There are many sayings connected with sports that have to do with winning and playing the game. Sometimes they contradict each other, as they will focus on competing perspectives on competition. For example, coaches may say, "You play to win the game." Another well-known saying is, "It is not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game." Still, another says, "Second place is the first loser." There is even much debate about the relative merits of giving everyone "participation trophies," or saving that reward for those who achieved the greatest level of success.
BOTH ARE TRUE
We make a case for either of these opposite perspectives to be the "right" one but have positive aspects, as well as, potentially negative consequences. Both are true; you compete to win, but it always matters how you play the game.
Though this debate has some measure of significance in sports, it is also important in the "game of life." We are faced with this type of decision in all areas of life. Do we want to be humble, or do we promote ourselves, knowing the opportunity for advancement is likely to be much better if we are "self-promoters?" How much of our family life, or even our integrity, do we sacrifice to make our business a "winner?" To what degree will we acquiesce to the prevailing values of our culture, even when they conflict with what we know to be right and true? These questions grow out of the common human experience of trying to navigate life in a fallen world. The basic question is, "do we play to win, or does it matter more how we play the game?"
WHAT REALLY MATTERS MOST
Concerning life, and the reality of eternity, this question becomes paramount. What really matters to God? It would be easy to say that what matters to God is how we play the game. God wants us to live according to certain standards, and that is what is important. This makes work well for how we should conduct ourselves in sports or business, but there is a fundamental trap to this focus. This was the focus of the Pharisees of Jesus' day. They were like "whitewashed tombs," looking great on the outside, but being full of dead, rotten things on the inside.
The basic trap of religious systems is that they find ultimate victory through how we play the game. To reach Nirvana, you must walk the 8-fold path. A Muslim must have their good deeds outweigh their sins to enter heaven. As Christians, we know that trying to be good enough to go to heaven is a dead-end street.
We are told that we are saved by grace, through faith, and that salvation (and even faith itself) is a gift from God that we neither deserve nor can earn through our efforts. To win the game and receive the victor's prize of heaven is not dependent on how we play the game, but on what God has done to offer us that victory as a gift.
FAITH AND ACTIONS
Yet, God cares about our faith and our actions. In fact, He makes it clear that the proof of our eternal victory of heaven is the way in which we live our lives. We don't win the prize by how we live, but if we have received the gift of His victory, and the way we were designed to play the in the game of life. The actions of our lives do not win the victory, but they do reveal whether or not we are the victors.
Our works do not save us or give us victory in life, but those who are saved are new creatures in Christ, created to walk in good works. God expresses His design for us to focus on both the victory (salvation as a gift through Christ) and how we play the game (live our lives) in Titus 2:11-12. "For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and in a godly manner in the present age."
GOD’s GRACE
God's grace has come in Jesus Christ to bring the free gift of salvation and to instruct and encourage us to live sensibly, righteously, and Godly, in the present age. God does not tell us to live our lives in such a way as to "play to win," but to live as winners who walk in a manner worthy of the victory we have been given.
As Lent commences on Ash Wednesday, we are entering a time of introspection and prayer leading to Easter. Let us reflect on the significance of death preceding resurrection, urging readers to embrace a daily practice of surrendering self in preparation for our spiritual transformation.