“Knowing Christ is the best thing that has ever happened to me, although winning the US Open was a pretty good second.”
Fifth commandment
Honour your father and your mother so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you Exodus 20:12In its notes of explanation on this commandment, the Heidelberg Catechism extends the meaning from parents to all in authority. For our purposes, this application is helpful. How do we honour those in authority in sport?
Jesus set out the principles of loving our neighbour as ourselves and treating others as we would like to be treated. Imagine if every player treated the referee they way they would like to be treated themselves There would be fewer yellow cards to start with!
Imagine if every coach treated their players the way they would like to be treated. There would be less shouting, bullying and swearing.
At the moment in football in the UK we are implementing the "Respect" campaign. The idea is simply to promote respect for each other – player to player, coach to coach, coach to player, player to coach, coach to referee, referee to player, referee to coach, player to referee. It seems obvious and simple but respect is lacking in many of these relationships.
As Christians respect should come naturally. We should honour and respect other people in life and in sport.
Part of the motivation for honouring our parents is gratitude for what they have done for us. Similarly in our attitude to referees - who turn up week by week and are constantly criticized - we should be grateful. Coaches put in hours of work. We should be grateful to them.