How should a Christian view sports / athletics?

This is commonly the case where young persons of opposite sexes mingle much together. There is no reason why Christian young men and women should not meet and enjoy one another’s company in a pure and holy way. But often it is otherwise. If you feel there is a snare in such commingling, then be honest with your own souls and avoid what might dishonor Christ and hinder spiritual growth. Timothy was exhorted to treat elder brethren with the reverence due to fathers, “younger men as brethren; the elder women as mothers; the younger as sisters, with all purity” (1 Timothy 5:1,2). The last three words are important, and if overlooked, will lead to many a snare. Young people need recreation; older ones, too, for that matter. It is a mistake to suppose that body and mind must always be keyed up to serious pursuits. “Bodily exercise profiteth [a] little” (1 Timothy 4:8)—not a great deal, but a “little.” Therefore beware of giving it an undue place, but do not neglect it. And in all your recreation see that there is nothing that hinders godliness, for godliness is of profit both in this life and the next.

Anyone in reading the epistles can observe that in Paul’s many references to athletics, there is no suggestion that he in any way disapproves of the exercise in itself. The dangers are two: first, associations; second, excess. Be temperate in all things (1 Corinthians 9:25), and be as careful of your companionships in your recreation as in the other affairs of life.

Unduly rigid persons often forget young men and women have bodies to be cared for and developed in a healthful way. On the other hand, pleasure-lovers forget they have immortal souls, of infinitely more importance than the body in which they dwell. Seek therefore to be a well-balanced Christian, putting first things first; and as to minor matters, ever keeping Christ’s glory in view. And if you are enabled to have a healthy soul in a healthy body, see that you use your strength for Him who for our sakes “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2). “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16), and thus you will be enabled to “do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).

It is not that bodily exercise is not profitable, for it is and has its lawful place, but let it not be linked up with what is spiritual. We are not dead to nature, but nature has its place in believers who are to be controlled and upheld by the Spirit of God; it must not therefore intrude into the things of God.

Recreation and Exercise are Profitable

Recreation and exercise are recognized by the Word as profitable for a little (1 Tim.4:7; JND Trans.), meaning, we believe, for a short time (that is, this life); but these can be taken and enjoyed without joining clubs. No doubt there is not the same scope or the same advantages that there would be, humanly speaking, where larger groups are brought together. Whether this is true or not, the child of God must here take his stand and, deliberately counting the cost, be prepared to suffer all inconveniences that may arise from his being true to Christ.

We can only run the race with patience if we lay aside every weight and the sin which entangles. Sin is a very effectual hindrance. It is likened to an obstacle which entangles our feet so that we fall. In the first place however weights are mentioned, as though they were after all the greater hindrance. Many things which could by no means be classified as sins prove themselves to be weights to an earnest Christian; just as there are many things quite right, and allowable to the ordinary individual, which are wholly discarded by the athlete. He strips himself of everything which would impede his progress to the goal. And every Christian should consider himself a spiritual athlete, as 2 Timothy 2:5 also shows.

It is a wholly false principle that natural gifts are a reason for using them. I may have amazing strength or speed in running; I knock a man down with one, and win a prize cup with another. Music may be a more refined thing, but the principle is the same. This point I believe to be now of all importance. Christians have lost their moral influence by bringing in nature and the world as harmless. All things are lawful to me. But as I said, you cannot mix flesh and Spirit. We need all our energies under grace to walk in the latter, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our bodies. Let Christ be all, and the eye is single and the whole body full of light. The converse is if our eye be evil, because it shuts out Christ; our affections are not set on things above where Christ sits at God's right hand. That is the point for us, happy affections there, and steadfastly, not being distracted.

(V. 8). To emphasise the importance of spiritual exercise as to piety, the Apostle contrasts it with “bodily exercise”. The allusion is probably to the public games, as in 1 Corinthians 9:24-25, where, in speaking of the public races, he says, “Every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things”. He continues to warn us in that passage that such exercise in temperance has only a passing advantage; at best it obtains only “a corruptible crown”, in contrast with the “incorruptible” which the Christian has in view. So here, he says, that this bodily exercise is only profitable in some small things; but the spiritual exercise of piety is profitable to all things, being rich with blessing in this life as well as in that which is to come.

Scripture is very careful to point out the great contrast between “bodily exercise,” which is for a little time, and “godliness,” which “is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (1 Tim. 4:8); the only life that endures for ever.

Bodily exercise, it is conceded, does profit for a little while, that is, it is of value temporarily (therefore not to be ignored): but godliness has both present and eternal value: this life is benefited by it inestimably, and it has in it a character that reaps eternal results. How well worth cultivating!

Most of us know how to care for our bodies, and it is a right thing to give proper attention to the temple of the Holy Spirit, but we should not be over-occupied with the vessel that holds the divine treasure, “for bodily exercise profits (for a) little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come” (verse 8). Bodily exercise will profit us a little, but in a very small way in comparison with spiritual exercise that produces godliness. Godliness has its present rewards in spiritual growth, spiritual joy, and in the knowledge that we are living for God’s will and pleasure; and what is produced in us of Christ now by divine exercise will be found in the display of the world to come.

We have ever to remember that the body of the believer “is the temple of the Holy Ghost,” so that nothing unholy is to be allowed to defile that in which God’s Spirit dwells (1 Cor. 6:19), that in which we are to glorify God. On the one hand there is not to be the wilful “neglecting of the body” (Col. 2:23) in an asceticism that ministers to the vanity of the flesh; nor, on the other hand, has there to be anxious care in regard to raiment (Luke 12:22-23), for the Lord knows how to provide for our every need.

There is ever the danger of going to extremes in regard to our bodies, and some would give so much attention to the body that divine things are neglected. Things are to be kept in divine perspective, so the Apostle tells Timothy, “For bodily exercise profits (for a) little: but godliness is profitable unto all things” (1 Tim. 4:8). There is no danger of the body being wilfully neglected if we seek after true piety, nor will we give the body undue attention if the will and glory of God are before us.

Bodily exercise is profitable only for the life that now is, but godliness has “promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” Piety brings its own reward in the present life, for it gives the godly the rest of soul that belongs to those who take upon them the yoke of the lowly Jesus, and the joy of things that belong to God, the things eternal and spiritual to which we have been called. Godliness also holds out promise of the coming good things, the things that we shall have as a reward in the kingdom of Christ and of God.