Loving your neighbour - or just beating him!

When I became a Christian I was playing professional football for Cambridge United. Beforehand I had been enjoying life but now it had taken on an added dimension in finding meaning, purpose and a more abundant life.

Then one Sunday, a mature Christian whom I had got to know, took me aside. He said, "Listen, isn't it fantastic, being a Christian?" I was happy to agree. Then he added, "I'm sure, now, you'll be thinking of giving up your job, to do something more appropriate for the Lord's work?"

In that moment my world ended. I was 21 years old. For as long as I could remember, all I'd wanted to do was to play football. I'd made it into professional football. I'd become a first-team player. I'd become a Christian. Life was fantastic and alive and exciting. And now I was being told to give it all up because it was not "spiritual".

With what I know now, I am convinced that sport, our sporting ability and our love of competing, is part of God's creation. There is no reason why as a Christian I cannot continue to be a sportsman. God gave me the ability.

As Paul writes in Romans 12:1 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship." What better place to offer our bodies to God than on the sports field?

Jesus also gave us the great commandment, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbour as yourself." (Matthew 22:37-39) It is one thing for me to please the great coach in heaven by how I play my sport, but if I play against you, my aim is to beat you! Surely if I love you, I would want you to win, not me?

We know how to play to win, but how do we play to love? If you are playing your sport to please God, then you also have to love your neighbour.

We are made in the image of God and our purpose is to demonstrate and proclaim God's image and presence in all we do. We are to treat our opponents as we would like to be treated ourselves.

Applying that in competitive sport is a radical concept. If we see our opponent, not as our enemy but as our neighbour and, moreover, a neighbour whom Jesus tells us to love as ourselves, it certainly affects our attitude to the opponent. We treat them with respect. We play hard but do not seek an unfair advantage. Our aim is to honour God in the competition. That is our motivation - not greed, aggression, selfishness, etc.

For Christian sportspeople, living our life by the Golden Rule is our purpose in sport - as in all other aspects of life. Winning and losing are by-products, not the main thing. This is not to say that winning or losing is unimportant. Christians do not have to be 'lovable losers'.

The fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) includes 'gentleness'. And in dealing with a problem in the church at Corinth, Paul writes, 'By the meekness and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you…' (2 Corinthians 10:1).

There is no doubt that humility, meekness, gentleness are essential parts of the Christian character, but we still have to work out how it affects our attitude to competitive sport. It seems that these verses tell us more about how we should conduct ourselves in the heat of the battle, and in any other sphere of our Christian lives, than about whether or not we can compete to win.

I see no reason why Christians cannot compete to win, and give it 100%, without any conflict with their faith. It is not easy but it can be done. Moreover, I would go as far as to suggest that if you cannot compete in a spirit of loving your neighbour, then as a Christian, you cannot compete at all.

Graham Daniels
General Director, Christians in Sport

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