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Philippians 2:1-11

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.
Philippians 2:3

Reflect

It’s easy to look around and see people doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. Dishonesty seems to be on the up-tick as evidenced by a recent “lost wallet” test conducted by Reader’s Digest. The magazine’s staff placed 12 wallets (with money inside) in 16 cities around the world. Out of 192 dropped wallets, only 90 – 47 percent – were returned, including just one of 12 in Lisbon, Portugal. (I guess one of the lessons learned is to be careful with your wallet in Lisbon.) It seems that people are becoming increasingly hard to trust, but there are some fairly glaring exceptions.

With the Olympics in full swing, the games’ emphasis on sportsmanship is getting a lot of attention. Four years ago at the Olympics in Rio, two runners – New Zealand’s Nikki Hamblin and the USA’s Abbey D’Agostino (now Cooper) – got tangled up on the track during a 5,000-meter semifinal race. Immediately, both runners helped each other in spite of obvious pain (especially for D’Agostino, who had torn her ACL and meniscus). Both women finished the race more than two minutes after most of the other runners and embraced each other at the finish line.

But the race that stands out to me the most was a cross-country competition run in Spain in 2012. The top two runners were clear – Spain’s Iván Fernández Anaya and Kenya’s Abel Mutai. Near the end of the race, Mutai got confused and thought he had crossed the finish line, while Fernández closed quickly on the front-runner. So many people might have capitalized on such an error, but Fernández did something unexpected. He slowed down and stayed behind Mutai, shouting to him to keep running. At one point he even reached out and nudged the Kenyan toward the finish line. Afterward, Fernández said, “I didn’t deserve to win it. He was the rightful winner. He created a gap that I couldn’t have closed if he hadn’t made a mistake.”

It’s refreshing to see people who understand that the way we win is even more important than actually winning. It’s not that winning isn’t a good thing. It is. One of my favorite coaches, Steve Spurrier, said that his father always believe that if we’re keeping score, then we should try to win. However, he also believed that we should win the right way – with sportsmanship. That’s a quality that our Lord prizes, and we can see it throughout scripture:

• “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the Lord see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from him.” (Proverbs 24:17-18)
• “Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” (Philippians 2:3)
• “An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.” (2 Timothy 2:5)
• “Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.” (Romans 15:2)

As Christ-followers, fair play should always be important to us. The world may seek to capitalize on the misfortune of others, but we should always seek to not only play by the rules, but by the spirit of the rules. Be excellent at what you do, and even try to be the best at it. However, also be certain that you attempt to build up those around you, showing sportsmanship in life as you help them cross their finish line.

Reflection copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.