A Crown No One Can Ever Take Away

Have you noticed how cyclical sports are? Each sport has its season, and annually commentary abounds about who’s going to win this year’s championship. This is fun and all – unless you root for a team that never assembles a championship-level squad. But even if your team does win it all, the celebration is so short-lived.

 

For instance, how many of us can name the Super Bowl champs from two years ago? Some of us have already forgotten who won it last year. This year the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers have rekindled memories of old rivalries in the World Series. But can you remember who took the World Series crown last year? How about two or three years ago?

 

As King Solomon wrote thousands of years ago, “Meaningless! Meaningless!... Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless” (Ecclesiastes 1:2). You’d think his team just lost the championship game!

 

Not to be as pessimistic as the ancient Israelite king, but that’s a fact of life. The excitement and euphoria of winning an athletic crown, for competitors and fans alike, is so fleeting. As the apostle James observed, “What is your life? You are a mist (vapor) that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14). Here today and gone tomorrow.

In addition to the World Series – which might already be over by the time you read this, since the Dodgers had taken a 2-0 lead – college football is halfway to determining who the competing teams will be in the first-ever championship playoff; the NFL also is at the midpoint of its season; and the NBA and NHL seasons have just started. The quest for new championships is underway, while even recent champions are all but forgotten. The glory of their crowns is already fading.

 

The apostle Paul, who apparently was very familiar with athletic competitions, offered this perspective:

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

 

There’s a lot that could be unpacked from those verses, but two things stand out for me. The first is that while competitors vie for crowns that will not last, as followers of Jesus we are striving for crowns that will last forever. Earthly championships may earn crowns, trophies and medals that can fill display cases and gather dust. But the crowns God will award to those who worshipped and served Him on earth will never tarnish, become dust collectors, or be forgotten. Another translation says, “…They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable.”

 

The second point is the zeal and determination that Paul had for the mission God had given him. He said, “I beat my body and make it my slave so that…I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” The apostle wasn’t talking about losing his salvation or being denied eternal life; he was referring to his desire to finish well, not to wander to the sidelines before his spiritual journey had come to an end.

 

To be candid, I’m not clear exactly what these eternal crowns will be like. There’s been much said and written about them, but I doubt anyone will know for certain until we stand before the Lord. But the Scriptures make clear that we will definitely receive crowns. “Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award me on that day – and not only to me, but also to those who have longed for His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:8).

 

Too often we hear about prominent Christian leaders who succumb to sin and fall into disgrace. The “prize” they anticipated might be denied them; they have become disqualified. Failing to resist the temptations of this temporal life, the consequences they face will be eternal.

 

Over the coming weeks I’ll be right there, cheering for my teams and hoping for victory. It would be nice to see one or more earn another championship crown. But far more important is the crown God might present to me one day. Proverbs 16:31 sys, “Gray hair is a crown of splendor; it is attained in the way of righteousness.” I’m already accumulating the gray hair. My goal is the crown that is, as the New Living Translation expresses it, “gained by living a godly life."