Love Your Local Athlete

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control… - Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV)

Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love God with our whole heart, soul, and mind; and that the second greatest is to love our neighbor as our self (Matthew 22:36-40). So how does this FOTS, love, play out in an athletic arena? Loving God with our whole heart means that we never allow our sport to become more important than our pursuit of knowing, worshipping, and serving God. Ask the Holy Spirit to check your motives and actions to keep this in balance. The Spirit may use your calendar to show you if your time commitment to sports is out of balance.

The second commandment Jesus mentioned is to love your neighbor as yourself. In Luke’s account, Jesus is asked a follow-up question by “an expert in the Law” to clarify who Jesus meant by neighbor. Jesus shares the famous story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). Briefly, our neighbor is everyone we come in contact with—especially those in need. Our "neighbors" in a sports context are our teammates, opponents, officials, coaches, and spectators.

Training Exercise

1. List two to three ways you can show love within your sport to the following people:

Teammates/Training partners...

Opponents...

Officials...

Coaches...

Spectators...

2. Any discussion on loving others would not be complete if we did not consider loving the unlovable. God’s living Word encourages believers to love our enemies, return good for evil, bless and pray for those who mistreat you. This is hard and can only be done through the power of Christ (Philippians 4:13). I would encourage you to make a list of those individuals in your sphere of sports who have been difficult to love. Then begin to regularly do what the Bible encourages: pray for them, bless them and return good for evil. Ask God to show you specific ways to love the unlovable people in your life—and ask God to give you the desire and power to do it.

3. The Christian life was meant to be lived in community with other believers. Ask God to show you at least one person who can pray for you as seek to love God and others.