Sports, Wins, Losses & Jesus

By Michael Griego on January 23, 2026 • ( 0 )

Those Christian sports celebrations: some love it, some loathe it and cringe. Does God care about our sporting wins and losses? There’s a story in the Bible that shows us how God feels.

We’ve all seen it. We may have done it ourselves. We, or our sports team hero, thank God or praise Jesus after a big win. Players do it in the post-game sideline interview or on the field after the big goal, homerun, or successful scoring play.

Happens in all sports, on the field and off. Fans and players may pray for results prior to a crucial game, and then celebrate winning outcomes by thanking God.

“All glory to God and my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

It is a mouthful. Many Christians love it. Some don’t mind it. Some may think it’s a bit much. Many non-Christians don’t mind it. Some may cringe and even hate it.

It begs the obvious questions:

Does God even care about this?
Does God play favorites?
Aren’t people praying on both teams?

There’s a story in the Bible that speaks to this. One side is favored and gifted with money, talent, and blessings overflowing. (No, the Dodgers are not mentioned in the Bible.) The other side is not favored, considered second-class in stature, and even shunned by many.

By looking at God’s reaction to these 2 sides [teams], we can gain some perspective on how God may be looking at our yearnings and outcomes in sporting events and in all of our lives.

A Lesson for All
In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans in the New Testament, there is a clear case that he develops of winners and losers in God’s eyes. Paul has to make the case very delicately though, as his is addressing constituents on both sides of the aisle, so to speak.

On the one side, Paul is writing to Jewish people, those who come from Jewish descent and who live and operate in and around the greatest city of that time, Rome. These Jewish people are steeped in religious history stemming from their Hebrew forefathers: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and King David.

Their Old Testament Scriptures (Torah) present them as the “chosen” people of God and descendants of the favored 12 tribes [sons] of Israel [Jacob].

While their wealth, power, and status were once greatest in all the world, reaching a peak at the time of King David and his son, Solomon (circa 950 BC), they have fallen far since then and now are scattered throughout the middle east and Asia Minor. At the time of Paul’s writing (circa AD 56), the Jewish capital city of Israel, Jerusalem, is controlled and occupied by the Roman government, yet its people are allowed to continue practicing their Jewish religious practices in the temple run by Jewish religious leaders.

And practice it they do, to the exclusion of everyone else, on the other side.

On the other side are the Gentiles, simply everyone else who is not Jewish, including the Romans of non-Jewish descent. In the eyes of the Jews, the gentiles are second-tier, shunned even, unworthy of God’s good standing.

And it is in this setting that we have the Jesus issue of which Paul is addressing to both Jews and Gentiles in Rome.

Jesus Christ, being born into a Jewish family, is God incarnate. Though whose coming was predicted by Old Testament Jewish prophets over previous centuries, even the 12 Disciples and religious leaders, were not fully clear of Christ’s deity until his shocking death and supernatural resurrection 3 days later.

As Jesus, post-crucifixion, was alive and witnessed by the disciples and over 500 people over the following 40 days (1 Corinthians 15:6). Christianity really was launched after the miraculous Day of Pentecost event (see Acts 2) in which 3,000 people from all over the region suddenly converted from Judaism to Christianity. Paul himself was converted a couple years later. Read of his own miraculous conversion in Acts 9.

And now he is in Rome preaching boldly about the risen Jesus and this new Christian Gospel to both Jews and Gentiles in Rome.

In Romans Chapter 1, Paul first addresses the pagan Gentiles out there. He boldly claims them all as guilty before a Holy God who condemns all their wickedness and ungodliness. By their rejection of God, they:

…suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools.

After condemning also their God dishonoring practices of homosexuality, Paul really lays into them:

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. (Romans 1:19b-22,20-32)

Guilty as charged, God gave the Gentiles up to a base mind and to their improper conduct. Yes, God let’s people choose their side. By the end of Chapter 1, the Jews are feeling pretty good that they are on the winning side.

But then, in Romans Chapter 2, Paul steers his guns directly at the Jewish people themselves. They are guilty as well and are not in a position to judge anyone.

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge another, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.

But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.

All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God’s sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. (Romans 2:1, 12-13)

The problem is, therefore, that ALL (both sides) sin and are disobedient to the law and guilty in God’s Holy eyes.

And finally, in Romans Chapter 3, Paul provides the solution for both sides, both equally sinful and equally saved from faith in Jesus Christ:

But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. Because of what law? The law that requires works? No, because of the law that requires faith. (Romans 3:22-24, 27)

So God loves both sides knowing that both sides are guilty. It doesn’t matter, for those who believe, in faith, that Jesus is the Savior of the World, specially sent as God Himself in the form of man in the flesh.

So, What About Our Sports Teams?
Players who believe, honor, pray and praise Jesus before or after great plays or great victories are no different than those who believe, honor, pray and praise Jesus on the other team. Both sides win and lose in life. Christians give up game-winning homeruns, throw game-losing interceptions, and strike out with the bases-loaded.

It matters (to us) but not to God. What matters is their heart, mind, and soul in relationship to their Creator God.

And because God can do anything, we are left to pray and petition Him for our requests as much as we want. However, we surrender to His will, not ours, and therefore can praise Him and thank Him for whatever happens, good or bad.

So enjoy the wins, withstand the losses, be kind to your opponents, and be grateful and happy to be saved for a win in eternity we can hardly imagine.

Does God show favoritism? No, not for all who believe.
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For God does not show favoritism. – Romans 2:11