On Basketball, Spiritual Disciplines, and Sanctification

I became a Phoenix Suns fan in the 1975-76 basketball season. That year the Suns made an unlikely trip to the finals behind the efforts of players like Paul Westphal, Gar Heard, Ricky Sober, Alvan Adams, and Dick Van Arsdale. The Suns are back in the finals now, and I am still a Suns fan, but this is a test of my sanctification. Let me tell you why.

People with varying views on sanctification tend to shoot past one another rather than at the real issues. It is human nature to construct a false exaggeration of an opposing viewpoint—a straw man—and then shoot it down. There are some important facts to understand in sanctification, and sometimes nuanced differences make all the difference.

Sanctification comes through relationship, not through effort.

As a young person, this one was hard for me to grasp. I had in mind a list of characteristics that I felt were necessary for me to sanctified—to be holy. Most of them had something to do with keeping a list of rules or living by a certain standard in my life. Also, effort, especially in soul-winning and evangelism was at the heart of what it meant to be sanctified. In an era where evangelism was everything, evangelizing was spirituality. I probably would not have said I believed that at the time, but it was at the heart of how I saw myself spiritually.

I failed to fully comprehend the idea of walking in a deep relationship with and love for my Lord. Bible study and prayer were disciplines to be checked off the list each day on the way to meeting a standard. I did not see them as I do now as the means by which I communicate with the Lord that I love.

Spiritual strength was like bodily exercise. If I kept working at it, I could get stronger and stronger. If I denied myself more, spent more time in the word, spent more time in prayer, witnessed to more people, watched less TV, then I could be more righteous. I was missing the point.

I already am sanctified in Jesus Christ. I am already a child of God. I became a new creature in Christ the moment I trusted Christ as Savior. I do not need to develop the strength to be righteous, I already have that strength given to me by the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. I just need to remember who I am in Christ. Paul said in Romans 6:11 that I need to think like I am dead to sin. That thinking is not in contrast to my reality—I really am dead to sin—but contrary to my habit. My tendency is to think of myself like I was, not like I am in Christ.

There is a role for discipline in sanctification.

There are clear passages of scripture that we cannot ignore. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:27 that he disciplines his body for the purpose of avoiding spiritual shipwreck. Temperance—self-control—is one characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit. However, the self-discipline that is essential to true sanctification is more about choices than effort. The power of sanctification is provided by the Holy Spirit, but we still make choices. I need to choose to focus on Christ rather than self. I must choose to think eternally rather than temporally. I must choose to seek the well-being of others over self. The Holy Spirit enlightens the thinking and understanding of a believer so that we see ourselves, our Lord, and our world differently, but we also must choose to seek that sanctified thinking. Paul told Timothy to be continually nourished in the word and sound doctrine (1 Timothy 4:6). The resulting godliness is profitable in all facets of life (1 Timothy 4:8).

This is where the Suns fan thing fits in. I find that my attention is easily drawn away from my Lord. I have what seems to be a case of spiritual ADHD. My attention can be drawn away by a sports team, hobbies, and sometimes even by life’s trials and ordeals. One of the great dangers of our entertainment culture is not just the mental corruption it brings but also in the way it seems to captivate our attention almost continually.

That is my problem here. I must continually walk in an intimate relationship with my Savior and while cheering for a ball team is not necessarily sinful, when it distracts me in my prayer life, my Bible reading, and even ministry, it is dangerous to me spiritually. I have to keep my priorities in order. That is why we don’t cancel church for ball games any more than I would miss a special event in my wife or child’s life because of sports. We need to have the spiritual discipline to maintain our priorities.

It is not that basketball, or hunting, or fishing, or whatever I enjoy for recreation is evil. I just cannot allow it to diminish my attention to my Lord or the responsibilities I have toward Him.

This is a great time for me to learn to keep my priorities right.