The Team Concept

Coach Harold Horton, who coached the Arkansas Razorbacks linebackers under both Frank Broyles and Lou Holtz, and also was the head coach for the UCA Bears 1984 and 1985 NAIA National Championship teams, had many great sayings that he shared over the years. My personal favorite was when he said, “Men, you will learn life lessons playing football that you can’t learn anywhere else.” One of these lessons that he continually spoke about was the concept of “come together.”

While Coach Horton is the best coach and one of the finest men I have ever had the privilege of being around, he did miss the mark on one part of what he had to say. These life lessons of which he spoke were actually written about 2,000 years ago. Today, we look at 1 Corinthians chs. 12-13 to learn what a true “team” of any kind should look like.

ALL PARTS ARE IMPORTANT

1 Cor. 12:12-27 says:

For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body – so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body – whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free – and we were all given one Spirit to drink. Indeed, the body is not one part but many.

If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” it is not for that reason any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be?

But as it is, God has arranged each one of the parts in the body just as he wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that are weaker are indispensable.

And those parts of the body that we consider less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unrespectable parts are treated with greater respect, which our respectable parts don’t need. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. So that if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.

Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it.

What would happen to a college football team if they recruited every four and five star quarterback in the nation into one recruiting class? In 2024, there were three five stars and 19 four stars. Those 22 would fill a recruiting class today.

What would the recruiting ranking be of that college? It would easily be the highest rated class in history.

How many games would that team win?

This is exactly what the Apostle Paul is talking about in these verses. If I were to take a quarterback, and remove his pinky finger on his non-throwing hand, would it affect his throwing? Some might say no. However, that is a painful thing to experience, and it would make it much more difficult to play while in pain. In the same way, if there is no scout team in practice, and the starters having to take every rep, every day, what would be the condition of the team by the end of the week, or the season.

Let’s move to coaches. What happens if we have seven head coaches? How about we have a head coach and seven coaches that have never coached anything but linebackers? The team does not receive the coaching that it really needs to win. Without each individual coach doing their part, there is chaos.

The same concept applies to families. How would any of the moms and dads feel if we were to take away just one of your children? Maybe we just take the middle one. Surely, by you keeping the oldest and the youngest, you will be okay.

There is not a person in this room that is not important in their team, their workplace or their family. This is true regardless of how you may feel at any given moment. It is true because that is what God has said. Each day when you wake up, you need to remember that God has placed you wherever it is that you find yourself to do his good works.

Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” You were created by God to do things that he prepared before you were even born. It is not coincidental that in the verses following this one, it describes how once the listener was far away, but is now a full part of God’s family.

THE PERFECT TEAM CONCEPT – LOVE

1 Corinthians 13:1-7, is often used at weddings. However, when we look at it in the context of the above verses, we see that it is written to the church. A good church is not any different in concept from a good team or a good family.

If I speak with human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so that I can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. And if I give away all my possessions, and if I give over my body in order to boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy, is not boastful, is not arrogant, is not rude, is not self-seeking, is not irritable, and does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

How would you define love as it is described here? Is it a feeling? You cannot command feelings. The love described here is a choice. It is a choice to not think about yourself or do things for yourself.

Look at the harsh language in verses 1-3. It does not say that if you don’t have love, you are not doing well. It clearly says you are nothing. The characteristics described in these verses are the highest gifts that we as humans think of in the faith. Yet what Paul is telling us here is that we can have all of these gifts, but if we do not sacrificially love, we are literally nothing.

Now look at verses 4-7, and let’s see what sacrificial love actually looks like. We will focus on just a few of the items mentioned because it would take hours to look at each one individually.

Boastfulness, arrogance, rudeness, being self-seeking, and being irritable can all be tied together in focusing one oneself. Being part of a team, working group or family cannot be about me. If I score six touchdowns and lose, what have I accomplished? If I make a million dollars and bankrupt those with whom I work, what joy is there? If I neglect my family to do the things that bring me only moments of pleasure what is the result? All of these will bring you to a place of being alone. We were not created to be alone. We were created for fellowship with others. In order to have friends, you must be a friend. In order to win you must have your teammates. In order to have family, you must give to family.

I have often said that I truly believe that football is the greatest sport ever created because you cannot be great by yourself. Michael Jordan was Michael Jordan before he had players around him with whom he could win championships. Babe Ruth would have hit a lot of home runs no matter what team he played for. Both would still be in their respective hall of fame. The most beautiful looking persons on earth are still good to look at whether they have a family or not. However, when you get older, you learn that the pretty goes away, the athleticism does also. It is the relationships that you learn are so precious. You can only have relationships in the true sense when you are willing to look out for others and share your gifts with them.

I want to focus on one last thing. “Love finds no joy in unrighteousness.” The word righteous is a great church word. In modern times we have come to think of righteousness as being one who follows all the rules. However, the concept of righteousness as used in the New Testament cannot be understood outside of relationship. It is the idea of being in right standing in relation to someone else. Real love finds no joy outside of being in right standing with those around you. In “Theology for the Rest of Life,” Biblical joy is defined as “a lasting feeling of contentment, hope and confidence that comes from a relationship with God and trust in his promises.” Jesus said that the most important commands were to love God and to love others. Spoken differently, to love God, you must love others.

CONCLUSION

Forty years ago this year, I was privileged to play with a bunch of great athletes, whom I still call friends today, on a team that won an NAIA National Championship. My primary role on the team was as a deep snapper for punts and field goals. At the time, I did not think I was very important. I was far from the best athlete on the team, and my time playing offense was truly pretty limited. However, during the games, I did everything in my power to continually encourage my teammates, and when I was called upon to do my job, I put everything I had into it.

When the season ended there was a team award that was basically given to the teammate who played his guts out the entire season. This award was given by vote of the team. Even though I felt like I had not contributed much to this team, I was given this award. Today, when I meet up with teammates, I always tell people that I was the worst athlete on a great team. Apparently my contribution meant something to someone. At our thirty year reunion of this team, my then 13 year old son went with me. Our defensive coordinator, Mike Isom, who later won a national championship as a head coach himself, walked up to my son and said, “your dad was a heckuva football player.” While it wasn’t really how I remembered it, what he said meant a lot.

As you walk through your life, including your team, your work, and your family, you will at times be the head and at times you may find yourself being the toenail on the little toe. Wherever you may find yourself, God calls you to give everything you have to make the whole body better. He calls you to love. When you truly love others, he promises you joy, peace and hope. These are the gifts that do not go away regardless of where you may find yourself.