15 Bible Verses About Athletes

1 Corinthians 9:24-25

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

Reflection: Paul has just said he became “all things to all people” so that he might save some (verse 22), and the race illustrates that effort for the gospel. “Goes into strict training” translates egkrateuomai, to exercise self-control; Thayer’s lexicon explains it by athletes who abstained from certain things while preparing for the games. The crown is a stephanos, the wreath given to victors in the public games, which Paul sets against a crown “that will last forever.”

1 Corinthians 9:26-27

“Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Reflection: Paul moves from the runner to the boxer who aims his punches. The discipline he describes is applied to his own body, and the danger he names is his own: being disqualified for the prize after he has preached to others.

2 Timothy 2:5

“Similarly, anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules.”

Reflection: Paul gives Timothy three pictures side by side: the soldier who pleases his commanding officer (verse 4), the athlete, and the hardworking farmer (verse 6). The verb here is athleo, to compete in the games. Verse 3 frames all three with a call to endure: “Join with me in suffering, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”

1 Timothy 4:8

“For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

Reflection: In the verse before, Paul tells Timothy, “train yourself to be godly,” using gymnazo, the verb behind the noun translated “physical training” (gymnasia). The NIV reads that noun as bodily exercise. Thayer’s lexicon reads it instead as the ascetic discipline described in verse 3, where false teachers “forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods.” On either reading, Paul grants the training some value and gives godliness value “for all things.”

Philippians 3:13-14

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Reflection: “Prize” here is brabeion, the same word Paul uses in 1 Corinthians 9:24 for the award to the winner of a race. In verse 12 he says he has not “already arrived at my goal.” The prize is the one “for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

Hebrews 12:1-2

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.”

Reflection: The “cloud of witnesses” are the men and women of faith listed in chapter 11, who were “all commended for their faith” (Hebrews 11:39). The word for race is agon, a contest. Runners strip off what hinders them and fix their eyes on Jesus, who endured the cross, and verse 3 gives the reason to look at him: “so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Galatians 5:7

“You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth?”

Reflection: Paul writes to the Galatian churches, who were being urged to be circumcised and keep the law (verses 2-4). He pictures them as runners who had been doing well until someone cut in on them. The verses that follow say that such persuasion “does not come from the one who calls you,” and that whoever is unsettling them “will have to pay the penalty.”

Acts 20:24

“However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

Reflection: Paul speaks these words at Miletus to the elders of the church in Ephesus, whom he had sent for (verse 17). He is on his way to Jerusalem, and the Holy Spirit has warned him in every city that “prison and hardships” wait for him there (verse 23). Finishing the race means completing the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

2 Timothy 4:7

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

Reflection: Paul writes this near the end of his life: “the time for my departure is near” (verse 6). “Fought the good fight” uses agon, the same word Hebrews 12:1 uses for the race. The next verse names the reward as “the crown of righteousness,” a stephanos, promised “also to all who have longed for his appearing.”

Isaiah 40:29-31

“He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Reflection: The prophet answers Israel’s complaint, “My way is hidden from the Lord” (verse 27), by pointing to the Creator, who “will not grow tired or weary.” Even young men stumble and fall, and strength is renewed for “those who hope in the Lord.” The last line promises running without weariness and walking without fainting.

Psalm 18:32-33

“It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights.”

Reflection: David sang this song when the Lord delivered him from his enemies and from Saul, and 2 Samuel 22 records it as well. He credits God with his speed and sure footing. The setting is war: the next verse says, “He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze.”

Psalm 147:10-11

“His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior; the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.”

Reflection: The psalm praises God who builds up Jerusalem, counts the stars and feeds the young ravens. The strength of the horse and the legs of the warrior stand for military speed and power. The psalmist sets against them what God does delight in: people who fear him and hope in his unfailing love.

Ecclesiastes 9:11

“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.”

Reflection: The Teacher reports what he has seen “under the sun”: the fastest runner does not always win, and the strong, the wise and the learned do not always get what their gifts would earn. His explanation is that “time and chance happen to them all.”

Ephesians 6:10

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.”

Reflection: This verse opens the passage on the armor of God. Two verses later Paul writes, “our struggle is not against flesh and blood,” and the word for struggle is pale, wrestling, which Thayer’s lexicon says is here transferred to the Christian’s conflict with the powers of evil. The strength called for is “in the Lord and in his mighty power.”

Philippians 4:13

“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

Reflection: Paul is thanking the church at Philippi for a gift they sent him (verses 10 and 18). “All this” points back to verse 12: being content “whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.” The strength Paul describes is strength to be content in any circumstance.