"Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play…it is war minus the shooting."
Free and Content
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have. Hebrews 13:5This verse stands conventional wisdom on its head. In the modern world we think having money is what gives us freedom. Yet in recent years all over Europe and beyond we have seen banks collapse – and even national economies. We are to keep ourselves free from the love of money and be content.
In the world of sport there are so many high earners. This very week eight golfers are competing in Turkey for a minimum of 300,000 dollars and a maximum of 1.5 million dollars per person. Now I don’t blame the players. If the sponsor is putting up the money, why not compete for it?
The verse does not say money is wrong. The warning is against the love of money. We have seen international cricketers throw away their integrity and their career because of a love of money.
Contentment is foreign to the spirit of the age. Players sign contracts and then demand more money. There is not much evidence of contentment in the world of professional sport. John the Baptist’s words to the soldiers, “be content with you pay” (Luke 3:14), are as relevant today as they were 2000 years ago.
Are you content and free from the love of money? The verse continues giving us a reason why we should be content and indeed the way to be content: “because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’”
If God is with us, we have every reason to be content,