I love watching Tim Tebow play. I love watching him because he’s excellently unpredictable. I never know what he’s going to do, if he’s going to get sacked for a loss, throw a hail mary pass, or run for a 25 yard touchdown. Plus, he often looks like the guy down the street playing football. Many children or grown men can watch him and think “How does he do that” while also thinking “I could do that.”
Furthermore, from a Christian perspective, he seems to understand the purpose of football, the purpose of all things: exalting Christ/enjoying Christ. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:31 wrote, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” Eating and drinking make up the basic foundation of life. If you don’t eat and drink, you die; therefore, from the foundation of life to everything else, humans must do all things for God’s glory. In agreement, Solomon argued that when creation is enjoyed apart from God, all is vanity (Ecc. 1:2)! Solomon continued, “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun (Ecc. 2:11).” Is there anything worthwhile in life? Solomon’s point, which the apostle Paul echoes in 1 Cor. 10:31, is that creation and life are vanity, “grasping for wind,” when they are disconnected from the Triune God of Christianity. Solomon summarizes his point in Ecclesiastes 2:24-26:
24 There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God.This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
So, biblically, the people who are wrong in our society are not those who refuse to bow down to the culture, those who live out the fact that God owns this world. The people who are wrong are those who believe life can be enjoyed apart from God. Those who refuse to submit to God through Christ in light of the Spirit’s work through the Word of God, are those who pursue vanity. In other words, Tim Tebow is not a weirdo, everyone else is.
Isn’t it amazingly terrible how even Christians are tired of hearing about Jesus in the public realm? Listen to the advice Kurt Warner, a fellow Christian, had for Tebow:
“You can’t help but cheer for a guy like that,” former NFL star Kurt Warner said. “But I’d tell him, ‘Put down the boldness in regards to the words, and keep living the way you’re living. Let your teammates do the talking for you. Let them cheer on your testimony.’
“I know what he’s going through, and I know what he wants to accomplish, but I don’t want anybody to become calloused toward Tim because they don’t understand him, or are not fully aware of who he is. And you’re starting to see that a little bit.”
“There’s almost a faith cliche, where (athletes) come out and say, ‘I want to thank my Lord and savior,’ ” Warner told The Arizona Republic. “As soon as you say that, the guard goes up, the walls go up, and I came to realize you have to be more strategic.”
Warner continued, “The greatest impact you can have on people is never what you say, but how you live,” Warner told The Arizona Republic. “When you speak and represent the person of Jesus Christ in all actions of your life, people are drawn to that. You set the standard with your actions. The words can come after.”
I realize that Warner’s argument is a popular one in evangelical Christianity. The problem is that the gospel is a message, not a lifestyle (Matt. 28:18-20; 1 Cor. 15:1-4). In Jesus’s day, Paul’s day, the most outwardly moral people were the Pharisees, and Jesus called them hypocrites (Matt. 23:13). The problem with merely “living the Christian life” as an evangelistic strategy is that no one knows the reason “Why” you live this way, unless you tell them! Furthermore, if Christians only enjoy creation while never telling people that we’re enjoying God through enjoying creation due to the reconciling work of Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit’s work through the Word of God, we’re communicating to our observers that we’re just like them. Morality is not what ultimately separates Christians from non-Christians, Jesus Christ is. In other words, what separates Christians from non-Christians is the “Why” behind our morality, not merely our morality. We enjoy life not because life is enjoyable, which is why non-Christians enjoy life, but because God is enjoyable through life, and He has crucified and raised His Son from the dead to reconcile us and His sinful creation to Himself (Col. 1:19-23). Having been reconciled to God through Christ, Jesus is the only Reason Why Christians can enjoy God through creation.
In conclusion, Tim Tebow is correct, Jesus Christ is the source of all his gifts, and not only his gifts, but the giftedness of all professional athletes (Col. 1:16-17). All things were created by Jesus Christ and for Jesus Christ. To deny this reality or to be silent about this reality is functional Atheism. In other words, to leave Christ out, the Source of all of life, the only Person who makes professional football not vanity, is . . . well, vanity! in order to be accepted by a godless society, Tebow needs to “sneak the gospel in somehow through his life,” or, he needs to “wait until someone asks him?” You won’t find this in Scripture. Kurt Warner should be ashamed for advising Tebow to speak as if God doesn’t own the public realm of our society. Tebow, keep exalting Christ every chance you get, for your/our God owns this world, and to live or speak as if He doesn’t is vanity.
What are your thoughts?
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