No room for cheating!

NORSK
I guess that rules have been essential ever since our ancestors started to compete in friendly games, which we today associate with sports. In my youth, I was a fan of many sports and followed sporting events from the day we inherited granddad’s TV-set in the autumn of 1966. 

Although this interest has fallen dramatically over the years, I am still disappointed and upset when deliberate cheating is revealed, whether it is in the form of doping or hidden motors in mountain bikes. Cheating is a bad thing on any arena, and in God’s kingdom there is no place for it:

anyone who competes as an athlete does not receive the victor’s crown except by competing according to the rules.
2 Tim 2:5

This was not the first time Paul used images from the sports arena (1), and he used this statement as a part of the instructions to Timothy with regard to how he should pass on the treasure he had received in the gospel. If this transition is to succeed, there is no room for shortcuts. 

Much work in the church fails because we choose quick fixes and simple solutions. An athlete who ‘builds’ the body by the use anabolic steroids is at high risk of collapsing. 

On the other hand, if built up by a well-planned training programme, healthy activities and exercises, the result is a sound and strong body in a safe way. The same applies to the body of Jesus Christ = his church today. It does not need to be “infused” by artificial means. All it needs is available in the Life-giver - The holy spirit. It scares me how often we seem to forget this simple truth.

'Manna' for today:

There is no room for cheating in God’s kingdom!

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(1) See: “Train to be fit”