Life and modern questions
What does the Bible say about sports?
Paul borrows the language of running and training to describe the Christian life, treating discipline as something to admire.
What Scripture says
1 Corinthians 9:24-25
“Don’t you know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run like that, so that you may win. Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible.”
1 Timothy 4:8
“For bodily exercise has some value, but godliness has value in all things, having the promise of the life which is now and of that which is to come.”
Hebrews 12:1-2
“Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Philippians 3:14
“I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. See all Bible questions or verses by topic.