The Bible has its unique theme of Christian salvation goes that “The Bible is able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”(Timothy3:15-17)

The Bible often praises the superb physique of some of its favored disciples, like King David and Isaac’s wife Rebekah, to show their magnificent physical strength. But the Bible is more inclined to think that God gives the body for his purpose of salvation. However, God also refers to villains’ bodies, such as Absalom, son of David, foreshadowing the consequences of their betrayal of God.

It is in this context that the apostle Paul said, “For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (Timothy4:8) This is one of the few passages in the Bible that mentions “bodily training” that falls into the category of “sports”.

Rhetorically, “contrast” is employed here. In terms of empirical logic, A is inferior to B in comparison with B, which only shows that A is inferior to B under limited circumstances. It does not mean that A is inferior to B. Therefore, we cannot conclude from this passage that the Bible is against “bodily training”, only that the Bible attaches relatively limited advantages to “bodily training”.

The Olympic Games originated in ancient Greece more than two thousand years ago and got its name from Olympia, where it was held. At the end of the 19th century, Coubertin, a Frenchman, put forward the idea of holding the Modern Olympic Games after the suspension of the ancient Games for nearly 1,500 years. The first Modern Olympic Games were held in Athens, Greece, in 1896. Besides, the first Winter Olympics was born in 1924, the first Paralympic Games in 1960, the first Paralympic Winter Games in 1976, the first Youth Olympic Games in 2010, and the first Youth Olympic Winter Games in 2012.

The Olympics adhere to theism in the Greek context. The Olympic Anthem was adopted by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at its 55th session in Tokyo in 1958. The lyrics go like this, “Immortal spirit of antiquity, father of the true, beautiful and good, descend, appear, shed over us thy light. Upon this ground and under this sky, which has first witnessed thy unperishable fame, give life and animation to those noble games! Throw wreaths of fadeless flowers to the victors in the race and in the strife! Create in our breasts, hearts of steel! In thy light, plains, mountains and seas, shine in a roseate hue and form a vast temple, to which all nations throng to adore thee. Oh, immortal spirit of antiquity! Oh, immortal spirit of antiquity!”

The anthem does not indicate whether such a god is a Christian god, a Jewish god, or even one Greek and Athenian gods. This connection gives people of different religions a public platform in the Olympic Games to reach some ideological consensus and interact peacefully. If a Christian is treated with kindness in this platform, it will help him preach the eschatological Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In Acts 17, the apostle Paul spoke of the God of Athens as “the Unknown God”. However, when the apostle Paul further pointed out that this God was Jesus Christ who died on the cross and rose again, the Athenians scoffed at Paul. Just as when Paul first came to Athens, he saw that “all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.” (Acts17:21) “But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagus and a woman named Damaris and others with them” (Acts17:34) when Paul went out from among them.

Looking at historical sources, Areopagus or Areios Pagos (Greek: Άρειος ς π άγος), which can be translated as “the Rock of Ares”, is located northwest of the Acropolis and served as Athens’ high court of appeal for criminal and civil cases in the classical period. Dionysius would be slightly lower in rank than today’s US Supreme Court justice.

The Olympic symbol is defined by the “Olympic Charter” and known as the Five Olympic Rings. It consists of five interlocking Olympic rings and can be monochrome or blue, yellow, black, green, and red. The rings are interlocked from left to right, with blue, black, and red rings above and yellow and green rings below.

Just because of the principle of sports professionalism and the spirit of peaceful coexistence of humanity, the Olympic spirit represented by the Olympic Movement has been accepted by people from different religions and social systems worldwide for 100 years.

As “Olympic Charter” points out, the Olympic Spirit is the spirit of mutual understanding, friendship, solidarity and fair play, the goal of the Olympic Movement is to push the development of human society towards truth, kindness and beauty, and the Olympic motto is “Swifter, Higher, Stronger”. Only in rare instances, such as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan during the Cold War, has the Olympic Movement been politicized.

The logic behind this is simple: The Olympic Movement has always been a sport. It isn’t polite to hold back human love, desire, and pursuit of truth, kindness, and beauty under any topic that denies the Olympic Movement and the Olympic spirit.

Any politician in the west who has the least respect for the Olympic Movement and the Olympic spirit would admit that the Olympic Games are an international sports event. As reported by Hong Kong’s “South China Morning Post”, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on July 7 local time that he did not support boycotts of the Winter Olympics because he was “instinctively” opposed to any boycott of sports. Boris Johnson, the epitome of professionalism in the West, deserves our respect.

As for us, the principles are clear and unambiguous. In Timothy 2:6, the apostle Paul encouraged us, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” The peaceful coexistence of all humanity is conducive to a godly life.

Because we must adhere to the Gospel of the resurrection of Jesus Christ that was preached in Athens, we need to not only persuade people to reconcile to God in Christ but also carefully cherish the traditions of truth, kindness and beauty that make humanity coexist on an equal footing, thus striving to pray for humanity together.