Online Reporter
Jonny Reid
The 2026 World Cup which kicked off this week is expected to be the largest sporting event in history.
More than 7 million fans will attend the matches in person, billions will watch around the world, and around 1,5 billion will likely tune into the final.
Why do sports do this to us? They capture the full kaleidoscope of human emotions in just a few hours and bring people together like little else in our fractured world. In numerous ways, sports are a wonderful gift from God to help us delight in him and his creation.
Every four years, billions of people invest their emotions in this global tournament. Few events reveal the power of sports — or the loyalties of our hearts — quite like the World Cup.
So how can we enjoy this sporting spectacle without being negatively shaped by it more than we realise?
When sports become worship
Like all good gifts, our favourite team and the experience of supporting it are gifts given to point to the Giver, not to be worshipped themselves. Consider three ways we can we tell if our fandom is becoming idolatrous.
It controls our emotions
A good gift becomes a bad god when it begins to control us. Our emotions become driven by the result of a match (or the anticipation of it), which spills out into our relationships with others. My wife used to say she could tell how my game had gone as soon as I walked in the door. The problem comes when that initial disappointment stretches out into hours, days, and weeks.
A helpful diagnostic question to ask: Would I be more excited about my team winning a game on Saturday or someone being baptised at my church on Sunday?
It reshapes our priorities
It’s often said you can see what someone truly worships by looking at his cash and his calendar.
I once read a story of two fans of the University of Alabama’s football team. The couple purchased a US$300 000 recreational vehicle to attend games, and they were so obsessed that they even missed their daughter’s wedding because it clashed with a game. That’s worship.
When it becomes impossible to miss games but easy to neglect the gifts of grace such as church, prayer, giving, and Bible reading, or when we’re going into debt to support your team, we may be unhelpfully obsessed with our favourite sport.
It changes how we speak.
Perhaps the biggest challenge for us as Christians watching our team is the way we use our words. How easy it is to forget that the players and fans of a rival team—and the referee—are made in God’s image (James 3:9–10). How easy it is to think nothing of singing crude chants, booing opponents, piling in on the criticism of the players, and uniting with the rest of the stadium in abusing the officials, and then the next day singing songs of praise to God at church. This should feel incongruous to us.
Whether in a stadium or behind a keyboard, we should be troubled if we can curse people made in God’s image on Saturday and sing worship songs on Sunday without a second thought.
What healthy fandom looks like
If those are the dangers, what might healthy enjoyment of the World Cup look like for a Christian?
We enjoy sports gratefully
Sports are a gift, created by people made in God’s image. We should feel grateful for them! Singing chants and being with others to celebrate (or commiserate) are signposts pointing to what we were made to be: worshippers of God for all eternity.
Whether it’s in the stadium or on the couch with friends, when you’re cheering on your team and experience that sense of camaraderie or excitement, pause and do two things. First, thank God for this gift at this moment with these people. Second, think to yourself, This is just a glimmer of what heaven will be like.
We enjoy sports in proportion
Sports make rubbish gods. They let us down all the time. Forty-seven sets of World Cup fans will end their run with a loss. If we see sports for what they are—a wonderful gift but no more—we will be able to lose graciously, miss a match, and keep perspective.
But when we put our faith—or even part of our identity—in sports, we’re asking them to do something that they can’t.
We speak differently
Christian fandom should sound different.
Whether online, in the stands, or sitting with friends discussing the game in the bar, we need to remember that as those with a new identity, we’re called to speak “only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Eph 4:29, NIV).
Christian, you don’t need to disengage or feel guilty about enjoying the spectacle of the biggest sporting event in the world. Cheer loudly this World Cup, celebrate the gift, but remember not to leave your deepest identity at the turnstiles.– tgcafrica.com
