President Theodore Roosevelt loved sports. He encouraged youth to participate in sports and defended rugged sports like football and boxing. While his son was attending college, he wrote to him, “I am delighted to have you play football. I believe in rough, manly sports.” While he loved sports, he also added a warning, “Athletic proficiency is a mighty good servant, and like so many other good servants, a mighty bad master.”

Romans 6 – Whose Slave are you?

Some coaches and athletes are slaves to fame, money, achievements, or something else. Often, even Christians struggle with these same issues. In Romans 6, Paul discussed the reasons believers should no longer think and live in the old ways of sin. We serve a new master who has freed us from bondage to sin. Paul contrasted living as a slave to sin with living as a slave to Christ. He used the slavery analogy to help his readers understand his point.

Everyone is a slave to something. Though the presence of sin remains in the life of a Christian, they are no longer a slave to sin. Therefore, they no longer have to live as slaves to sin. We all serve something—it’s a matter of what. Whose slave are you?

The Kingdom Coach and Athlete no longer serve themselves. The kingdom-minded coach or athlete knows they must choose between two masters or two kingdoms. They refuse to serve sin and give their lives to God as the most liberating choice they can make.

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 – But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39 LSB

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