s up to you to exercise that faith muscle and unleash God’s discipline power!
