The standard contract for most professional athletes prohibits them from a long list of career-threatening activities. These include skiing, skydiving, spelunking, motorcycle riding, and other professional sports. Athletes pay the consequences of compromise in these areas. In 1994, the Atlanta Braves voided 4.6 million of Ron Gant’s salary and released him when he crashed his dirt bike and broke his leg.

Genesis 18-19 – The Cost

Lot also paid the consequences of compromise in Genesis 19. He lost every worldly possession and his family. Moses recorded Lot’s story in the Bible as a lesson to Israel and us. It’s mentioned several times in the Bible, so we might learn of God’s hatred of sin and flee compromise. Lot allowed his family to become grounded in Sodom’s wicked culture. Even when his family’s lives were spared, as they ran, Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom because she loved and desired it, so the Lord turned her into a pillar of salt.

Much of Lot’s life was filled with the consequences of greed and the negative influences of a sinful environment. Lot was conformed to the world (Romans 12:2). All he lived for went up in smoke, and he was buried under ruins around the Dead Sea. The story of Lot is a warning to all believers not to love the world or be stained by it (James 1:27).

The Kingdom Coach and Athlete refuse to compromise their biblical convictions and principles to the culture. They flee sin and set their goal to become conformed to the image of Christ.

Bible Verse: “After these things, the word of Yahweh came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great.” Genesis 15:1 (LSB)