What would happen if your team decided not to listen to you? What happens when a player chooses to run their own plays or ignore the rules of the game? Imagine what happens if your players don’t practice discipline, obedience, and respect for each other and the other team.

Dabo Swinney’s Clemson Tigers demands his players always be on their best behavior. “We try to keep it clean at practice,” states left tackle Jackson Carman. According to Carman, the policy is zero profanity unless it’s in the Bible. The tolerable ways to express disgust, per Swinney, are limited to hell, damn, ass. “It’s the right thing to do,” Swinney said when asked about the policy.

1 Corinthians 5 – Disciplinary Issues

Because of the lack of leadership in the Corinthian church, the church faced many disciplinary problems that included incest, lawsuits, and prostitution. Paul even goes so far as to say the believers were acting worse than the pagans (5:1)!

Paul’s role as a leader meant he couldn’t overlook serious sin among the believers but instead had to confront it. There are guidelines to follow in Matthew 18:15-17. There was no room for Paul to back down from confronting the sin. The actions were not to be punitive but restorative. James wrote, “Whoever brings the sinner back from wandering will save that person from death and bring about the forgiveness of many sins” (James 5:20).

As a way of helping the man who needed to repent of his sin, Paul encouraged the church to expel him from their fellowship. He illustrated yeast in bread to describe the danger of allowing immoral behavior to continue unchecked within the church.

The Kingdom Coach and Athlete take inappropriate behavior on their team seriously and don’t allow it to affect the rest of their team negatively. They seek to restore the athlete in the hopes they will turn away from their sin.

Journaling helps you understand and respond to the Bible. As you journal, use the acronym HEAR to Highlight, Explain, Apply, and Respond to what you have read in the reading plan.

Bible Memory Verse – “Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore, glorify God in your body.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Click HERE for the Kingdom Sports Minute on The Motion Man