Photo: World Sport Pics

If I had to choose between my wife and my putter... well, I’d miss her.

Gary Player

Trustworthy 3

Perhaps no verse has been more misused in the history of the church’s attitude to sport than 1 Timothy 4:7, especially in the KJV wording “exercise profiteth little”, which has been seen as a proof-text against sport!

Look at the context. As in all the other “athletic metaphors” of the Pauline letters, he is not writing about sport. In 2 Timothy 2 where Paul compares the Christian to a soldier, an athlete and a hard-working farmer, he is no more trying to write a theology of sport than a theology of farming!

Whether you have a fit body or an unfit one is not of great significance in the light of eternity – although if you have an unfit body you may experience the afterlife quicker than if you keep yourself fit! All earthly pursuits – sport, work, travel, gardening etc are of limited value but this does not mean that they are wrong.

You may have heard the proverb, “Only one life and it will soon be past and only what is done for Jesus will last”. This saying is true but often misunderstood. Neither 1 Timothy 4:8, rightly understood, nor this saying would have us spend all our lives singing hymns in church.

Our lives are rather to be lived in an attitude of developing godliness and doing everything we do for Jesus. That includes singing hymns but it also includes doing our daily work and our relationships with people. And why should it exclude sport. Sport is a gift from God and is the arena in which we serve God. It is of course not all-important but it is no less legitimate than any other human activity. Paul’s main point in this passage is godliness. Note that we have to train ourselves in it. Godliness will not just happen. No, it requires an effort on our part to make it a priority

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